WineLovers Discussion Group

I was just browsing one of the many gratis wine country magazines and saw an announcement for a Wine Tasting 101 being offered for $30.00 by the administration of a larger winegrowing community here in California. Despite some goofy English in the ad, the course looks relatively good. The only catch is that all participants are required to bring not just one but six wine glasses.

Is that something you folks have run across? I've never been asked to bring my own glasses to a tasting or a class. Have I been leading a sheltered life? (I know some folks just always have to schlepp their Riedels along in their customized, styrofoam-lined JanSport backpacks, but that's a different story.)

It just seemed odd to me.

I would have thought the people running the course would have supplied the glasses. In the courses I used to teach, I gave everyone 3 glasses so there could be some comparative tasting, but it ensured that everyone had the same type of glass. For one of the lessons, however, when the topic was glassware, I asked the students to being along the glass they usually drink wine out of at home, and the range of glassware that turned up was always very diverse.

As far as bringing own glasses to a tasting, I belong to a wine club that has monthly tastings and everyone brings six glasses along, but it is a condition of membership that they buy a boxed set of six glasses from the club for this purpose. The 'glass master' has extra set of glasses for guests.

Gary Barlettano wrote:It just seemed odd to me.

Seems odd to me, too, Gary. And it seems more for the convenience and cost-saving of the program organizers than for the participants.

Does it look otherwise like a reputable operation? Are they going to offer to sell you wine at the end of the day?

Was asked to bring 9 glasses to a tasting group in Norwich. Considering this would have meant us taking 18 glasses to cater for the two of us, we declined the invite.

maybe 2 per person allows the opportunity to compare against an earlier wine, but anything above tends to be a logistical nightmare unless it's a formal tasting where you have a bench to yourself.

Robin Garr wrote:Does it look otherwise like a reputable operation? Are they going to offer to sell you wine at the end of the day?

I don't know, Robin. They appear to be a bunch of left-wing, fringe-dwellers. You can visit their website: City of Lodi, Division of Arts & Culture.

Actually, Lodi has quite a few interesting events involving wine and the arts. You can check out the events calendar.

Gary Barlettano wrote:They appear to be a bunch of left-wing, fringe-dwellers.

Ohboy! My kind of people! Kum-ba-yah, man! Groovy ...

No, seriously, thanks, Gary. I misread your initial post and thought if it was a profit-making operation, asking folks to bring their own glassware seemed a little cheeky.

Robin Garr wrote:

Gary Barlettano wrote:They appear to be a bunch of left-wing, fringe-dwellers.

Ohboy! My kind of people! Kum-ba-yah, man! Groovy ...

No, seriously, thanks, Gary. I misread your initial post and thought if it was a profit-making operation, asking folks to bring their own glassware seemed a little cheeky.

Far out, dude ...

Well, I don't think you're wrong. I'm sure the Lodi Wine and Visitor Center has a few glasses to spare and share.

In general, however, I find that a lot of the marketing tools, e.g. tastings, classes, festivals, etc. and so on, have stopped being tools. They have become a revenue-generating functions in and of themselves.