Wine Press Northwest recently published an article on tasting fees charged at some Washington wine tasting rooms (following up with some comments by readers in subsequent issues). Many people, understandably, expressed, er, "dissatisfaction" with paying tasting fees. I don't mind paying them, especially when they apply to a purchase. In fact, in a way, I actually like them, as I sometimes feel compelled to buy some wine from a winery that offers free tastings. Now, I won't buy any wine if I don't like any wine, but I do tend to buy at least one wine that may only be good -- but not great -- as a way of compensating the winery for offering the tastes of their wines (I don't know if this is part of the calculations that wineries make). At wineries that do charge a fee, I never feel such a compulsion.
I may be in a rather small minority here -- I also have never downloaded any copyrighted music or software without paying for it (which may put me in a very small minority) -- but I'd rather pay the fee up front and not feel compelled to buy something. Ideally, I'd like to not feel compelled to do anything, making all my choices on the basis of factors other than guilt, but until then, fees for tastings help me make the right choices for the right reasons.
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