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A tasting room is a part of a winery or brewery, typically located on the premises of the winery or brewery's production facilities, at which guests may sample the winery or brewery's products. Originally an informal public relations outreach effort of wineries and breweries to encourage visitors and build brand awareness and loyalty by dispensing free wine, beer, whiskey, sake, etc., tasting rooms have increasingly become sophisticated profit centers of winery operations, earning money by charging tasting fees, selling products directly to consumers, signing new members to the winery or brewery's members club, hosting weddings and other public and private events, and selling various wine, beer, whiskey, sake, etc. gift-related goods. [1]
A typical tasting room is operated by a winery or brewery located in a rural vineyard, where most of the production, bottling, marketing, and distribution takes place. It is usually separated from the main production facilities, either in a room by itself or a separate building, with a designated parking area and landscaped gardens or grounds, often with picnic areas for guests. [2] They are typically open during abbreviated midday business hours, several days per week.
The primary feature of a tasting room is a tended walk-up bar counter where guests are offered small samples from a list of products produced by the winery or brewery, usually for a small fee. Wine is poured by staff that has been trained in knowledge of the products and production, who will answer questions and make conversation with guests. In smaller production facilities the owners, winemaker, brewmaster, or other executives may personally meet guests and pour the product. Larger operations often treat their tasting room as a sophisticated business unit with its own manager and dedicated staff, who usually work on a commission basis according to how much they sell. Some tasting rooms encourage guests to keep their glass; [3] most apply the fee to product purchases. [2] Tasting rooms usually pour their most popular products available at other retail locations (if any), but may also offer limited-release products that are for sale only on premises. They often withhold their most expensive products, except for guests who pay a premium fee or who seem likely to be good customers.
Other common features are gifts, food items, and publications for sale. Some facilities offer tours as well. A few have restaurants or markets. Some offer tastings and tours by appointment only, for business or local zoning reasons. [2]
Whereas tasting rooms were once an opportunity to taste or drink wine, economic efficiency and concerns over legal liability for drunk guests have encouraged most wineries to carefully limit the number and size of pours for each guest. Another legal issue is that wineries have been forced by aggressive litigators [4] to comply with the ADA and other handicap issues. Most are now accessible to disabled guests, without steps, gravel walks, and other barriers. [5]
Some wineries operate multiple tasting rooms in various cities. Others, particularly smaller wineries or those that are not easily accessible or permitted for visitors, join together in cooperative arrangements within a single tasting room, often in a nearby town. [6] [7] Some larger wineries have special "reserve" or VIP tasting rooms for handling large parties, industry representatives, and samples of more expensive or "library" wines. In other cases tasting rooms are operated as a commercial venture by an independent party that buys wines from the wineries, often as part of a wine store.
Tasting rooms are still considered an important brand-building feature in the wine business. [8] However, they have become increasingly important as outlets for direct-to-consumer sales, particularly for small wineries that do not have extensive distribution arrangements. By avoiding a middleman and selling high-priced bottles, tasting rooms achieve much greater profits per bottle than in their wholesale operations. [8]
According to one industry survey 59 percent of American wineries charged a tasting fee in their tasting rooms for sampling wine [6] (although many applied the fee toward a wine purchase, if any). Tasting rooms accounted for 43% of all winery sales in California, Washington, and Oregon, and 68% in other states. [6]
Straußwirtschaft is the tasting room and more for German wineries. These are owned and operated by smaller wineries. Often referred to as Strausse. [9]
Whisky or whiskey is a type of liquor made from fermented grain mash. Various grains are used for different varieties, including barley, corn, rye, and wheat. Whisky is typically aged in wooden casks, which are typically made of charred white oak. Uncharred white oak casks previously used for the aging of port, rum or sherry are also sometimes used.
Madeira is a fortified wine made on the Portuguese Madeira Islands, off the coast of Africa. Madeira is produced in a variety of styles ranging from dry wines which can be consumed on their own, as an apéritif, to sweet wines usually consumed with dessert. Cheaper cooking versions are often flavoured with salt and pepper for use in cooking, but these are not fit for consumption as a beverage.
Cork taint is a broad term referring to an off-odor and off-flavor wine fault arising from the presence of 2,4,6-trichloroanisole (TCA), a chemical compound that represents one of the strongest off-flavors, and one "generated naturally in foods/beverages", in particular wines, that considerably reduce the quality of these products.
A bar, also known as a saloon, a tavern or tippling house, or sometimes as a pub or club, is a retail business establishment that serves alcoholic beverages, such as beer, wine, liquor, cocktails, and other beverages such as mineral water and soft drinks. Bars often also sell snacks, such as crisps or peanuts, for consumption on their premises. Some types of bars, such as pubs, may also serve food from a restaurant menu. The term "bar" refers to the countertop where drinks are prepared and served, and by extension to the overall premises.
Winemaking or vinification is the production of wine, starting with the selection of the fruit, its fermentation into alcohol, and the bottling of the finished liquid. The history of wine-making stretches over millennia. The science of wine and winemaking is known as oenology. A winemaker may also be called a vintner. The growing of grapes is viticulture and there are many varieties of grapes.
A winery is a building or property that produces wine, or a business involved in the production of wine, such as a wine company. Some wine companies own many wineries. Besides wine making equipment, larger wineries may also feature warehouses, bottling lines, laboratories, and large expanses of tanks known as tank farms. Wineries may have existed as long as 8,000 years ago.
Malolactic conversion is a process in winemaking in which tart-tasting malic acid, naturally present in grape must, is converted to softer-tasting lactic acid. Malolactic fermentation is most often performed as a secondary fermentation shortly after the end of the primary fermentation, but can sometimes run concurrently with it. The process is standard for most red wine production and common for some white grape varieties such as Chardonnay, where it can impart a "buttery" flavor from diacetyl, a byproduct of the reaction.
Constellation Brands, Inc. is an American producer and marketer of beer, wine, and spirits. A Fortune 500 company, Constellation is the largest beer import company in the US, measured by sales, and has the third-largest market share of all major beer suppliers. It also has sizable investments in medical and recreational cannabis through its association with Canopy Growth. Based in Victor, New York, Constellation has about 40 facilities and approximately 9,000 employees.
The Culinary Institute of America at Greystone is a branch campus of the private culinary college the Culinary Institute of America. The Greystone campus, located on State Route 29/128 in St. Helena, California, offers associate degrees and two certificate programs in culinary arts and baking and pastry arts. The CIA at Greystone and the Culinary Institute of America at Copia make up the school's California branch.
A liquor store is a retail business that predominantly sells prepackaged liquors, wine or beer, usually intended to be consumed off the store's premises. Depending on region and local idiom, they may also be called an off-licence, off-sale, bottle shop, bottle store or, colloquially, bottle-o, liquor store or other similar terms. A very limited number of jurisdictions have an alcohol monopoly. In US states that are alcoholic beverage control (ABC) states, the term ABC store may be used.
Flavored fortified wines or tonic wines are inexpensive fortified wines that typically have an alcohol content between 13% and 20% alcohol by volume (ABV). They are made from various fruits with added sugar, artificial flavor, and artificial color.
The glossary of wine terms lists the definitions of many general terms used within the wine industry. For terms specific to viticulture, winemaking, grape varieties, and wine tasting, see the topic specific list in the "See also" section below.
Enotourism, oenotourism, wine tourism, or vinitourism refers to tourism whose purpose is or includes the tasting, consumption or purchase of wine, often at or near the source. Where other types of tourism are often passive in nature, enotourism can consist of visits to wineries, tasting wines, vineyard walks, or even taking an active part in the harvest.
Woodinville wine country is an area of Western Washington situated around the city of Woodinville, approximately 30 minutes to an hour driving time from downtown Seattle. The area is home to more than 130 wineries and tasting rooms, including several of the state's notable wineries, such as Chateau Ste. Michelle, Columbia Winery, Novelty Hill Januik, Silver Lake, Matthews Winery, and Tenor Wines. While located within the Puget Sound AVA area, the majority of wineries in Woodinville wine country source their grapes from Eastern Washington American Viticultural Areas like Columbia Valley and Yakima Valley. In addition to making wine, several of the wineries in Woodinville wine country are open for tours and tastings, with Chateau Ste. Michelle also having a regular summer concert series at its amphitheater. Woodinville Village, currently under development, will showcase some of the smaller wineries in the area that are not normally open to the public.
The Niagara College Teaching Winery (NCT), Canada's first commercial teaching winery, is located at the Niagara-on-the-Lake Campus of Niagara College within the Niagara Region of Ontario. Situated in the heart of Niagara wine country, the NCT is the centre for applied wine education for the Canadian wine industry. Officially opened in November 2002, the winery began production in 2001. With three on-site teaching and research vineyards, Winery and Viticulture students are taught the day-to-day responsibilities and inner workings of a winery, from planting grapes to selling wine. Students form teams dedicated to making a specific variety of wine. The Wine Business Management program provides students expertise in the business, retail, marketing and export aspects of the growing wine industry. The facility operates strictly on a non-profit, cost recovery basis with all revenue from sales re-invested into the winery program.
A brewery or brewing company is a business that makes and sells beer. The place at which beer is commercially made is either called a brewery or a beerhouse, where distinct sets of brewing equipment are called plant. The commercial brewing of beer has taken place since at least 2500 BC; in ancient Mesopotamia, brewers derived social sanction and divine protection from the goddess Ninkasi. Brewing was initially a cottage industry, with production taking place at home; by the ninth century, monasteries and farms would produce beer on a larger scale, selling the excess; and by the eleventh and twelfth centuries larger, dedicated breweries with eight to ten workers were being built.
The state laws governing alcoholic drinks in New Jersey are among the most complex in the United States, with many peculiarities not found in other states' laws. They provide for 29 distinct liquor licenses granted to manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers, and for the public warehousing and transport of alcoholic drinks. General authority for the statutory and regulatory control of alcoholic drinks rests with the state government, particularly the Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control overseen by the state's Attorney General.
Manatawny Still Works is a maker of American whiskey, rum, and gin. It is produced in Pottstown, Pennsylvania along the bank of the Manatawny Creek.
WhistlePig is a whiskey distillery based in Vermont. The distillery primarily makes rye whiskey, and is known for "ultra-premium" rye, a category it largely occupied alone in the early 21st century, when most rye sold for about $20 per bottle. WhistlePig dates to 2007, when entrepreneur Raj Bhakta purchased land for the WhistlePig distillery. The whiskey brand was launched in 2010, and its first product, its 10-year rye, was released in 2015.