rpm wrote:Very tentatively, based on prior experience:

Tour itself - ~$650.00 +/- $50

That should cover lunches and dinners (although last time one dinner wasn't covered because of last minute drop outs) during the Tour, and the pre-Tour gathering (heavy hors d'oeuvres + wine).

Hotel rooms (if we stay in same place) ran $135-$180. If you stay 4 nights, you'll pay all or part of the 4x whichever rate you get.

Transportation to Sonoma (or wherever we stay) from the Bay Area airports) is not included.

Air/rail/car transportation to the Tour vicinity is not included.

I would note that even though the economy is still down, there have been increases in the cost of many things over the past 2 years, so use these estimates as only a rough guess and don't be shocked if it's a little more.

Wine you purchase is additional.

I urge everyone to start budgeting for wine purchases now. My policy has always been to buy at least something at every stop, unless you really don't like anything. (I think on two tours, there were only two places I bought nothing at all....). More is always better from the wineries' perspective - after all they do want to sell wine.

A thought for the Veteran Tourists especially: we're going to work hard to make this special at serious wineries where the wines are not cheap, though we think they're an excellent value. Most of you know the kind of places I'm talking about. Think about being able to make fairly significant purchases of things you really like as a way of supporting their work and so they will know that the efforts they put out for the group, as well as their sales on woot, are worthwhile. We'll work with them to negotiate some discounts, but think of it as a chance to get wines that are unlikely to come up on woot, because they're scarce or better years or whatever (e.g. Corison wines from 2005 and 2007).

I think a wine budget of $500 for the New Tourists (which works out to an average of $21 a bottle for 2 cases total) and something more, perhaps $700 or more, for Returning Tourists, might be considered realistic. If you bought 4-6 bottles ranging from $30-75 at 6 or 7 wineries, you could easily spend $2,000 on wine, and I think there are Tourists who spent that much, or something close to it.

We got some shipping help from WineDavid39 and wine.woot, so don't worry about having to carry our purchases home. Many people bought 2-3 cases or more in total.

I would appreciate some of the Returning Tourists sharing how much they spent on wine on each of the Tours at the wineries we stopped at.

Thanks RPM, this is exactly what I was looking for, a rough idea for budgeting purposes. I'm planning a trip to Europe this year, but I need to make sure my wine tour budget is in place too

RPM,

Myself and +1 are definitely interested,particularly for the veteran's tour, although the +1 will likely be a different person (and possibly considered a WW newbie, but not a wine newbie).

Thanks for the organization and planning of this undertaking.

I just did a quick check of MY wine purchases from the 2010 Tour. My damages of tour only purchased wines were: $755.00. This does not include other incidentals. We purchased more the day after. . .

I think I ended up throwing ~$1100 to the water heater gods. (long story)

rpm wrote:I would appreciate some of the Returning Tourists sharing how much they spent on wine on each of the Tours at the wineries we stopped at.

I purchased 2.5 cases, or maybe it was 3. Being post-grad school and pre-job I was definitely attempting to *not* spend a whole lot of money on wine, yet I probably ended up in the $600-700 range considering there was some Corison and higher end Roessler, KR at $30/bottle, etc. Plus, I felt like I was being choosy and tried to stay in the good value range.

Edit: Found my CC statement from that month - I spent just shy of $800, at 7 different wineries. Plus I may have paid in cash or with another card elsewhere.

rpm wrote:

I would appreciate some of the Returning Tourists sharing how much they spent on wine on each of the Tours at the wineries we stopped at.

I believe Anne and I spent somewhere between $500 and $800 on various wine purchases, though we didn't necessarily buy at each winery.

cheron98 wrote:It's been about every other year or so (2008, 2010, 2012) so unlikely for it to be again next year, but potentially 2014 - stick around to find out These things are not guaranteed, thus all the clamoring for spots when it IS announced.

I hope there is one in 2014. With Germany/Italy this year and Africa next year, 2014 is basically the first time I have free for a big trip. Not that Napa is really a *big* trip, but.... in any case, I am going to try to keep Summer of 2014 open with the hopes there is another tour then.

mother wrote:I think I ended up throwing ~$1100 to the water heater gods. (long story)

I think more accurately you threw 1100 to the wineries, then used the wine as a sacrifice to the water heater gods.

jawlz wrote:I hope there is one in 2014. With Germany/Italy this year and Africa next year, 2014 is basically the first time I have free for a big trip. Not that Napa is really a *big* trip, but.... in any case, I am going to try to keep Summer of 2014 open with the hopes there is another tour then.

Let's not put the grape wagon before the horses; let us get these tours done before even thinking beyond 2012.

rpm wrote:Let's not put the grape wagon before the horses; let us get these tours done before even thinking beyond 2012.

Fair enough. Back to the more pressing business of this year's tours.

txmusicman49 wrote:I believe Anne and I spent somewhere between $500 and $800 on various wine purchases, though we didn't necessarily buy at each winery.

Deb and I about the same, and I skipped only one winery buying.

rpm wrote:Very tentatively, EDITED FOR LENGTH BY RH:

Tour itself - ~$650.00 +/- $50 should cover lunches and dinners and the pre-Tour gathering (heavy hors d'oeuvres + wine). Hotel rooms (if we stay in same place) ran $135-$180. Air/rail/car transportation to the Tour vicinity is not included. Wine you purchase is additional. Also, there have been increases in the cost of many things over the past 2 years.

I urge everyone to start budgeting for wine purchases now. My policy has always been to buy at least something at every stop, unless you really don't like anything. (I think on two tours, there were only two places I bought nothing at all....). More is always better from the wineries' perspective - after all they do want to sell wine.

A thought for the Veteran Tourists especially: we're going to work hard to make this special at serious wineries where the wines are not cheap, though we think they're an excellent value. Most of you know the kind of places I'm talking about. Think about being able to make fairly significant purchases of things you really like as a way of supporting their work, and so they will know that their efforts for our group and for sales on woot are worthwhile. We'll negotiate some discounts, but think of it as a chance to get wines that are unlikely to come up on woot, because they're scarce or better years or whatever (e.g. Corison wines from 2005 and 2007). (RH EDIT: 2001!!)

A wine budget of $500 for the New Tourists (~2 cases total) perhaps $700 or more for Returning Tourists, might be considered realistic. If you bought 4-6 bottles ranging from $30-75 at 6/7 wineries, you could easily spend $2k on wine, and there are Tourists who spent that much. Many bought 2-3 cases or more in total.

I tended to buy nothing at wineries I thought were hmmm, or a bit pricey on the QPR, or where I aready had bought a lot of their wines. OTOH I bought a case or more at the places I liked.

Some places I didn't think they gave us a good enough discount (eg. Gundlach Bundschu!). The only wine I liked at Pine Ridge was their ridiculously expensive $140 red blend which had remarkable red brick flavours, but I never thought I'd everspend more than $40 on a bottle, so I passed, even when they offered it to us for $60. Then we went to Corison. Goodbye principles! We tasted magnums of the Cab, but I bought the Kronos on reputation alone. I trust my friends. It's about time I cracked open some KRonos to see if I actually like it or I might be flogging that off too (unlikely).

So, in the end I bought nearly two cases from Kent Rasmussen, a case from Wellington, half a case from Corison, a case from Buena Vista, half a dozen Faux Chablis, four more Michigan Riesling from Scott H, and maybe some other odds and ends.

Incidentally, as my palate has evolved I may well be happy to bring some of my stash up in the car to swap / flog to friendly tourists at cost. If anyone's short of discount lots of stuff like Ty Caton's wines, look at my CT, see if there's something you've been coveting and let me know!

And I hereby put in a vote for Macrostie as an interesting stop off of well-made wines for either tour. IT's not expensive (good!) but it's very tasty, and they're good friends and neighbours of WD.

What kinds of expensive do you mean rpm? If it's all at Corison prices, then that may be too much!

richardhod wrote:I tended to buy nothing at wineries I thought were hmmm, or a bit pricey on the QPR, or where I aready had bought a lot of their wines. OTOH I bought a case or more at the places I liked.

Some places I didn't think they gave us a good enough discount (eg. Gundlach Bundschu!). The only wine I liked at Pine Ridge was their ridiculously expensive $140 red blend which had remarkable red brick flavours, but I never thought I'd everspend more than $40 on a bottle, so I passed, even when they offered it to us for $60. Then we went to Corison. Goodbye principles! We tasted magnums of the Cab, but I bought the Kronos on reputation alone. I trust my friends. It's about time I cracked open some KRonos to see if I actually like it or I might be flogging that off too (unlikely).

So, in the end I bought nearly two cases from Kent Rasmussen, a case from Wellington, half a case from Corison, a case from Buena Vista, half a dozen Faux Chablis, four more Michigan Riesling from Scott H, and maybe some other odds and ends.

Incidentally, as my palate has evolved I may well be happy to bring some of my stash up in the car to swap / flog to friendly tourists at cost. If anyone's short of discount lots of stuff like Ty Caton's wines, look at my CT, see if there's something you've been coveting and let me know!

And I hereby put in a vote for Macrostie as an interesting stop off of well-made wines for either tour. IT's not expensive (good!) but it's very tasty, and they're good friends and neighbours of WD.

What kinds of expensive do you mean rpm? If it's all at Corison prices, then that may be too much!

Very nice exposition - can you give the others an approximate total expense # for your 5-odd cases?

What do you think you no longer find interesting?

I wouldn't say all at Corison prices, but if we want to delve deeply at all into Napa Cabernet or even Sonoma Cabernet, one has to understand that they're not $20 wines.

Your comments about pricing are interesting, too. Discount policies varied. While we can make no promises, as it's really a decision each winery makes, this is something under discussion among the brain trust - our 'ask' is likely to be extending at least club pricing to Tourists. The problem there is if a winery does that, and people only buy a bottle or two, it's a bust. OTOH, if they do, and everyone buys 1/2 case or so, it's a win-win (except to our budgets....)

rpm wrote:Very nice exposition - can you give the others an approximate total expense # for your 5-odd cases?

What do you think you no longer find interesting?

I wouldn't say all at Corison prices, but if we want to delve deeply at all into Napa Cabernet or even Sonoma Cabernet, one has to understand that they're not $20 wines.

Your comments about pricing are interesting, too. Discount policies varied. While we can make no promises, as it's really a decision each winery makes, this is something under discussion among the brain trust - our 'ask' is likely to be extending at least club pricing to Tourists. The problem there is if a winery does that, and people only buy a bottle or two, it's a bust. OTOH, if they do, and everyone buys 1/2 case or so, it's a win-win (except to our budgets....)

Well, I'm no longer so interested in Zinfandels now that I know some of thir various styles (hard to make them as interesting as nobler or darker grapes). Also never got into highly-processed ripe wines like Caton's, though others love it! I'm still interested in most of the rest, but some of the bigger wines I'll leave for those who like them better. I'm picky about PSs, so I can lose some of them too. Really I'll only drink ridiculously fruit-forward PSs like Turley or Quixote because they're just so fun and lush, and have no pretensions to being anything but outrageously sweet deep fruit. OTOH I have a lt to explore, but many are just fairly flat red-fruited wines, sometimes with harsh tannins.
I'm also not 100% sold on CA Pinots that have no funk, and are entirely red fruit. Nice, but I want funk and mineral. Burgundy has spoiled me! Yet I still really like them, and others love them. The 06 KR estate PN is really good atm for the CA red style.
Furthermore it takes a really good Chardonnay to keep me from my Chablis! I'm becoming a mineral hound.

I also have 18 of the 03 Corison Napa Cab. That's probably slight overkill, since I have a case of the 02, some in several other years, and some verticals in the Kronos too. So if someone's rather short on their Corison stash I might be able to help them!

Oh sublime wines at $25-50 are also worth it, if they start to compete with good claret in quality! I'd hope we'd mix great makers with good QPR as you did last time. And I presume that while we might be going back to one or two previous places there will be a lot of new spots to visit. Surely with 15-20 people buying some wine at club prices they make money? Surely even club prices are pretty damn profitable: IIRC Winery prices are a lot more than they get for selling bottles to restaurants, or to woot!

Oh yes, did I mention that I just met the CEO of Mouton-Rothschild, who happens to be dating a friend of mine in Bordeaux? I think they own Opus One and a few of the better expensive-end Napa wineries, assuming we'd not be flying to Pauillac.

EDIT: so,
- CORRECTION 20 bottles from Kent Rasmussen, @360/case
- a case from Wellington @average say $20=240/case
- half a case from Corison, 2x80Kr 3x60NC 1x20CR =
- a case from Buena Vista, about $360
- half a dozen Faux Chablis, 120
- four more Michigan Riesling from Scott H, 100
=
620 240 360 360 120 100+ = $1800 (+-$100,est.)

I also picked up a case or so of wines I'd pre-bought via the internets, and I've have bought something at Kunde had I not already a whole case of their reserve 05 Cab.

richardhod wrote:Well, I'm no longer so interested in Zinfandels now that I know some of thir various styles (hard to make them as interesting as nobler or darker grapes). Also never got into highly-processed ripe wines like Caton's, though others love it! I'm still interested in most of the rest, but some of the bigger wines I'll leave for those who like them better. I'm picky about PSs, so I can lose some of them too. Really I'll only drink ridiculously fruit-forward PSs like Turley or Quixote because they're just so fun and lush, and have no pretensions to being anything but outrageously sweet deep fruit. OTOH I have a lt to explore, but many are just fairly flat red-fruited wines, sometimes with harsh tannins.
I'm also not 100% sold on CA Pinots that have no funk, and are entirely red fruit. Nice, but I want funk and mineral. Burgundy has spoiled me! Yet I still really like them, and others love them. The 06 KR estate PN is really good atm for the CA red style.
Furthermore it takes a really good Chardonnay to keep me from my Chablis! I'm becoming a mineral hound.

I also have 18 of the 03 Corison Napa Cab. That's probably slight overkill, since I have a case of the 02, some in several other years, and some verticals in the Kronos too. So if someone's rather short on their Corison stash I might be able to help them!

Oh sublime wines at $25-50 are also worth it, if they start to compete with good claret in quality! I'd hope we'd mix great makers with good QPR as you did last time. And I presume that while we might be going back to one or two previous places there will be a lot of new spots to visit. Surely with 15-20 people buying some wine at club prices they make money? Surely even club prices are pretty damn profitable: IIRC Winery prices are a lot more than they get for selling bottles to restaurants, or to woot!

Oh yes, did I mention that I just met the CEO of Mouton-Rothschild, who happens to be dating a friend of mine in Bordeaux? I think they own Opus One and a few of the better expensive-end Napa wineries, assuming we'd not be flying to Pauillac.

EDIT: so,
- 12 bottles from Kent Rasmussen, @360/case
- a case from Wellington @average say $20=240/case
- half a case from Corison, 2x80Kr 3x60NC 1x20CR =
- a case from Buena Vista, about $360
- half a dozen Faux Chablis, 120
- four more Michigan Riesling from Scott H, 100
=
620 240 360 360 120 100+ = $1800 (+-$100,est.)

I also picked up a case or so of wines I'd pre-bought via the internets, and I've have bought something at Kunde had I not already a whole case of their reserve 05 Cab.

Thank you - this should be helpful to many contemplating Tour budgeting. Yours was towards the upper end, but not unreasonable given what you bought.

rpm wrote:I would appreciate some of the Returning Tourists sharing how much they spent on wine on each of the Tours at the wineries we stopped at.

I actually ended up kinda light on wine compared to many of the rest. But I think I had some bigger money constraints, plus as a single person I already had WAAAY too much wine. LOL
My purchases (unless I missed recording anything in CT, which is also possible) for the 2010 tour was 15 bottles totaling $570. I ended up buying at less places than I should have, and less than I really wanted to.

richardhod wrote: Surely with 15-20 people buying some wine at club prices they make money? Surely even club prices are pretty damn profitable: IIRC Winery prices are a lot more than they get for selling bottles to restaurants, or to woot!

Without a doubt we were still paying a hefty premium over what any of those bottles sold on w.w for... For the most part* the wineries had invested tens of dollars (hard costs) in receiving us. I doubt we left a winery without dropping $500 and that was only GunBun, we spent far more everywhere else...

*This does NOT apply to the likes of Peter or Kent or Scott who went way WAAAAAAAAAAAAAY above and beyond the call. Or even Joy or Cathy who opened a number of pricey bottles for us... I don't know if we could ever, as a group, buy enough wine from Scott to 'earn' that evening at the farm! Or make it worthwhile for Peter to spend half a day doing the blending stuff with us, or to make it worthwhile for Kent to share his first bottles (or his wifes singing!) with us...

Rob,

Would the wineries ever consider a sliding scale based on how much was purchased? (ie Based on list prices: <$500 everyone gets 10%, $500-$1k 20%, $1k-1.5k 30%, $5000+ 50%) I think that might be an option to limit the exposure to asking for a big discount, while still making it worth our while as a group to buy a lot of good wine at a good qpr...

HitAnyKey42 wrote:I actually ended up kinda light on wine compared to many of the rest. But I think I had some bigger money constraints, plus as a single person I already had WAAAY too much wine. LOL
My purchases (unless I missed recording anything in CT, which is also possible) for the 2010 tour was 15 bottles totaling $570. I ended up buying at less places than I should have, and less than I really wanted to.

My learning curve was so steep, over the three days even, I could do the same tour again and have it so different! The tasting lessons were so instructive, the variety of approaches to winemaking remarkable, and the opportunity t ask questions and compare tastings with a bunch of interested people invaluable!

Yet I'm looking forward to benchmarking a couple of known wines with a bunch of new ones, increasing my experience by another order of magnitude again! In the weeks and then months afterwards, another two orders of magnitude again,as I tried some of the wines, again, more woot wines and compared notes with people. A unique opportunity, I promise you folks!

rpm.. since Jeff from Buena Vista has moved on, maybe his new place is a thought for a new place to try...

mother wrote:Without a doubt we were still paying a hefty premium over what any of those bottles sold on w.w for... For the most part* the wineries had invested tens of dollars (hard costs) in receiving us.

WE do like a good bargain!
I thought that the tastings tours and hospitality would have been paid for by part of our fee, which is the very point of paying the $600 to join the tour! So, I'd expect that much of their costs were already defrayed by our tour fee to them. The special thing is the actual access we get in the first place to them, and their willingness to share their time and experiences with us.

richardhod wrote:WE do like a good bargain!
I thought that the tastings tours and hospitality would have been paid for by part of our fee, which is the very point of paying the $600 to join the tour! So, I'd expect that much of their costs were already defrayed by our tour fee to them. The special thing is the actual access we get in the first place to them, and their willingness to share their time and experiences with us.

You and mother encapsulated my thoughts quite well. I think the sliding scale option would be interesting to pursue. I think a visit to the Meekers might be in order as well, since they've seemed to present a great face to the woot community - and the wine I've tasted thus far was certainly Tour-worthy.

Perhaps we can find somebody to host a Rhone-style blending workshop? That would also greatly help our understanding of the different functions of each varietal. The Bordeaux blending workshop with Peter was a huge eye-opener and amazingly educational.

Bollocks, fiddlesticks, and rats!

Despite my absence around the boards (to be remedied slowly but surely, shortly), I would have liked to attend. Regardless of the dates chosen, though, I won't be able to, as it's the week of the bar exam.

Alas. Enjoy all!

klezman wrote:You and mother encapsulated my thoughts quite well. I think the sliding scale option would be interesting to pursue. I think a visit to the Meekers might be in order as well, since they've seemed to present a great face to the woot community - and the wine I've tasted thus far was certainly Tour-worthy.

Perhaps we can find a winemaker to host a Rhone-style blending workshop? That would also greatly help our understanding of the different functions of each varietal. The Bordeaux blending workshop with Peter was a huge eye-opener and amazingly educational.

Yes to another workshop if anyone will do it!
and Meeker. And one or two other woot winemakers from the past year who were informative and welcoming... Others please why not make your suggestions? We may even influence rpm!
Also, how about Lake County? There are a few up there of epic quality I'm sure, as well as one or two woots which are quite good, like the Hawley peeps.

rpm wrote:
A thought for the Veteran Tourists especially: we're going to work hard to make this special at serious wineries where the wines are not cheap, though we think they're an excellent value. Most of you know the kind of places I'm talking about. Think about being able to make fairly significant purchases of things you really like as a way of supporting their work and so they will know that the efforts they put out for the group, as well as their sales on woot, are worthwhile. We'll work with them to negotiate some discounts, but think of it as a chance to get wines that are unlikely to come up on woot, because they're scarce or better years or whatever (e.g. Corison wines from 2005 and 2007).

FTR,
I'm more interested in a tour like this.

That said, I think SWMBO and I are going to try to make it out to Napa for our Anniversary. Hopefully going to try to stay at the Villagio, and try to get dinner at French Laundry. And, if we do this, we'll probably skip this tour.

richardhod wrote:Yes to another workshop if anyone will do it!
and Meeker. And one or two other woot winemakers from the past year who were informative and welcoming... Others please why not make your suggestions? We may even influence rpm!
Also, how about Lake County? There are a few up there of epic quality I'm sure, as well as one or two woots which are quite good, like the Hawley peeps.

Richard it's interesting you mentioned Quixote, a winery I've driven by a million times, but have never made an apt to visit. I would love to visit this one, if not for the wine, for the over the top designs of architect Friedensreich Hundertwasser. Although they're not a woot winery, I've bought several bottles of their cab on WTSO

Corison and Wellington for sure. What about Hendry? He's been on woot before with good wine maker participation, and he makes (IMHO) some good wines. Knude? Kent Rasmussen? Luna? Judd Hill? Coppola has a new spread (not far from Meeker, Silver Oak, Pedroncelli, etc.). Would love to do a Howell Mt winery. Ehlers Estate makes terrific wine, but it's not inexpensive. I've never been to the Jacuzzi winery, but I've heard it's good. Interestingly Jacuzzi is heavily Italian varietal influenced, and across the street is Cline who is French in style. Rhône-style to be exact. Both of these wineries have been on my radar for a while. Also love what's coming out of Keenan Winery. I have some 2000 Keenan Spring Mountain Merlot Reserve that's stunning. Yeah that's right, 2000, the bad Napa year, apparently not for all.

I would suggest Cosentino, but I don't think they left a favorable impression from their woot-off

I know a thing or two about Lake County wines. I grew up there, and go up there to visit my parents frequently (via the Silverado Trail through Napa Valley). There are great wines coming from Lake County. They had two big Lake County wine tasting events this year I attended. I was blown away by a cab I tried up there, had some incredible Barbera, amazing Sauv Blanc, Syrah, etc. Gregory Graham winery makes fantastic wines. There's Langtry, a historical winery that's been there since 1888 (probably the closest Lake Co. winery to Napa Valley, via a beautiful, remote drive through Pope Valley). Actually a lot of the Napa wineries are sourcing grapes from Lake Counties unique AVA.

otolith wrote:FTR,
I'm more interested in a tour like this.

That said, I think SWMBO and I are going to try to make it out to Napa for our Anniversary. Hopefully going to try to stay at the Villagio, and try to get dinner at French Laundry. And, if we do this, we'll probably skip this tour.

Just combine them!

k1avg wrote:Bollocks, fiddlesticks, and rats!

Despite my absence around the boards (to be remedied slowly but surely, shortly), I would have liked to attend. Regardless of the dates chosen, though, I won't be able to, as it's the week of the bar exam.

Alas. Enjoy all!

Which bar exam? Oh and good luck. Not as scary as everyone makes it out to be!!!

bsevern wrote:
I would suggest Cosentino, but I don't think they left a favorable impression from their woot-off

rpm has never had a Cosentino wine he thought exceeded the minimum standard of "sound commercial wine" and most of those he has had did not meet that low threshold in his opinion.

richardhod wrote:WE do like a good bargain!
I thought that the tastings tours and hospitality would have been paid for by part of our fee, which is the very point of paying the $600 to join the tour! So, I'd expect that much of their costs were already defrayed by our tour fee to them. The special thing is the actual access we get in the first place to them, and their willingness to share their time and experiences with us.

Actually, we paid tasting fees only sparingly, usually only where there was food involved.
Most of the wineries involved 'comp'ed us their normal tasting fees.

The bulk of the tour cost covered the bus, the GO's expenses, and (not significant) miscellaneous group expenses. Full disclosure in case anyone wasn't aware or doesn't remember: neither woopdedoo nor rpm get paid for the work they do to put the tours together and lead them, but their expenses - airfare, hotel rooms and tour expenses including covered tour meals - are paid for by the tour.

mother wrote:Would the wineries ever consider a sliding scale based on how much was purchased? (ie Based on list prices: <$500 everyone gets 10%, $500-$1k 20%, $1k-1.5k 30%, $5000+ 50%) I think that might be an option to limit the exposure to asking for a big discount, while still making it worth our while as a group to buy a lot of good wine at a good qpr...

I don't know. The idea has occurred to me, I liked the idea at first blush, and I gave it some thought.

The problems with this (assuming the wineries would consider it) include pressure on individuals who may simply not be able to afford to spend as much to move the group up to a particular threshold, as well as particular threshold amounts at particular places. I suspect it would be fairer to both individuals and wineries if any such sliding scale applied to individual purchase amounts - which would reward those who could and would spend more without putting pressure on those who do cannot or do not choose to.

For example, if there had been pressure on me at a couple of wineries to buy more to put the group over some threshold, there might have been a mutiny, a tour cut short, and a broken body of rpm at the bottom of a hill.

Also, would we be likely with any sliding scale to to better than a winery's existing 'club' prices. I think that might be a better goal. Some wineries have different club levels, and so in those cases (pun intended), perhaps the amount spent could determine the club level discount applicable.

But, until we negotiate with the wineries, this is all speculation.

rpm wrote:I don't know. The idea has occurred to me, I liked the idea at first blush, and I gave it some thought.

For example, if there had been pressure on me at a couple of wineries to buy more to put the group over some threshold, there might have been a mutiny, a tour cut short, and a broken body of rpm at the bottom of a hill.

...and how long would the tour last then? Taste a red...drag rpm. Taste a white...drag rpm.

otolith wrote:FTR,
I'm more interested in a tour like this.

That said, I think SWMBO and I are going to try to make it out to Napa for our Anniversary. Hopefully going to try to stay at the Villagio, and try to get dinner at French Laundry. And, if we do this, we'll probably skip this tour.

Happy and sad for you.

The bus driver at the last tour was a very nice guy and had been driving tours for 11 years IIRC. At one point he kinda grabbed my arm and asked "Who are you guys?" I did not understand the reference of his question and asked what he meant. He told me of his driving experience, and went on to say he had never seen the kind of treatment we were getting except for some of the restaurant Owners and chefs that are often taken to multiple vineyards.

I think that was the way we all felt...what we were treated to was special. I don't know if you can buy the access, service and treatment we were afforded. BTW happy anniversary in advance. When is it?

gregorylane wrote:Happy and sad for you.

The bus driver at the last tour was a very nice guy and had been driving tours for 11 years IIRC. At one point he kinda grabbed my arm and asked "Who are you guys?" I did not understand the reference of his question and asked what he meant. He told me of his driving experience, and went on to say he had never seen the kind of treatment we were getting except for some of the restaurant Owners and chefs that are often taken to multiple vineyards.

I think that was the way we all felt...what we were treated to was special. I don't know if you can buy the access, service and treatment we were afforded. BTW happy anniversary in advance. When is it?

The whole thing sounds fantastic (except for the broken body of rpm thing). I hope I can participate someday, assuming there will be more tours.

Who is the "voice" behind rpm's last few posts? Speaking in third person, slightly different writing style...

cheron98 wrote:Who is the "voice" behind rpm's last few posts? Speaking in third person, slightly different writing style...

I have been kidnapped by aliens who think that curdled buttermilk is the ultimate intoxicant cum aphrodisiac and are secretly plotting the conversion of all vineyards into pastures for cows or goats, depending on the elevation.

rpm wrote:I have been kidnapped by aliens who think that curdled buttermilk is the ultimate intoxicant cum aphrodisiac and are secretly plotting the conversion of all vineyards into pastures for cows or goats, depending on the elevation.

Oh noes! We must rescue you, pronto! Destroy the aliens! Save RPM and the Grapes!

cheron98 wrote:Who is the "voice" behind rpm's last few posts? Speaking in third person, slightly different writing style...

Yes...We noticed that. Greg was quite curious.

rpm, thanks for holding my spot, but I'm going to take a pass. Between the expense and not wanting to leave the kids for four days, this isn't going to work for us.

In fairness, SWMBO was intrigued by the idea, but we ultimately agreed that the timing isn't right.

Have great tours... I look forward to following the thread and hearing about it at an upcoming NYC gathering. Speaking of which...

CAGrl wrote:Which bar exam? Oh and good luck. Not as scary as everyone makes it out to be!!!

Especially if you get to follow it up with dinner at ddeuddeg and bahwm's house.

My budget won't allow for this tour, I can't wait to read about it though. You can take me off the list. (Those damn bespoke suits and shirts are eating in to my wine budget.....oh, and my wine fridge broke, must be addressed before summer).

Everyone, have a great time!

HitAnyKey42 wrote:Also, it's a lot cheaper to fly on a Monday than it is to fly on a Sunday. So that's another reason for starting the tour on a Tues or Wed.

Hak...do you have a good feel for the cost difference flying out on Sat. as compared to Friday? Hate the term, but it might be the same difference as Sun./ Mon.