Updated 11/30/2017
Free wine tasting in Napa, the land of the $40 tasting fee? Surprisingly, it does exist, and free tastings aren’t confined to start-up wineries looking to introduce wine drinkers to their new wines. In fact, some very well-established and highly respected Napa wineries also provide free wine tastings.
Approximately half of the wineries that provide free tastings do so by appointment only, and the tastings usually occur with an owner or a family member and take at least thirty minutes. The remaining Napa wineries provide more of a high-volume, counter-style tasting environment.
If you’re looking to expeditiously drink copious amounts of free wine, visiting Napa wineries that provide free wine tasting is probably not the most effective way to do it. On the other hand, if you’re looking for a personal and educational wine tasting, and/or you’d rather spend your money on a bottle than a tasting fee, these wineries are for you. In that respect, they’re not much different than those wineries that apply your tasting fee to a purchase; unfortunately, the conditions for applying the fee vary drastically from winery to winery, and you could end up spending $350 just to get your $15 tasting fee waived.
Napa Valley wineries that provide complimentary wine tasting:
1. Buehler Vineyards (read winery review)
2. Heitz Wine Cellars (read winery review)
3. Homage Vineyard (read winery review)
4. Sutter Home Winery (read winery review)
5. Vincent Arroyo Winery
Click the image below to view the Napa Valley free wine tasting map.