The gift shop is at the exit

September 24th, 2013 | Rias Baixas

Bus TourA while ago I wrote about the Ruta do Vino and the fact that we have opted out. The Wine Route is a more or less a map of our denomination that advises tourists which Bodegas are actively open to visits. As I mentioned when I wrote about this before the reason we have decided not to participate is that we simply don’t have the manpower to accommodate wine tourism. If we said “yes” then we could easily spend the whole of our summer just giving guided tours of the cellar and not conducting any real business.

In some countries such as Australia and the United States enotourism can actually make a healthy contribution to the sales of a winery, but that rather depends on the size of the business and the resources that they have available. Larger wineries will have tour guides, tasting rooms and the inevitable shop, where they not only sell wine, but other wine related trinkets and souvenirs. All this can generate a significant income when done properly.

In our own region cellar door business is not very common, and it is only the very largest cellars and co-operatives that are set up properly for tourism. However, there is an initiative coming up that will hopefully open a few more doors for some cellars. In the coming weeks our D.O. have organised a ‘Wine Bus’ that will follow the Rias Baixas wine route visiting three cellars a day. The bus ride will cost participants a mere 12 Euros each, which seems like pretty good value to me, assuming that the Bodegas will include a small tasting in the tour.

I suppose the only downside is the timing, as the tours start this month and continue until the end of October – this coincides perfectly with the 2013 harvest. As I mentioned before at Castro Martin we do not have the resources to accommodate tours or tour buses, and the thought that 50 curious visitors might turn up at our door on a busy harvest day would simply fill me with terror!

Bus TourA while ago I wrote about the Ruta do Vino and the fact that we have opted out. The Wine Route is a more or less a map of our denomination that advises tourists which Bodegas are actively open to visits. As I mentioned when I wrote about this before the reason we have decided not to participate is that we simply don’t have the manpower to accommodate wine tourism. If we said “yes” then we could easily spend the whole of our summer just giving guided tours of the cellar and not conducting any real business.

In some countries such as Australia and the United States enotourism can actually make a healthy contribution to the sales of a winery, but that rather depends on the size of the business and the resources that they have available. Larger wineries will have tour guides, tasting rooms and the inevitable shop, where they not only sell wine, but other wine related trinkets and souvenirs. All this can generate a significant income when done properly.

In our own region cellar door business is not very common, and it is only the very largest cellars and co-operatives that are set up properly for tourism. However, there is an initiative coming up that will hopefully open a few more doors for some cellars. In the coming weeks our D.O. have organised a ‘Wine Bus’ that will follow the Rias Baixas wine route visiting three cellars a day. The bus ride will cost participants a mere 12 Euros each, which seems like pretty good value to me, assuming that the Bodegas will include a small tasting in the tour.

I suppose the only downside is the timing, as the tours start this month and continue until the end of October – this coincides perfectly with the 2013 harvest. As I mentioned before at Castro Martin we do not have the resources to accommodate tours or tour buses, and the thought that 50 curious visitors might turn up at our door on a busy harvest day would simply fill me with terror!

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