When my clients go to their first tasting of the day I tag along, to introduce them to the staff behind the bar, to see for myself what kinds of wines they like, to offer wine tasting tips if necessary and to explain that tipping is not expected.
That final point, a deficiency of tipping, surprises some of my clients, especially the New Yorkers where you tip everybody. So, I explain the economics at work. Tasting room staff are not bar tenders, even though they look like that to someone arriving in their domain. They are sales people and educators, sometimes one more than the other, but you don't typically tip sales people.
Anyone who has done serious sales knows that it is one of the most difficult types of social interaction, where you have to overcome all kinds of obstructions to reach your goal. Sales trainers often remind their students that everything begins with sales, and without good sales people commerce grinds to a halt. Because of the long lead time in wine making that tasting room sale often seems like an afterthought; a meal after a long day in the kitchen.
Being a sales person behind a tasting bar has certain advantages, you are holding a bottle of wine in your hand, and your prospects become increasingly relaxed and jovial in the course of your sales pitch. The biggest disadvantage is that the process is so gracious, relaxed and fun as you pour sample after sample, that people forget that it is a sales pitch.
The size of the pour is a matter of great discussion. Someplace there is a regulation about what a proper pour is, one ounce per wine, but that is routinely ignored and the average is closer to two. Some of the biggest selling tasting rooms are infamous for their very heavy handed pours. They are well known by tour guides and are placed late in the tour since a visit there only prepares the person for a nap.
Personally I think that boosting sales through excessive pours is like shooting fish in a barrel, but I don't run a winery, so until I walk a mile in their purple stained shoes I am reserving my official opinion.
Tips are not unknown in tasting rooms and I've never seen one turned down, but there is only one tasting room I know of that has a tip jar on the bar. The tasting room staff often receives commissions on their sales, on top of their modest base pay, and when guests join the wine club that comes with a bonus. The best way to say thank you for the tasting is to buy their wine. It's just good sense, you are going to be thirsty later, aren't you?
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