Welcome to the Napa Valley. Not you, Bubba.

Long a destination for visitors wanting to picnic in California's idyllic Wine Country and then cap the day off with a little winery hopping, the bucolic region of rolling vineyards, romantic estates and boutique wineries saw 4 million tourists in 2005.

But today, many vintners are making it clear: There is no more room at the inn for the Bermuda shorts crowd who drive from tasting room to tasting room with Aunt Betty and belly up to the bar for another swig of Sauvignon Blanc. Now, some wineries charge as much as $25 for tastings, offer pricey VIP packages and, in many cases, require appointments and credit card numbers for visits. No-shows get charged if they fail to cancel 48 hours in advance.

Valet parking, intimate tours, wine tasting with famous cheesemongers and elaborately set tables can all be part of the experience _ for a price.

"There was a time that the tastings were free because wineries were just so glad that people were taking an interest," said Larry Stone, the general manager of Rubicon Estate in Rutherford, a winery known for its Cabernet Sauvignon-dominant wine. "Then wine got very popular. Now, we're trying to be creative about how to attract the real wine enthusiasts and not the partygoers."

It was about 10 years ago that some of the wineries began charging a nominal fee for pourings. These days, it's hard to find a winery in Napa that doesn't charge, and the custom is catching on in Sonoma, considered the Wine Country's casual cousin. But what is decidedly new is the trend toward selling sophistication _ a lifestyle of expensive wines, fine foods and luxury service.

In the last 20 years, American consumers have more than doubled the amount of money they spend on wine, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which tracks household expenditures. During that time the number of bonded wineries in the U.S. tripled. In 2004, the last year for which figures are available, Americans bought $23.2 billion worth of wine _ $15 billion of which was from California _ an increase of 4 percent from the previous year, according to the Wine Institute in San Francisco, a lobbying group for the industry.

Experts predict that the 2005 figures will be up 5 to 9 percent, said Barbara Insel of MKF Research in St. Helena.

Although Napa Valley produces just 4 percent of the state's wine, it is the No. 1 Wine Country destination, and it sells some of the country's priciest wines.

For that reason, wineries just can't afford to pour for free any more, said Terry Hall, a spokesman for Napa Valley Vintners, a professional association, adding that $5 to $10 tastings can still be found.

Fewer than half of the valley's 391 wineries even have tasting rooms, Hall said. And the county has an ordinance that limits the number of wineries with open-door policies, as a matter of crowd control. For those wineries, entry is by appointment only.

But even the wineries that are allowed to have walk-ins like the exclusive feel of reservations.

With the soaring popularity of wine, proprietors of Napa Valley's tasting rooms believe they can be more discriminating about who visits their wineries. They say they want people who are ardent about the wine, so they're weeding out the folks who are looking for the freebies and, at the same time, vying for the consumers who will be loyal to their product. And they're doing it by selling an "experience."

"For a long time wineries just looked at their tasting rooms as a form of hospitality and not as profit centers that could be used for branding. But that is changing," said Nancy Light, a spokeswoman for the Wine Institute.

Insel agreed, saying, "Research is showing that people will buy more wine if they have to pay for it. It is also showing that people are looking for a special experience."

So vintners are rising to the occasion.

Darioush, a winery fashioned to look like the Persepolis palace in ancient Iran, towers over rows of vineyards on the Silverado Trail in Napa. Giant stone pillars topped with lions flank the walkway into the tasting room. The furnishings are opulent, the fireplace is grand, gurgling fountains and luxurious accessories are everywhere you turn. All that's missing is the voice of Robin Leach, host of "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous."

"We've designed our winery so that it's more than a tasting room," said Dan de Polo, president of Darioush. "We wanted it to be like a small hotel lobby."

For $15, a visitor can sample four wines. For $35 and an appointment, there are private tastings with cheese pairings. Once a week and by prior arrangement, the winery offers an "artisan wine and cheese intensive" for $65 per person. The event is hosted by the owners of Marin County's Cowgirl Creamery.

De Polo said the winery doesn't make money off the tastings, but the fees do help offset the cost.

"We now have an opportunity to do more than just pour the wine and say, 'What do you want to buy?' " de Polo said. "We can give visitors more of an authentic experience. And there is a large part of the population who wants individual attention."

For those people, a Darioush host is on hand to explain the history of the winery, which opened in 2004 _ the dream of Darioush Khaledi, a Los Angeles grocery store magnate, who left Iran before the 1979 revolution. The visitor also gets a spiel about the wine and how it's stored, takes a short tour and then is ushered into a private room for wine and cheese.

De Polo said the winery is recommended to many of its guests by high-end hotels like the Four Seasons in San Francisco and Auberge du Soleil in Rutherford.

"These people are spending $500 to $700 a night for a room," he said. In other words, these aren't the types to be content with a Ritz cracker and a piece of American cheese.

At Rubicon Estate, formerly Niebaum-Coppola, busloads of visitors _ sometimes several thousand people a day _ descend on the Rutherford winery. Many come for a taste of Hollywood rather than a taste of wine, hoping to catch a glimpse of the estate's famous proprietor, film director Francis Ford Coppola. Or they want at least to see two chateau floors jammed with movie memorabilia _ Coppola's Oscars, the score from the "The Godfather" and photographs of the director and his celebrity family members, including his daughter, Sofia, and nephew, Nicolas Cage.

Last month, Coppola and his staff decided it was time to take the winery in a different direction. They began charging a $25 fee for each visitor to get onto the property. The cost of admission also includes a basic tour and five tastings, including a sample of the signature $110-a-bottle Rubicon Estate wine.

A gatekeeper advises patrons of the charge before they have a chance to step foot on the grounds. If they decide to stay, a valet parks their car and a host hands them a "passport," a small notebook that is stamped every time a purchase is made. The stamps are tallied up at one of three French kiosks at the estate's exit, where the visitor pays.

In addition to the $25 fee, there are private tastings available with appointments, as well as five special tours that range from $15 to $45 per person and give visitors enough information on the winery and the wines it produces to sound knowledgeable at a cocktail party.

But for Rubicon, the move to do away with easy access is not just about money and marketing.

"For us, a lot of it was a crowd-control issue," said Rubicon's Stone, who said that in addition to the rubberneckers, there were a fair amount of party revelers visiting the estate.

"They were drinking, but not spitting. It wasn't fair to our neighbors. These people were getting on the roads and driving from one winery to the next."

So Rubicon's strategy is to move the Hollywood museum to its new digs in Sonoma County, where Coppola bought Chateau Souverain in Geyserville. At the new site, he plans to take over the existing restaurant and produce his value-priced Diamond Collection he sells at stores like Trader Joe's and Safeway.

Todd Stichler, a recent visitor to Rutherford with his wife, Stephanie, and two other couples from San Diego County, said they've been coming to Napa Valley for years and have noticed the changes.

"You have to have money to come here, for sure," said the construction company CEO. "It's no longer accessible to everyone."

The Stichlers and their friends took a chauffeured limousine from their hotels in San Francisco to taste wine in the valley. They shelled out $55 each for tastings at the Swanson Vineyards chateau, which according to its Web site is "fashioned after a Parisian salon of the mid-1800s, where a handful of diverse and fascinating callers were graciously entertained with libations and sinful chocolates."

The winery advertises the experience as "decadence with a wink" and says, "We wanted each guest to feel as though they were coming to a little party held in their honor."

Swanson doesn't even put its name on the gate _ just an address at the driveway and a sign that reads, "Open by Appointment."

The three couples oohed and aahed as they sat at a finely appointed dining table, complete with Riedel crystal stemware and a French candelabra, swirling their Pinot Grigio and sipping it with aged Gruyere cheese. A platter of caviar served on crispy potato chips was passed around the table.

"This is so perfect for the pool," one of the women gushed about the wine.

One of the couples volunteered that they were already members of Swanson's Harvey wine club, which for a $190 annual fee covers the cost of 12 bottles shipped to their home.

"It's a no-brainer," Jeff Skelly told the others who, after the tasting, joined the club, too.

Loraine Fowlow, an architecture professor at the University of Calgary in Alberta and co-author of "Wine by Design," said the San Diegans exemplify the link between tourism and "the whole lifestyle interest."

"I think that this is a generation that was so busy accomplishing in their professional life that they learned that there was something missing in the quality of their personal life," she said.

So now, they are making up for lost time by buying high-end luxury items, including fine wine and food. She attributes the influence of Martha Stewart, the Food and Fine Living networks, and Home and Garden Television for the movement.

The Napa Valley, with its gourmet restaurants, specialty shops and world-famous wines, certainly helps create a feeling of that sumptuous lifestyle.

"It's not just the French Laundry anymore," acknowledged Darioush's de Polo about the renowned restaurant. "It's Dean & Deluca (a specialty food store). It's dozens of other world-class restaurants. It's like being in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles. It's the golden age to be a wine enthusiast."

 

(E-mail Stacy Finz at sfinz(at)sfchronicle.com.)

 

 

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.shns.com.)