What It Will Cost to Taste Wine in the Napa Valley in 2019

2019 Napa Valley Wine Tasting Index

We started the Napa Valley Wine Tasting Index Fee in 2014. Back in 2014, the average tasting fee on our Index was $18.50. Today it is $30.50. We are using ten wineries along Highway 29. These wineries allow drop-in visitors to the tasting room. We are using the cost of a basic tasting for this index. In the late 1960s, when Janelle and I first began to visit the Napa Valley, no wineries that we visited charged a tasting fee. Ah, the good old days of the Napa Valley!

This year we were quite surprised to find the smallest increase on a year-to- year basis since we started tracking tasting fees. $30.50 vs $29 from a year ago. Perhaps the wineries are in the mindset that the fees for the entry level tasting fee has reached a saturation point.

Most of the Napa Valley wineries have discovered it is much more profitable to have elaborate wine tastings, accompanied by foods to the match the wines. Indeed, one restaurateur who recently closed his restaurant citied wineries offering food for the decline in his restaurant’s patronage.

Elaborate tastings combining foods, tours, and barrel tasting can easily be over the $100 range. These require reservations.

Wineries and the Basic Tasting Fee

Tasting fees will change periodically throughout the year. Always check the winery’s website for the latest information on tastings and fees.

• Alpha Omega – $50
• Beaulieu Vineyards –  $30
• Beringer Wines – $25
• Grgich Hills – $25
• Louis Martini – $25
• Peju Province – $40
• Provenance –  $30
• Pestoni Family Estate – $25
• Sequoia Grove – $30
• Whitehall Lane – $25

 

More on Tasting Wines in the Napa Valley

• Tasting Room Etiquette
• Joining the wine club – “The good, the bad, and the ugly”
• Purchasing wine