Winery Reservation Sites are so 2010

CellarPass and VinoVisit take flight

Posted by Rich

Everybody seems to be making their grand predictions for 2010... so I guess I'll chime in with my prediction. The next big thing in wino tripping in 2010 is going to be winery reservation websites. There are several sites popping up that are hoping to give wine country trippers a place to search and book wine tastings before they leave the house. Two such sites are CellarPass.com and VinoVisit.com. Both claim to offer a searchable database of wineries, with the ability to book tours and tastings.

I spoke with reps from both sites, Tim Campbell of CellarPass.com, and Angie Feehan of VinoVisit.com, to get the full picture.

I admit, at first I didn't think it was necessary to have your entire wino trip booked from start to finish. In fact, most folks that I know are weekend trippers who go to wine country with some wineries in mind, but mostly freestyle it once they're there. For instance, you may be on your way to a planned tasting and you see another cool-looking joint. Maybe you want to stop. Or maybe you're having such a good time at a winery, (the owner showed up, and your shooting the shit, tasting wines...), that maybe you don't want to leave for an appointment you made months ago at another winery. But now you feel obligated, with a reservation, to show at the other place. I like to keep my "maybe's" open when I'm wino tripping.

But there are lots of benefits to a site like CellarPass or VinoVisit that could help wino trippers, particularly those coming from out of state, with little or no knowledge of the lay of the land. I visited Tim Campbell, Co-Founder and Director of Sales and Marketing, at the Cellarpass HQ in Napa to find out more.

What Tim and CellarPass is trying to do is to assure your wino tripping experience is as near to perfect as possible. On CellarPass, you can search for wineries based on personal preferences. For example, you can search for wineries that produce wines with your favorite varietal... or search for joints that do food and wine pairings, or wineries that give tours. "We don't want those shoulders to drop!" says Campbell. Meaning, they don't want you to show up to a winery and ask for some sparkling wine, only to find out that the winery doesn't even produce a sparkling wine. Shoulders drop. *Big sigh* What about a Bocce court? We really wanted to play Bocce! No? Dang...should have used CellarPass.

It'll also help you create a wino tripping itinerary, including help with planning your winery visits in logical geographic order, too... so that you're not booking a tasting in Napa, followed by a tasting two hours away in Sonoma.