Before the First Sip
Every winemaker in Meet the Winemakers gets the same last question: one pour, one stranger, what do you say before they taste it? None of them started with the tasting notes.
Tasting Rooms
The Slow-Season Shift
The guests who walk in on a quiet November afternoon are mostly members and returning guests. Here is how tasting rooms and small hotel front desks can be ready for them.
The Last Guests of the Season
A founding member walks into a quiet Dry Creek Valley tasting room in November ready to buy a case, and walks out with nothing. Fifty years earlier, the Stanley Hotel’s last guests of the season changed everything for that hotel.
Recognize the regulars outside the club
Most tasting rooms have a list nobody looks at: guests who have bought the wine for five or six years
Have you been here before?
A longtime customer from Sacramento, a club member with a library pour, and a tasting room host who never saw the difference
The Walk-In Is Decided by the Host’s First Sentence
The Walk-In Is Decided by the Host’s First Sentence By Patrick R. Dunn A guest who walks into a quiet
Did you make a reservation?
Did You Make a Reservation? By Patrick R. Dunn The drive from Reno to San Francisco is supposed to take
Keep the Person at the Door
Keep the Person at the Door Check-in tablets and AI phone assistants save a wage at wineries and boutique hotels.
Stars over Acadia
Illustration of a night sky program on Cadillac Mountain, Acadia National Park. It was between 1983 and 1986, a little
Why Club Members Quit After the Pickup Party
Insights Why Club Members Quit After the Pickup Party What the best fall release parties do differently, with a host