We Skipped The Wine Tasting And We’re Not Sorry
I think we had more fun in Los Olivos, California for $9 than we possibly could have for the $20 (or more) we would have spent on a couple of wine tastings. We bought 3 ice-cold beers, 24oz each, for $3 apiece and sat at the picnic tables at the general store on the main drag. Same town, same ambiance, discount price.
Two important notes:
1) Wine tasting would have cost us at least $10 each, per flight. When we spend more than $10 on a bottle, it’s because we’re going to a dinner party and don’t want to look cheap. Clearly we are not wine experts. We like wine just fine, but are we going to spend two or three or four times that much just because we’re on the main drag of a town near where they make a lot of wine? Nah.
2) Daily sacrilege: I just don’t think wine tastings are that great. They would be great if you could still pull up to an actual vineyard, try a few wines, chat for a while with the guy who makes the wine, and maybe buy a bottle or two or three. It doesn’t really work that way anymore, if it ever did. The tasting of wine is a business. You’re paying for the experience and the illusion of authenticity. Which is fine, if that’s what you want.
Sorry about that. Please tell me I’m wrong about this. In the end, our big bottles of good beer (did I mention they were $3 each?), olives and chips and guacamole lasted until the day trippers had left for the afternoon because the “wineries” closed at five. The temperature came down and we wandered around the town at twilight. It was great.
