Tasting Room Etiquette
The Do’s & Don’ts
Visiting winery tasting rooms can be a fun and interesting experience! We encourage visitors to take winery tours and enjoy wine tastings that are offered and experience the unique opportunities at each of our wineries.
We want our visitors to have a pleasant winery experience, and encourage all to follow these simple tasting room etiquette guidelines:
- Be polite. Our family run wineries are proud of their wines and operations. Respect each winery’s policies and guidelines.
- Leave the fragrance at home. Winemakers want visitors to be able to enjoy the aroma and bouquet of their wines, not your favorite perfume or cologne.
- Understand there may be a tasting fee. More and more wineries are charging a fee to taste their wines. Wineries offer more than the wine sample, they offer the winery experience. Many wineries apply the tasting fee towards a purchase of wine.
- Designate a driver and drink responsibly. All those samples can add up. Remember to drink water and stay hydrated. If you know you will be visiting several wineries, have a designated driver for the day.
- Use your inside voice. Enjoy yourself, but visitors next to you want to have a memorable experience too.
- It is okay to dump wine. Wineries provide dump buckets for you to discreetly dispose of a wine you don’t want to finish. If you don’t see one, politely ask if they can dump your glass.
- Ask questions. Tasting room staff are a wealth of information about their wines, the winery and Hermann. Find out about how the wine is made, where the fruit came from, the story behind the cat on the label and remember, there are no silly questions.
- Let the tasting room staff serve your sample. It may be busy and you think you are helping them out but it’s just not the proper thing to do by grabbing the wine bottle and serving yourself.
- Enjoy the winery’s grounds and picnic areas. Wineries encourage visitors to use their picnic grounds and enjoy their views. Don’t carry in wine or other alcoholic beverages from another winery. Call ahead or check the winery’s amenity page to see if they allow picnic baskets.
- Do buy wine. Some wineries waive the tasting fee if you purchase a bottle of wine. If you like it, buy it! Wineries provide a great ambiance and tasting room experience, reward them and buy a bottle!
Enjoy the Hermann Wine Trail tasting rooms!