Slow Summer for Wineries, Part 2

This is a followup to the A Slow Summer for Wineries post from a couple of days ago.

A just released article from a Silicon Valley Bank webinar via Wine-Searcher says, "Hey, guess what? Wine tasting traffic is way down in places that have substantially increased tasting fees!"

 

 

They noted that compared to 2016 visitation Napa wineries are off 37% and Sonoma is down 32%. This while there's a slight increase in traffic to wineries in other states. So, guess where people are going?

The article mentions Napa lodging averaged $470 in 2022 compared to $327 in 2019. Also, tip lines now show up on your bill almost everywhere, where it was at about 20% of the wineries before the Pandemic. It's just all too expensive for many people.

One thing I will mention on tipping in a winery. I got caught on this once and will be sure to not do it again. It's not really the winery's fault, but mine for not paying attention. This is, when you taste there's an expectation of tipping your servers. I'm not going to argue the right or wrong on this. What happened to me is I bought a case of wine, received my bill with the usual tip line and the suggested tip. Well, that 20% that was suggested was on the cost of the case of wine. I should be tipping for service. What would have been proper is to leave $20-25 for a tip on the receipt or, better yet, leave cash. Dummy me tipped on the cost of the wine, which was about 60 bucks. I don't see a reason for the server to get extra because I happened to like the wine enough to buy some. Also, most wineries, but not all, have commissions on sales.

Article on Napa's Rocketing Fees See Winery Visits Fall