Wine Traveler - Pop the Cork!

Wherever I go – farm or cottage wineries, estates or chateaux, corporate wineries or mom-and-pop operations, the quaint and the posh, all I want is good value for my money. I expect to learn more about a given winery and its portfolio of wines, a chance for leisure in a setting of noteworthy character, prices in line with the decor, and an efficient, congenial, but not patronizing staff doing its best to assure return business. That's really not much to ask. Yet, many wineries I visit fail to meet these basic criteria.
It is understood that there is a growing interest in wine tourism throughout North America. Wine tourists are not solely interested in the ‘wine’ component of visiting wine regions across the continent. More and more, tourists are flocking to wine estates and chateaux for the rural experience and the breathtaking scenery. Not only are tourists given opportunities to see where the wines are grown and vinified, and meet the people who make them, but also to gain access to limited-release and back vintage wines, which are only available at the wineries themselves. Many wineries offer special events and unique experiences, such as vineyard dining, lodgings in historical buildings, and museum and art collections. Some wineries are known to have such amenities as their own onsite spas, golf courses, theatres and adventure tourism outfitters. With the wineries, and the regions in which they are situated, becoming very innovative and strategic in their approaches to capturing tourist dollars, I feel quite adamantly that there is a need for the wineries and wine regions on the whole to be critically reviewed on behalf of wine tourists. With that in mind it has been my intention to devise an objective rating system that is to be used for critiquing the overall tourist experience received at individual wineries and within wine regions in their entirety.