Wineries Want You Back In Their Tasting Rooms: Changes You’ll See While Tasting At California Wineries
Upcoming Trends & Strategies You’ll See In Wine Country
California winery visitations have dropped precipitously over the past few years. According to WineBusiness.com 2025 winery visits declined in areas like Napa (-18%), Sonoma (-8%), Paso Robles (-12%) and the Pacific Northwest (-13%). This is on top of double digit declines in 2023 and 2024. There is one exception though, Lodi tasting room visits increased +12% in 2025. We’ve written about this previously and you can read more about it here at this link. (If you haven’t been to Lodi’s AVA, pack a bag and go visit. You owe it to yourself.)
How are wineries attracting us back into their tasting rooms? Is the era of sitting around sipping vino on a shady estate veranda gone? What changes will convince you to head out for your next wine country visit?
We sat in on a discussion with three wineries offering solutions, their attempts to keep tasting rooms full. Hosted by WineBusiness.com it included Paso Robles, Sonoma and Philadelphia wineries.
Here Are Their Ideas, Changes We Expect To See In Your Favorite California Winery.
Hospitality, Hospitality and More Hospitality – Robert Mondavi pushed this philosophy in the 1970s, taught it to Gary Eberly (of Paso Robles) and to anybody else who would listen. According to Eberly, “Mr. Mondavi told me the first thing was a superior product then hospitality, hospitality and don’t charge for tasting.” A wine tasting experience is quality wine, then foremost hospitality and entertainment. One wine purveyor said, “The days when a wine glass is primary are over.”
Wine Monday – A complimentary glass of wine for club members on a Monday night. (Here at CBW we might ask, how about Wine Wednesday?)
Donation Incentives – $1 donations to local charities for every bottle sold in the tasting room.
Incentivize Purchasing – If you spend $1,500 in a year with the winery you’ll have complementary tasting privileges at 15 other local wineries.
Wine Hosts With Daily Comp Budgets – Every server has a daily budget (in one business, $35 daily) to give visitors gifts (could be wine, could be a hat, T-Shirt, could be a bottle.)
Lighten up the Bar Room – Do away with all the walnut veneer walls and lighten the place up. Start putting up some rock ‘n roll posters.
All Humans Want Connection, Not Just Gen Y & Z – Offer vertical tastings, black glass tastings, games like WineSpy, education about the wineries AVA and side-by-side tastes. As one participant said, “Creating a playground of hospitality is key work for our wine hosts.”
Cut Shipping Cost – Look for offers of free shipping, flat rate shipping or 1 cent shipping.
Free Tasting – People love complimentary tasting fees along with free shipping.
Collaborative Relations with Local Businesses – Wineries are becoming the official wine of concert venues and your perk as a member, early access to purchasing tickets.
100% Customization for All Wine Shipments – People want flexibility on their wine. They don’t want to receive pre-determined wine selections filled with slow selling bottles a winery needs to liquidate.
Sign-Up Bonus – If you join today you’ll receive a complimentary bottle of wine with your new membership.
Treat Your Locals Well – Offer free tastings on certain days of the week for those living in your zip code or county.
Membership Pick Up Parties – Offer food, music and beverages to your members when they come to pick up membership shipments.
Customizable Purchases – A subscription with a $200 wine value can be allocated for things like wine, but also local honey, local seasonings, apparel and course redeemable for winemaker dinners.
What Else Do We Want To See?
These are all great ideas we look forward to see in our local community in Paso Robles and throughout California wine areas. But, there are a few things we’d like to see added to this list.
Dynamic Pricing – We see it with airlines, sporting events and on the web. Why not the tasting room? Tasting pricing should be higher on Saturday than on weekdays. Wineries need traffic assistance on weekdays, not necessarily on Saturday. Incentivize weekday visits.
Picnics, Encourage Them – Wine is meant to enjoy with food. Encourage picnics and make sure to offer charcuterie boards. If you sell other food, perfect.
Weekday Complimentary Tastings For Locals – When out of town friends visit locals they’re expected to be a guide. Let the locals sing the praises of your wine when friends come to town. Let them bring friends to your winery with comp tastings.
Allow Walk-Ins, Drop-In Visitation – Requiring appointments is ostentatious and restrictive. Drop them. Delete them. Extinguish them. We’ve walked into mostly empty wineries and the hosts ask if we have a reservation. We’ll look around at all the empty chairs and wonder if they really want our attention. They should try saying, “We weren’t expecting you, glad you could drop in.” If your winery is swamped, say so. “We’re so crowded today we cannot give you the tasting we’re proud to pour and you deserve.” If we can see you’re swamped, we’ll understand. Hope Family Wines in Paso Robles doesn’t like to turn people away. They offer walk-ins shortened 45 minute tastings (instead of the 1.5 hour reservation tasting.)
Let people surf the wine region freely and without meeting scheduled reservations.
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.
