‘Tupperwine Parties’ Bring the Tasting Room to Your Living Room

Winery representatives host informal, interactive gatherings where guests can taste wines and place orders for delivery. But there were two new friends in the mix—Sara Fowler and Abby Graham, the winemaker and events manager, respectively, for Peju Winery in the Napa Valley.

Toting stacks of marketing materials and a video player, the pair had come down from Rutherford (six hours away by car) to show us their version of an “in-home tasting,” in which wineries bring their tasting room into your house. Visitation is down in the Napa Valley and most wine regions. With the expense of travel and the difficulty of getting to the Napa Valley, it’s so much easier to get out on the road and come to them.

Nadia Kinkade, Peju Also called “Tupperwine parties,” this come-to-you format is becoming immensely popular—and a marked source of income—for wineries across California in this era of struggling wine sales and easing wine country visitation . These gatherings have become particularly prevalent in Napa and Paso Robles, with many wineries visiting customer homes as far away as Georgia and Connecticut as often as once or twice a month.

Kim Also in Paso Robles, Arnaud Fabre, who co-owns Benom Wines , kicked off these tastings about three years ago, but has really ramped them up in the last year, with visits to Kansas City, St. He recognizes that traveling to wine country might cost $5,000 for a weekend now. “If you take into consideration the food, the hotel, the visits, it adds up quite a bit,” told reporters Fabre, and that leaves less budget to buy wine.

During his tastings, he walks a line between party and seminar. “I want to be right in the middle,” he told reporters. “It becomes a very interactive tasting where pretty much all the people attending ask so many questions. It creates a very cool vibe.” A New Way to Reach Wine Lovers Versions of these tastings have been going on for many years—I went to one in Santa Barbara back in 2018 —but they really ramped up as wineries scrambled to reach shoppers during the pandemic. While some wineries set sales expectations for these tastings, Taylor thinks the amount of wine offloaded is besides the point. “There’s an intangible ROI on these,” she stated. “I don’t think I have ever really seen an unsuccessful tasting.” The experience creates an intimate bond. “We go into their home.

We meet their family and their friends and the people who are important to them. Per to We become an extension of that,”, taylor. “It’s really hard to put a dollar amount on that.” “It’s bringing it back to what Napa was all about.

You are there to interact and ask questions that you might be embarrassed to ask at a posh tastings.” Georgia Taylor, Blackbird Vineyards Given the country’s strict liquor laws—which change with every state—there are numerous legal considerations to keep in mind. Stated Tillman from Alta Colina, “I could take a Square payment on the moon, but I can’t hand you your wine.” Returning to ‘What Napa Was All About’ Red tape aside, Taylor sees the in-home tasting as a return to the roots of it all. “It’s bringing it back to what Napa was all about,” she explained. “It’s not like going to church.

You are there to interact and ask questions that you might be embarrassed to ask at a posh tasting.” When Tillman approached club member Bill Hughes in Phoenix to see if he’d like to host one of her Tupperwine parties, he agreed immediately. He invited 30 people, acquired empanadas, and whipped up a pork tenderloin-in-barbecue sauce dish that went so well with the winery’s Mourvedre blend that he stated it “synced people into a purchasing frenzy.” Illustration by Chris W.

Kim A few attendees signed up for the club themselves, and other friends have since visited the Paso Robles tasting room. “Once people get exposed to something like this, you can make believers out of them,” told reporters Hughes. “People are asking us when we’re gonna do it again. I’m sure we will.” My friends agreed it was a fun way to spend a Thursday evening, providing a little more education to an otherwise familiar affair. “The business model is a great idea from the customer perspective, especially for those people looking for a creative idea for hosting a gathering,” stated my friend David Zell.

If you can’t bring Americans to the winery, bring the tasting room to them .