Interesting article over at the San Francisco Chronicle on Friday about kids and winery tasting rooms, i.e. whether it’s appropriate to bring your kids to wineries you visit. Dr. Vino ran a delightful series of posts on this subject, starting wit…

The overwhelming majority of parents that come in with kids have already figured out which one is going to taste, and which one is going to parent and drive - or they spit.

Arthur and Sara, glad you seem to have sorted things out around this issue.

Kathleen, glad you found a book. Looks interesting.

Personally, I have seen this go both ways — parents with well-behaved children and parents who are oblivious to the disruption that their children are causing to the rest of the winery.

Wine country tends to provide some of the most beautiful scenery in the world and wineries are a nice place to enjoy an afternoon. It would be a shame to not allow the responsible parents to expose their children to that because some parents are unable to parent successfully or to designate a driver.

Now what is it going to take to win the contest?!?!

I applaud your responsible behavior although I do not bring my kids to winery tasting rooms. Unfortunately, it is easy to slip across the blurry boundary between responsible and irresponsible behavior while consuming alcohol. I see this routinely, unfortunately. To outlaw kids from *any* establishment with wine is a bit heavy-handed. In a restaurant, the focus is the food and wine is ancillary. In a tasting room - like in a bar - the alcoholic beverage is the focus. There is a greater incidence of people becoming intoxicated at tasting rooms than at a restaurant - and while you may not, many do.

If spit buckets are not visible I am sure that if you ask for a bucket/vat or at least a spit cup, you will get one.

A wine tasting trip for the parents is a great opportunity for the kids to bond with grandparents or aunts/uncles (or a baby sitter to earn some cash). It gives the parents a break and a chance to be adults without worrying about being a parent.

Please reread my post - the two are not connected. These are two totally separate issues that you are confusing. What we are talking about is responsible versus irresponsible behavior NOT bringing your child to a winery or not. I’ve been to numerous wineries and I’ve never gotten sloshed. I do not drive drunk. I am a parent. I want to be a parent and go to wineries. I will not get sloshed and drive with or without my child. You said wineries encourage spitting. I’ve never seen a spit bucket at a restaurant. The question still remains, isn’t it just about being a responsible adult? If you outlaw kids in wineries because there is alcohol there then be consistent and outlaw kids from ANY establishment with wine.

Please, reread the first sentence of my post and you will see the connection *and* that the two *are* connected.

The fact is that when people go out to a restaurant, they usually do not get inebriated, or at least not as severely as they do while wine “tasting” (which requires spitinng - something most visitors don’t do). Unfortunately, for many wine country visitors, wine tasting becomes a pub crawl.

Many wine country alliances are moving to a taste-for-ticket system and even cutting off or kicking out vistors. This is because people do get out of control. A no-kids policy is a responisble move on the part of wine country organizations. The last thing they want is bad press and possible liability from someone killing themselves and maybe even their kids.

I recognize that this post was a request for photos of kids and wineries. I initially intended to commont on the poll but saw no link for comments. I think that posting my comment in this section was just as appropriate.

Visiting wine country frequently and regularly, I constantly see people getting buzzed and some even smashed. A DUI with a minor on bard is an automatic Felony.

With that in mind, I absolutely support a “no minors in the tasting room” policy.

That aside, everyone’s kids are different. Some kids are mellow and you’d never know they were there, and other kids are just too disruptive.

To me, the bottom line is that a wine tasting room is an adult environment.

That could be a book that is waiting to be written! I don’t know of anything.

Gabriella’s visit to a winery with 50 five year olds could be of particular interest to you:
http://catavino.net/2006/10/31/day-trip-to-bodega-torres/

Cheers,