Winery Experiences

What makes for the ideal visit?  America's proliferation of wineries in my adult lifetime has made sampling them part of my itinerary when I travel.  Sometimes they cluster, as in Napa, Finger Lakes, or Long Island's North Fork.  Other times the home states have established wine trails sorted by state zones.  I've pursued these in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Missouri, and a few others, usually not as my primary travel destination but as attractions near where I intend to visit.  

Experiences vary widely.  Most tout their vintages in some way.  For a fee that has ranged from complementary to high enough to decline and move on to the next place, a patron can sample 4-6 pours of 30 ml or so.  I've had them served in stemware most frequently, but also in small goblets and on occasion in disposabtsle plastic cups.  At some wineries they owners choose which, with samples of reds or whites on a list.  Other places offer a large sheet of the available wines with brief descriptions.  The taster selects five and the attendant either brings them all at once with instructions on the order or lets the visitor drink one, then the next gets poured.  Most vineyards or tasting rooms remote from the vineyard have something resembling a bar, usually with a wood base, from where customers place their requests.  Many will then ask the taster to pick a table to which a server delivers the selections.  Others continue the sequential tastings at the ordering site.

Most have plantings visible from the parking lot, if not the building where the vintages get poured.

Over the years, I've established my own preferences.  There is the wine itself, but there is also the experience of being at the winery.  The liquids all come with a description of what makes each glass special.  They don't all come with expert people.  I could probably sample a couple of tastes at a large liquor store.  The winery, though, needs access to the attendants.  I greatly prefer an employee, if not the vintner, explaining to me the history of each vineyard, which grapes grow especially well, when the harvests occur, whether the winemaster graduated from a university oenology program, how blending is done.  That and more constitutes the experience.  Many places also offer tours, usually of the production facilities and equipment, occasionally with brief excursions onto the fields.  That's what makes stopping there pleasurable.  The wines have tasting varieties, registered on a personal mental scale that gets forgotten in one minute.  Things the attendant conveyed about the individual winery or the geographic circumstances that enabled the products that I taste will get retained in my mind much longer.

So my own preferencss, now with considerable experience.  I much prefer being at the bar, standing up, with the attendant pouring the next glass as I finish the one already poured.  I then get to chat with her, it's more often a woman.  The vineyard.  What's it like living in a place often remote from an urban center?  I have no preference between me choosing five and the winery staff assembling their own list of which five would make a good themed selection.  I'm confident that they thought it out, while my selections tend to be more diverse, even random, with a white or two and a red or two and a sweet selection.  Stemmed glasses are the way to go.  Often I will purchase one to take home, though I am running out of room in my kitchen cabinets where I store them.  Plastic cups detract from my experience.  I like the brief tours, but don't find them essential.  I tend not to enjoy tasting rooms off-site from the vineyard, though these have enabled me to sample wines produced in regions I am unlikely to ever visit.  I could duplicate this aspect at a liquor store.  Do I need rinsing water or neutral crackers?  At my level of proficiency, I think they add little to the experience.

There's the taste.  There's the more composite experience.  I think the experience of being there matters more.