Why Napa Wineries are by Appointment
First of all let’s dispel some common myths. They are not being snobs. They really want to see you. They don’t like hiding out behind their powered gates. It’s not their fault.
Napa was America’s first agricultural preserve set up in the 1960’s to protect this gorgeous valley from the onslaught of housing developments that were overtaking California at the time. One of the requirements was that any winery opened after 1990 has to be by appointment. In recent years as the number of wineries escalate winery permits also limit the number of appointments. Sometimes those limits are quite extreme, twenty to fifty per day.
A place like Cakebread will do 200 appointments daily. I don’t even know if they are required to work by appointment or if that is the only way they can control the onslaught of visitors, Years ago when Cakebread moved into distribution they focused on restaurants rather than stores. Imagine this, you’re out to dinner with friends or family and on the wine list you see that very appealing name Cakebread. You order the wine and its great and you all have a wonderful time. Now you are coming to Napa and what name do you remember and where do you want to visit? Cakebread of course!
Looking at the statistics for our Napa Valley Wine Tour iPhone App I how successful this strategy is. The Cakebread listing had the second highest traffic of the 300 plus listings.
Some wineries are by appointment but you can make it when you walk through the door. We call that an instant appointment. They’ll write your name and address down and the number in your party. Some appointments are hard to get because the winery is small and they have limited staff. To pour wine for you someone has to come in from the vineyards or the tanks.
Oh, about those gates. Powered gates are very common in Napa and less so in Sonoma but they serve multiple purposes. Of course they keep out visitors who have not made an appointment and probably cannot be accommodated. They also provide security, these wineries house hundreds of thousands of dollars of wine and they are often in remote locations. But just as importantly they keep animals out, deer, mountain lions, coyotes and that bane of gardeners everywhere, those nasty (although tasty) wild boar.
If the winery that you want to visit is a big name and by appointment make a reservation early, six to eight weeks out in the high season (June through October). For instance we’ve had multiple requests for Far Niente a couple of weeks out but I know even before I call that the chance of being on a waiting list is pretty high. So I hope that explains the appointment thing well, they are not snobs, they are not recluses, they just work with the rules they were given.
Ralph & Lahni de Amicis are authors of the Amicis Winery Guides (Find them on Amazon), and owners of Amicis Tours which does both group and private excursions. They are authors of over twenty books on health, design, business and travel. Their iPhone Apps, The Napa Valley Wine Tour, and The Sonoma Winery Tour are a tour guides approach to these beautiful area, complete with 1000’s of photos and insights. Their articles and products can be found on the sites http://www.amicistours.com and http://www.spaceandtime.com. Their Apps can be found at http://www.sutromedia.com/apps.html
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