Mocktails at Clif Family Winery in St. Helena.
Most visitors to California wine country are there to do just one thing: drink wine. But that’s starting to change.
U.S. consumers are increasingly swapping traditional drinks for nonalcoholic versions, and the sober travel industry is booming. In response, cocktail bars, restaurants and even wineries in regions like Napa and Sonoma are welcoming a new type of tourist – the sober-curious kind.
While alcohol-free bars and tastings have been popping up in major U.S. cities for years, this is a new phenomenon in wine country, and one that is likely to gain momentum in the coming years.
You can’t blame wineries for being concerned about the growing popularity of alcohol-free drinks. Wine is their livelihood, after all. But one local vintner is embracing the trend.
Linzi Gay is president at Clif Family Winery in St. Helena.
” Yes, wine is the pinnacle of what we do and at the epicenter of what we do, but it is not necessarily the only thing that’s on offer here in the Napa Valley,” Gay said. “And with more people in kind of this sober curious world that we’re now living in, I think having those options is really a benefit for all of us.”