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May 11, 2023

Gamling & McDuck winery is offering free wine tastings for a month

Winemaker Adam McClary, left, talks with customers at the Gamling & McDuck

Winemaker Adam McClary, left, talks with customers at the Gamling & McDuck tasting room in Napa. For the month of June, McClary is offering free tastings to everyone.

Winery tasting fees in Napa Valley have risen rapidly in recent years — a phenomenon we’ve written about so much that you’re probably sick of reading about it. So I was very intrigued to learn that one Napa winery is going in the opposite direction: offering free tastings to everyone for the month of June.

The decision to waive fees at Gamling & McDuck is primarily a way to celebrate the downtown Napa tasting room's 5-year anniversary, said owner Adam McClary. But it's also a response to McClary's frustration "with how the climate in Napa has changed," he said. He dislikes the fact that wine tastings have turned into "experiences."

McClary misses "the golden age of popping into that dusty place down the road," he said, a time when all wine tastings in Napa were free, or close to it. Back then — we’re talking decades ago — wineries weren't offering caviar pairings, vineyard yoga or blend-your-own-wine workshops, the sorts of "experiences" that often drive today's $100+ visitation fees. The purpose of a wine tasting in McClary's golden age, rather, was simple: Let people sample the wine so they could decide whether or not to buy it.

These days, McClary said, buying wine is a mere afterthought for many visitors. They’re here for the caviar pairings.

Meanwhile, tasting fees have become inextricably tied to the perceived value of the wine, in McClary's view. When Gamling & McDuck's tasting room opened in 2018, he charged $25 for a tasting. All his peers told him that was too cheap. "I could see people come in and think the wines were worth less," he said. Eventually he relented, raising the fee to a still-very-reasonable $35.

Competing with other tasting rooms in this environment "just becomes an ever-escalating game of ‘what can I offer you,’" McClary said. "The wine seems to be the last thing on anybody's mind."

So he decided to tap out of the game, at least temporarily. This sort of punk-rock move is on brand for Gamling & McDuck, which has always been unconventional among Napa wineries. It doesn't produce any Cabernet Sauvignon, focusing instead on the two main grapes of France's Loire Valley, Cabernet Franc and Chenin Blanc. The tasting room features an air hockey table, original comic book sketches on the walls and movies playing on a projector.

McClary didn't come up with the idea of free tastings on his own. He was inspired by Yountville's Jessup Cellars, which announced it would waive tasting fees for the month of April to celebrate its 20th anniversary. When the tasting room first opened, it didn't charge anything, "so this is a throwback to that," said Jessup general manager Tracy McArdle.

Jessup's free-tasting experiment was so successful that it's extended it through the end of June.

"We’ve had an absolutely amazing response," said McArdle. Jessup is waiving the fee for both its standard $30 tasting and its $60 option, which comes with a cheese pairing. Guests seem grateful and excited for the freebies, McArdle said — and it's penciling out. "In terms of wine purchasing, we saw an increase in our dollar per taster, and also in our (wine club) conversions."

McClary is hoping for a similar outcome: that people will buy more wine to take home, balancing out the loss in tasting fee revenue. Even if they don't, he thinks he can take the hit; it's just a month. He doubts he’ll be able to maintain permanent free tastings. If June goes well, however, he’ll consider the possibility of doing it for a month every year.

"I hope more wineries will follow," McClary said. "I think it would be charming."

Gamling & McDuck. 1420 2nd St., Napa. Open 11 a.m.-5p.m. Thursday-Sunday for walk-ins and 11 a.m.-5 p.m. daily by reservation. 707-312-2574 or gamlingandmcduck.com

Jessup Cellars. 6740 Washington St., Yountville. Open 10 a.m.-6 p.m. daily. Reservations recommended; walk-ins accommodated when possible. 707-944-5620 or jessupcellars.com