There are appointment wineries, and there are appointment wineries! Not all are created equally. Many walk in bar tastings are actually instant appointments, where they collect your info as you walk in the door. Some wineries are tiny, so the appointment is the only way that you can be sure that someone is there to open the door and let you in. When there isn't a tasting fee at those places you should arrive planning to buy, otherwise you just took up their day for nothing.
What requires the most thought and timing are the appointments at expensive wineries with great locations, because they normally do a real song and dance, so you need to allow more time for the show. Their tasting fee reflects that. Even that most popular of appointment wineries, Cakebread, says they need 45 minutes, but clients always take an hour to ninety minutes. In fact, ninety minutes is more common with places like Round Pond, Paraduxx, Staglin, Hall on the hill, Palmaz, Larkmead, Reverie, Schramsburg, Von Strasser, Honig, Martin, Kelham, and on and on.
Then you need to add in the travel time between wineries, normally about 15 to 30 minutes. When you add that together you should figure on two wineries in a day if you are driving yourself, and dumping the excess wine out. Some of these wineries pour pretty freely, as if you are their only stop that day. That's why having a professional driver is so helpful, they are the only consistently sober people in wine country. Do you think the tasting room staff doesn't sample the wares? How else can they tell if the wine is any good!
If you have a professional driving you then three appointments in a day are possible, although tricky. There is a tendency to linger at this kind of winery and then the next appointment goes out the window. Between tasting and travel allow a minimum of two hours for each winery. If you get out of a winery early there are plenty of walk in wineries to visit, but the more time the better.
The best strategy is to plan one appointment winery in the morning followed by a walk in tasting, then have lunch. The after lunch do another appointment winery followed by another walk in. That works better than doing a walk in, appointment, lunch, walk in, appointment, because that last appointment has a pretty good chance of being blown off, due to exhaustion and an excess of alcohol consumed at the previous three. Wine tasting is hard work and it tires you out.
A final note: While we always encourage people to buy wine (not only is it good for you, but it also is one of the world's best souvenirs), when the tasting fee is large, don't feel obligated to buy. On the other hand, remember that they keep most of the best wines local and you often need to drop by yourself to buy them. That's only fair, isn't it?
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