What it will cost you to taste wine in the Napa Valley in 2016
This is our third year of calculating the Napa Valley Tasting Room Index. Its purpose is to give travelers a rough estimate of what it costs in fees to taste wine in the Napa Valley. We are using the same tasting rooms that we chose in 2014 and 2015. These are walk-in tasting rooms, with no appointment needed for the basic or entry level wine tasting. All of these tasting rooms are along Highway 29 and are visible from the road. This is a totally unscientific collection of data, but it does show that the fees rise annually. If two people visit 8 tasting rooms on the coming weekend, the total costs will come to $180.
Napa Valley Tasting Room Index 2016
These wine tasting fees represent the entry level wine tasting.
- Alpha Omega – $30 for two reds and two whites
- Beaulieu Vineyards – $20 for four wines
- Beringer Wines – $25 for three wines
- Grgich Hills – $20 for five wines
- Louis Martini – $25 for four red wines
- Peju Province – $25
- Provenance – $25 for four red wines
- Rutherford Grove -$25
- Sequoia Grove – $20
- Whitehall Lane – $15 for four wines
The Napa Valley Tasting Room Index for 2016 is an average of $23, as compared to $20 for 2015. The latest inflation rate for the United States is 1% through the 12 months ending in February 2016, as published by the U.S. government on March 16, 2016. Our Napa Valley Tasting Room Index rose 15% this past year, well above our national inflation rate.
- Napa Valley 2014 Wine Tasting Index
- Napa Valley 2015 Wine Tasting Index
- Are tasting room fees too high in the Napa Valley?
This is proof that the tasting rooms are cleaning up on tourists. I realize there are tons of tourists and the motto must be get it while you can. Sonoma is much less aggressive on this front. We are moving away from smaller family owned wineries which are replaced by mega bucks purchases. They have huge interest payments and need to make it on those who walk in. Good luck to those on highway 29.