The Wine Knows

Today, visitors to Barnard Griffin in Richland, Wash., are being met with a sign explaining tasting fees.

To taste the regular "Tulip" wines costs $5, and to taste through the reserves will be $10. Fees will be refunded with purchase. Wine club members' fees are waived.

This is not necessarily news in the Northwest anymore, but rather a trend. In fact, it's becoming a little rare to see a winery offering refunds with purchases, a practice that has all but been abandoned in many regions.

Kim Gravenslund, tasting room manager, said the first few hours have been smooth with no complaints. Interestingly, however, all the visitors on a fairly heavy day of foot traffic have been from out of town. She expects push-back from locals tonight and over the weekend.

Barnard Griffin is in an interesting position. On one side is Tagaris Winery, which has a popular restaurant. On the other side is Bookwalter Winery, which is a wine lounge with live music, food and a Starbucks feel to it.

As a result, two things were happening:

-- Many regulars would stop in at Barnard Griffin prior to their reservations at Tagaris to load up on free wine. Or they'd stop by on the way home from work (Barnard Griffin is near the interstate) for a free "happy hour."

-- Limos and buses would target Barnard Griffin because it was one of the few wineries around not charging tasting fees. Bachelorette parties are especially notorious for tasting but not buying.

The folks at Barnard Griffin have put off this move for a couple of years and conducted a fair bit of field research in nearby wine regions before moving to fees.

Unfortunately for serious wine tasters, the freeloaders have ruined a good thing for everybody else. It started in Napa, which the Bay Area treated as a cocktail party, and has moved out from there. Fortunately, the Northwest was a good decade behind the trend, and Eastern Washington was able to hold off on tasting fees for a few more years.