American Winery Blog

I am the Harpy of Customer Service – I nitpick and critique every single aspect, from the attire of the server to the upkeep of the location to the music volume – because all of these elements are integral to the customer experience!

This weekend I had the opportunity to visit several Walla Walla tasting rooms and have to say – I was TRES impressed. The wine being poured was delicious, but more impressive was the fact that each tasting room had gone above and beyond to create character and ambiance, and the wine was poured by knowledgeable, friendly staff. Though I didn’t get the privilege of tasting with The Winemaker in any of the locations I visited, I was able to taste with the winemaker’s wife at Trust Cellars, and the assistant winemaker at Chateau Rollat, among others.

Here is a list of Dos and Don’ts when it comes to the Tasting Room Experience.

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The year I spent working in the tasting room at a local winery was one of the most educational and fascinating experiences I’ve had. I learned a great deal about wine, and even more about people.

A myriad of tasters visit Walla Walla every year to discover what the hype is all about, and working in “the trenches,” especially during the spring and summer, exposed me to a rainbow of colorful characters and a vocabulary that was at once daunting and charming.

“lush tannins…elegant acidity…fruity yet precocious.”

Well, I don’t know what any of that means. Granted, tannins and acidity are a part of the structure of a wine and are not “dead words” to any self-respecting wine guru. Wine can be fruity, and precocious is a term used in botany to describe early ripening in plants, so that’s not entirely out of left field.

I am not saying that talking about tannins or acidity is not useful when you describe a wine. I am not saying that we should not strive to expand our knowledge of wine vocabulary as we strive to expand our palates. And I am absolutely not saying that the language one person uses to talk about wine is better or worse than any other.

I simply encourage wine tasters to find their own language for talking about wine. Write your own tasting notes! You can even share your tasting notes with others on community driven sites like ours.

Just as every person’s palate is different, every person has a different way to communicate what their palate detects. If the Sauvignon Blanc you’re sipping tastes like dishwasher detergent, don’t church it up because Robert Parker said it had floral notes with overlying flavors of tropical fruits.