Yesterday I was privileged to be invited along on a wine vineyard tour road trip with Woodinville winemaker Lisa Warr-King Packer and her team from Warr-King Wines. (Here she is with vineyard manager Ed Kelly at Stillwater Creek Vineyard in Royal City, Washington).
We’ve been blogging here at Woodinville Wine Blog for over two and a half years, and this is the first time we’ve been asked to come along on a vineyard tour. Finally! We were thrilled. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, so was glad for my wine industry friend Joanna’s tips on what to bring: A hat, a water bottle, sunglasses, good shoes, etc.
We would meet early in the morning (5:30 am! Ugh!) at the Woodinville tasting room and caravan over to the vineyards in Eastern Washington. We were going to inspect the progress of Lisa’s wine grapes and get some face time with the growers and vineyard managers. We would do a day trip and return late in the evening.
I packed the night before our trip, knowing there was no way I would remember everything I needed at 4 am in the morning.
Equipment packing list:
- Photography camera and multiple lenses for a variety of shooting situations (people closeups, vineyard landscape, far off mountains, grape cluster closeups, vineyard dog photos (sport mode, am I right?)
- Charged spare battery for each camera, and camera charger if possible
- Phones, phone chargers for car, phone chargers for wall outlet, and power cell banks for phones
- Extra phone car charger for your phone (or a universal charger) so you can take pity on someone else in the car who forgot theirs; that way they won’t monopolize your charger either!
- Laptop as needed (you probably won’t have time to whip it out)
- Selfie stick (a necessary evil) and any tripods or bounce boards as needed
- Video camera and its charger and charged backup battery
- Memory cards with room for images/videos on them, and backup extra memory cards
- Lens cleaning cloths – vineyards are dusty!
- Pen and notepad – Vineyards are bright and sunny, and you might not be able to see your phone screen well enough to take notes on your phone
- Model release forms (with clipboard and pens) as needed
- Bonus tip – Vineyard dog photos are very popular on Instagram. Bring a small squeaky toy that fits in your pocket, and use it to get the vineyard dog to look up at you!
Personal packing list:
- Water bottle or two – Even though you might stop at roadside gas stations or rest stops along the way, there won’t be much time once you get to the vineyards to walk around looking for the office or outbuildings to refill your water bottle.
- Good shoes or boots (closed toe) – you’ll be walking on rocky terrain, stepping on sharp weeds, around heavy equipment, etc.
- Sunglasses – a must!
- Hat, hair brush/comb and hair ties (as applicable) Vineyards are hot and can be windy
- Bag to carry all of this in – keep in mind other people in your car might have big bags too – how much room is there in the trunk and car for everyone’s gear?
- Sunscreen and lip balm and deodorant – you’ll need to re-apply these a couple of times, especially the lip balm. Feminine hygiene supplies, wet wipes and Kleenex are a good idea too. Also, depending on what part of the country you’ll be touring vineyards in, you might want insect repellent along as well.
- Medication – headache and diarrhea medication because you never know..
- Snacks – Eat breakfast before you go, grab caffeine along the way, and bring PLENTY of snacks. There likely won’t be time, or anywhere to stop, for lunch or food, outside of gas stations. You’ll be on the road for hours and will probably eat up all your snacks long before dinner.
- A small makeup bag for refreshing your lipstick, mascara, eyeliner, powder and possibly foundation, for those of you who are going to be on camera and care to wear makeup. (For the rest of you, skip it and be more comfy!) I didn’t feel the need to bring my entire big makeup bag along, so brought just a few things for touchups. I definitely got sweaty and hot with melty makeup and needed to refresh my face after each vineyard.
- A change of clothing to freshen up in the restaurant at the end of the day – then you don’t have to ride home all sweaty in the car.
- Second outfit (clothes, hat, shoes?) if you are being photographed and want your shoots to look different for spacing them out
You might be bouncing around in a jeep, a pickup, a golf cart, an ATV/UTV or who knows what other kind of vehicle used to ferry people around vineyards and rocky terrain. These wise ladies from the Warr-King team are wearing hats, jeans and proper footwear. Their social media director, Anna, is wisely wearing a Warr-King t-shirt to reinforce the brand hundreds of miles away from home base – great thinking!
What can I say, I am a lady who prefers to wear dresses. I don’t care if I looked silly in a sundress in the vineyard, surrounded by people in jeans and cowboy boots. I was comfortable, cool, had closed toe (washable!) shoes with memory foam (and sparkles). I knew I’d be photographed in photos, videoed for IGTV and YouTube.. and I’d rather not be photographed in pants! I admit my long dress made it annoying (and a bit dangerous) when climbing in and out of the bed of pickup trucks in the vineyards.
This is early morning at Quintessence Vineyard near Red Mountain.
Stuff I brought that I didn’t need:
My Kindle. Feel free to laugh – I thought I might have time to read in the car. No! We talked the whole time, about wine, our lives, local Woodinville wine industry gossip, brainstorming ideas, networking, travel, and past wine adventures. My Kindle was totally unneeded, and was just one more electronic item for me to mentally keep track of at the end of the day.
A second back up dress in case I needed to change or wanted to wear something different in a third or fourth video or set of photos. There really wasn’t time to run around changing – we were on a pretty tight driving schedule to make it to the vineyards so we wouldn’t keep the vineyard managers waiting to go home at the end of their day, and so we ourselves could possibly get home by 9 pm.
A floppy hat – Cute in pics, but kept flying off in the wind, and got squished in my messenger bag. I’ll leave it at home next time and bring a much more practical cap to keep the hot sun off my head – I will whip it off before any photos or videos are taken of me.
What things have I forgotten to recommend you bring along on a wine blogger vineyard tour? Let me know in the comments below!
-Carrie
