California Wine Tasting: Navigating Weekday Closures
With declining California winery visits and sales, the dilemma for tasting rooms from Lake County to Sonoma to Paso Robles to Temecula: Does it make sense for tasting rooms to stay open mid-week when visitations are light or nonexistent?
| ‘Plan your trips accordingly. Midweek tastings are becoming less and less available.’ |
Can you still plan a midweek trip to wine country when smaller crowds allow a less harried tasting? Are you stuck visiting wineries on weekends when you need a reservation?
A number of wineries have gone dark, closing their tasting rooms or folding up their business. The financial pressure forcing these closures is the same for everybody else. It’s changing wine tasting operations on the West Coast and weekday closures are a way to cut costs.
Out of Business:
–Paso Robles’s Broken Earth & Tooth And Nail closed
–Sonoma’s Sbragia Vineyards closed
–Napa’s Tarpon Cellars & Newton Vineyard closed
–Healdsburg’s The Society: Healdsburg by Foley Family Wines closed
–Shenandoah Valley’s Montevina and Terra d’Oro closed
–Calistoga and Anderson Valley, two of three Twomey tasting rooms & Brian Arden Wines closed
–Temecula’s Avensole Winery closed
–SLO’s Edna Valley Vineyard closed
–Bronco Wine Co. Charles Shaw (Two Buck Chuck) production facility in Napa closing (Yes we know, it’s not a wine tasting room, but certainly an indicator of pain effecting the industry.)
This is a partial list of closures. In many cases they’re closing with little to no advance notice. Times are tough in this niche market with a glamorous farmer lifestyle.
From Napa to Foxen Canyon winemakers are trying to sell their businesses or just live with lower sales. But as one winemaker told us, “It’s still a viable business” even with diminished sales.
But the pain is escalating in 2025. WineBusiness.com analyzed 2024 v. 2025 sales and found total U.S. winery Direct to Consumer (DtC) shipment volume fell 15% January 2025 vs. January 2024. That’s worse than 10% declines from last year’s January 2024 v. January 2023 numbers. That’s a 25% decline in DtC sales over two years. Oy vey! Oy wah! ¡Ay, qué fastidio!
So when planning your trip to California wine country remember many of the seven day a week operations changed their hours and are no longer open weekdays. As they like to tell us, ‘We’re letting our employees take a well needed rest.’ Weekends are their target. They’re waiting for you to come this Friday and Saturday.
Plan your trips accordingly. Midweek tastings are becoming less and less available.
We recently planned a midweek tasting with two other couples. Living in Paso Robles we have the run of the place mid-week and we’re accustomed to having most wineries open for visits. Not so these days.
We eventually identified two wineries, one we had never visited (Summerwood) on Highway 46 W. and another right off the highway (Austin Hope Winery, known for their hospitality and wine.) We’ll visit both shortly.
So what’s a wine lover to do? Go wine tasting with weekend crowds? Mix it up with wedding/birthday/reunion crowds out for a party? Or is there another day with fewer tasters?
Yes, there is a better day. Sunday is the new day to avoid the crowds and find good wine. One winery here in town hosts summer Sunday concerts calling them, ‘Lazy Locals’ day at the winery. Indeed.
If you’re planning a midweek visit check your target wineries’ operating hours to make sure they’re ready to serve you. These days, you’ll find you need more planning. Don’t arrive in town and have limited options to sip and savor. We all need to understand wine tasting rooms are not seven-day-a-week operation anymore.
Some notes on our wine ranking system.
Bill & Erin Hodge write about California Wine, the estates & winemakers producing them and educational information about Vino. Living in California Wine Country provides a front row seat to the places you want to visit the most here in the Golden State.
– -✰ means -What’s next on your list of wines
-✰ means -Not liking it too much
✰ means -We’ll drink this wine, especially if it’s hosted!
✰+ means -You’ve got our attention and we might buy this wine.
✰+ + means -We’re hooked and we’re going to buy this wine.
When you see -✰/✰+ with a slash, it means we disagree.
