Do Participating Wineries Have To Offer Tastings?

Yes, the idea of a Passport is to experience your Wines to help you sell your Wine. Please read Why Offer Tastings to learn about the benefits of offering a complimentary tasting.

From a Business Perspective, we want to ensure the Passport meets or exceeds the expectation of both Passport holders and the participating Wineries. Therefore the marketing plan is leveraging and advertising the "Complimentary Tasting." This business plan simplifies the Application, Marketing, and Management of the program.

Technically, if we allow a Winery to substitute a tasting for another item, the applications would become much more complex to track who is offering what as an incentive, requiring more expenses and resources to manage the Passport Program.

From a legal perspective, we need to follow the principal statutes regulating advertising such as;

• The FTC Act, prohibits 'unfair or deceptive acts or practices;
• The Lanham Act, which is the federal false advertising statute; and.
• The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

Please be advised; that if a Participating Winery fails to provide the Passport Holder with a complimentary tasting as advertised, that could put the Program Manager and the Winery at risk of legal actions from the Passport Holder. Not to mention a negative perception of the Passport Program, the Winery itself, and the Winery that sold the Passport.