Wine Tasting fees in Napa Valley have skyrocketed...to as high as $25 per person for a taste. When my husband and I visited last month, one winery was charging $20 for tasting and another $20 per person for a tour.

California has other wine regions that have many wineries with great wine. Many of them have complimentary wine tasting. . .so you will have some money leftover to actually buy some wine to take home and enjoy later.

Amador County, El Dorado County, Calaveras County (all located in the Sierra foothills) are scenic areas with great wines. Livermore and Lodi are 2 other great areas waiting to be explored and wine tasting is free. The Central Coast of California has wonderful winers and ocean scenery in San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, Paso Robles, and Monterey. Temecula and San Diego also have fabulous wineries waiting to explore.

Visit some of California's "other" wine countries!

Kathy
http://www.cheers2wine.com

want a great 3 - 4 hour tour? call the WINE TRAIN. great wine tastings and lunch abord a train travelling in NAPA.

Most of the wineries around the Healdsburg area offer free tasting and are becoming more & more popular. wineroad.com

I go to Livermoore fairly frequently but boy, it's really growing out there too, and I'm wondering how long they will have the free tasting. The fees annoy me on one level but I can certainly understand because they pour a whole lot of wine for people to taste. I also often see "idiot" in the tasting rooms who I just know have no intention of buying anything and just want a free "buzz". When we were at Wente in Livermoore, they had several wines you could taste for free and then there was a small charge if you wanted to taste the premium wines. I must say..I actually DO TASTE, so my SO and I can actually taste as much as we need out of one glass between us. We don't need a glass each. What can I say, I'm a cheap drunk. I taste six to eight wines and I'm done with it.

Yikes Budman !
Stop telling people how fabulous
Healdsburg is !
The traffic around here will become as bad as Napa !

R5

Hey, howfortunate/kathy
there is NO SOLICITING allowed here.

R5

Ha ha ha...I agree. Shhh...Healdsburg.

Anyway, you should have tried Sonoma. Napa seems more uptight. I've been to Sonoma at least 3 times this year, and I think I've paid wine tasting fees once.

Many wineries in Napa Valley charge a tasting fee but most of them will apply it to wine purchase. Common is a $7 fee, but then if your wine costs $18 you will only pay $11

I'm sorry about the link to my web site. Most travel and wine sites do allow such links. I won't include it next time.

Cheers!
Kathy

While Temecula is nice, I've never had a truly good wine while tasting there...it shouldn't be put into the same cat. as Napa...