Appellation Trail: The Rules

1. In honor of Nikki’s 40th birthday year, we will experience 40 wine appellations in the year 2011.
2. “Experience” is defined as tasting wines from that appellation in as close proximity to those appellations as possible.
   1. We will taste wines at the winery tasting rooms or at the winery’s designated tasting location (for example, certain smaller wineries may only offer tastings through bars or wine visitors centers).
   2. If a winery produces wines from multiple appellations, each appellation tasted at the tasting room qualifies.
   3. Exception: Tasting rooms for large wineries (such as Robert Mondavi) that are producing from multiple large geographic areas don’t qualify toward the total appellation count, though they may be considered part of an “exhibition class.”
3. Monterey County wine AVAs do not count toward the total (unless we’re desperate and it’s December).
4. In case of a designated driver situation, only one party needs to taste the wine in order for it to count toward the Appellation Trail total. Both parties must be present for it to count toward the Appellation Trail total.
5. On each trip, we must get someone at one tasting room to take a photo of us with the person pouring.
   1. In an overloaded tasting room situation, we will forgo the photo.
   2. When a tasting room employee clearly does not want their photo taken, we will forgo the photo.
6. We will write about our experience, including our stays and each tasting, in this blog. Entries will go up within one week of our experience.

Note: Rules modified on 2/15/11; see our post.