Know Your (Kids’) Limits – More on Winery Visits
We all know our own limits when it comes to tasting and drinking wine. And that’s obviously very important. It’s just as important, however, to know your kids’ limits as well. No, of course I don’t mean their limits with respect to tasting wine. I mean their limits with respect to how many wineries they’ll let you get away with dragging them to.
As I recommended in my earlier post on visiting wine country with kids, it is best to limit the number of winery visits per day to one or two when you have the kids in tow. Too many wineries and they’ll get bored and cranky, exponentially affecting your wine tasting experience in the negative. A nice glass of a perfectly chilled viognier or a single estate cab just isn’t as tasty when you have kids hanging on your legs and whining in your ears. Yes, I speak from experience!
Know your kids limits and schedule other activities to keep them interested and happy because nothing mars a good tasting like cranky kids.
Not only is it a good idea to limit the number of wineries per day, but it is also wise to limit the number of consecutive days you visit wineries. Case in Point: Last summer we were in the Languedoc wine region for two weeks. We only visited one winery per morning then ate lunch in a local town. Following lunch each day we returned to the house we had rented and spent the afternoon playing in the pool with our daughter, who was then four and a half.
Playing in the vineyards while visiting a winery in the Languedoc region of France.
We figured this was a great compromise in that we all were getting to do what we wanted and one winery a day didn’t seem too aggressive. But, on the drive back to the house from our fourth winery visit in as many mornings our daughter said from the back seat, “So, I think we should take a break from wine tasting for a few days.” Being the wonderful, compromising parents that we are, we naturally acquiesced…. Truth be told, it was Friday and we had no wine tasting appointments over the weekend (whew!).
Touring the Canal du Midi on an old-fashioned barge while taking a “day off” from wine tasting.
Seriously, though, we realized that while she was being a great sport, we had pushed the limits and she needed a break. The following week we skipped winery visits on a couple of days and instead toured a paper mill in Brousses-et-Villaret, took a barge ride on the Canal du Midi, and visited the old city of Carcassonne.
Visiting the castle gardens in Carcassonne, France during another winery “day off.”
It was great fun for all! And, we still got to taste wine – albeit poolside back at the house with local wines purchased from a wine shop. Admittedly, not a terrible wine tasting experience.
