Show some support

Visiting a tasting room to sample wine is a very unique experience.  Certainly each winery has a different personality and each vintner has a different wine making style but the winery experience is unique in another way as well.  It is one of the only places you can go and sample a consumable product before buying.  And here in the Umpqua Valley very often this can be done for free.

The purpose of a tasting room is to sell wine. For most of our local wineries the winery is the only place you can buy their wines.  In this day and age when everything is expensive, this tradition of free samples at the winery can only be found in smaller wine regions.  Complimentary tasting in Napa and most parts of California is just not available anymore.  With an insiders knowledge of just what it entails to produce a bottle of wine, most would be asking why any winery can still be this generous. 

The process of producing wine is lengthy and expensive.  Here in Douglas County all of our local wineries are vineyards too.  To begin the process of selling a bottle of wine, one must first purchase the land.   The land then needs to be cleared and made suitable for planting. It is at least three years before the vines are mature enough to produce grapes ready for wine and after the laborious and sometimes expensive chore of picking the grapes, it is several months before the whites are ready and up to several years for the reds. The equipment used to make wine is extraordinarily expensive with barrels commonly used for aging reds costing between $400.00 and upwards of $1000.00.  Stainless steel tanks often used for whites are thousands of dollars and the farm equipment for the managing of the vineyard is another expense. For at least the first five years and in many cases longer there is a huge investment in both time, money and energy.  Our farmer/ wine makers are up to the whim of mother nature and she can present a whole range of difficulties which translate into less fruit for wine, cutting in to the potential return on investment.

If you consider the going rate for all the man hours that go into the production of just one bottle of wine and add that to the cost of the equipment necessary in the wine making process, a bottle of wine here in the Umpqua Valley  easily costs over $100 to produce.  Considering most wines range from $15-$40 this is an unbeatable value.  It is the free time and labor of the winemaker and his family and the focus on the long term that allows us the consumer to get such a bargain!

So for those of us who visit a winery and are offered and accept complimentary tastings remember just what is being served to you.  This is some ones life.  There is a saying in the winery industry that is common knowledge among wine makers and it is no joke, “If you want to make a small fortune in the wine industry start with a large one.” You may ask yourself why they do it. And that would be a fair question.  The answer is just one more unique part of the winery experience.  These wine makers are absolutely passionate about what they do.  Winemakers look to the future and  hope the investment pays off and in the mean time continue to practice their art and love of making wine.  We need to be mindful of this when we visit.  And we need to show our appreciation as well as our support for their hard work and generosity by purchasing a bottle of two.  Proper tasting room etiquette suggests when tasting for free a purchase of at least one bottle is appropriate. If we take their passion and generosity for granted, it might just disappear.