Some of you who know me personally know that I write a lot about travel, and about credit cards and points program in particular. While that usually equates to lots of articles about airline award tickets and free hotel stays, there is one wine-related credit-card benefit I have come across that I wanted to share with you.
Your next tasting room visit could be free if you have the right credit card!
Among the types of Visa cards out there are Visa Signature cards. It’s kind of like a high-end sub-category of Visa with more benefits than a basic Visa card. Visa designates some of its most popular cards as Visa Signatures including the Sapphire Preferred, Hyatt and Marriott cards from Chase, the Capital One Venture card, Bank of America’s Alaska Airlines credit card, and the Citi Hilton HHonors Reserve among many others. Chances are, you already carry one or two in your wallet.
Well, next time you head up to Sonoma, be sure you have your card with you because among its other perks, it’ll get you free tastings and more at around 60 winery members of the Sonoma County Vintners association.
Chateau St. Jean is among the participating wineries. Photo courtesy of Chateau St. Jean.
You can find out more here, but the long and short of it is, when you visit one of the participating wineries and show them your card, you will get two complimentary tastings per cardholder and might also be offered discounts (in my experience, they’re around 10%-20%) on wine and wine-related purchases during your visit as well as discounted reserve tastings and food-wine pairings when you pay with your Visa Signature.
The discounts and benefits vary by winery, so if you know where you’re going, you might want to call ahead of time to sort out your visits and your budget. Plus, if you don’t want to drive yourself around – and after all those tastings, it’s not a bad idea to get a driver – you will also receive a 15% discount off published rates from Pure Luxury Transportation.
You can even get a discount on transportation if you don’t want to drive yourself. Photo courtesy of Pure Luxury Transportation.
You can find the full list of participating wineries here, but there are some big names you’re bound to know and some offbeat ones you might want to try. Among those you’re likely to recognize are Alexander Valley Vineyards, Chateau St. Jean, Francis Ford Coppola Winery and Simi. While on the smaller side, I’d highly recommend visits to Davis Family Vineyards and Inman Family Wines.
The dozens of wineries that participate are located all over Sonoma, from Sonoma Mountain and Petaluma in the south to the Alexander and Dry Creek Valleys in the north, so there are plenty of free wine tastings in your future!
Have you taken advantage of this credit card benefit? Tweet me about your experience @clustercrush!
