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Napa and Sonoma businesses report a slow summer in Wine Country. Alison Smith-Story, co-founder of Smith Story Wine Cellars in Healdsburg, works at an empty tasting counter this summer.

An empty table and chairs for wine tasting in front of Smith Story Wine Cellars at Bacchus Landing in Healdsburg. 

It has been an unusually quiet summer in Wine Country. 

Many Napa and Sonoma County business owners have described a slowdown, attributing it to a number of factors, including the surge in international travel and inflation. The costs of gas, airfare and lodging are all on the rise. Wine tasting fees have also gotten more expensive in Napa and Sonoma counties. 

In July, “Napa was a ghost town,” said Katie Hamilton Shaffer, the owner of Feast it Forward, a wine collective, events space and TV studio near the Oxbow Public Market. Business has been way down, she said, despite the fact that she expanded her footprint last year to include music festival-inspired space The Yard. 

“With the expansion, we thought we’d be slammed on weekends and that’s not been the case,” she said. “We were looking at each other weekend after weekend, like, ‘What's going on? When is it going to start picking up?’”

Feast it Forward, a wine collective, event space and TV studio, has experienced a slow summer despite a major expansion. 

The scene is a dramatic departure from last summer when Napa wineries reported off-the-charts demand and tourists were more than willing to shell out for tastings that cost upwards of $500. 

But Visit Napa Valley President and CEO Linsey Gallagher isn’t alarmed. While Napa Valley saw fewer visitors this summer overall, people were staying longer than usual and spending more, Gallagher said. 

According to Smith Travel Research data, hotel bookings were down by 3% in July from 2021 and by 10% from 2019. In spite of that decline, July hotel revenue increased by 28% compared to 2019 due to higher room rates, Gallagher said. The average daily room rate in Napa Valley this year is $455, up from $349 in 2021 and $318 in 2020.

Rising room costs might be part of the problem. In Yountville, for instance, the average hotel room rate in June was $934, a $200 increase from last year. While rates were up, June bookings were down significantly. Yountville’s June Transient Occupancy Tax report refers to an “unheard-of low June occupancy rate of 56% compared to pre-pandemic occupancy level of 72%.”

“You used to be able to fly from Dallas Fort Worth to Santa Rosa for around $300. Those tickets now are closer to $800,” said Alison Smith-Story, the co-owner of Smith Story Wine Cellars in Healdsburg. “You put that on top of lodging and you’re out a few thousand dollars before you walk into a winery.” 

Feast it Forward is near the Oxbow Public Market in Napa, typically an area that experiences high tourist traffic. But this summer has been quiet. 

Like many Bay Area wineries, a large portion of Smith Story’s out-of-state customer base is in Texas. Those customers frequently visit the Healdsburg tasting room, but this summer, Smith-Story said she’s hosted mostly day-trippers. Similarly, Talia Hart, chief executive officer of the Healdsburg Chamber of Commerce & Visitors Bureau, said local hotels have reported a “trickle down” in bookings for multiple nights. 

In Napa, Gallagher said that the “drive market” — visitors driving in from parts of the Bay Area — was strong this summer. Despite overnight bookings being down slightly from previous years, the Napa Valley Welcome Center saw a record number of monthly visitors this July: 14,000. 

Smith-Story also correlates the lag with the wine industry-wide shift to a reservation-only model during the pandemic, which was triggered when social distancing mandates limited the number of customers a winery could see. Some wineries, like Smith Story, have reopened for walk-ins, but for the most part, the change has stuck. According to the recent Sonoma Wine Tasting Report, which compared tasting fees before and after the pandemic, 85% of Sonoma County tasting rooms are by appointment only. 

“By the time a guest arrives through our door, they’re already scheduled out,” said Smith-Story. “They’re no longer going, ‘Hey we love this Pinot Noir, who else do you suggest we visit?’ That discovery is completely gone right now.”

Harvest season, traditionally the busiest season in Wine Country, is officially under way, and businesses are starting to see encouraging signs that tourism will bounce back soon.

Lord Sandwich, Smith Story Wine Cellars' beloved mascot, in the empty indoor tasting room.

Smith-Story said reservations are looking stronger in the next 60-90 days compared to the summer months, and Shaffer has recently received some event inquiries for dates well into 2023. Gallagher noted that Napa Valley is looking “very busy for the Labor Day weekend ahead” in terms of reservations. 

Business owners say they need a rebound ahead of the traditionally slow winter. 

“It’s been a different season than any of us expected,” said Smith-Story. “We were all planning that Roaring Twenties thing to happen.”

Jess Lander is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jess.lander@sfchronicle.com Twitter:@jesslander