Issue 21 · October 14, 2026 Stories · Tasting Room Did You Make a Reservation? On the back roads between Reno and San Francisco, more gates say by appointment only The drive from Reno to San Francisco is supposed to take about four hours, and I almost never do it in four hours. Some days I come down Interstate 80 through the Placer County foothills, and some days I go the long way on California Highway 88 past Kirkwood and down into Amador County. Either way, once I'm out of the mountains I...
5 days ago • 3 min read
Two tasting rooms in one day. One had a screen at the door. The other had a woman who asked where I'd driven from. Issue #20 · Wednesday, October 7, 2026 New here? Vianarra is a weekly newsletter on hospitality storytelling, written for winery owners, tasting room managers, hoteliers, innkeepers, and restaurateurs. Each issue starts with a scene from a tasting room, a front desk, or a dining room and works out what it shows about how guests are welcomed. I write it after more than a decade as...
12 days ago • 12 min read
Issue 1 | October 2, 2026 Every other Friday Every issue is a story about wine, from wherever in the world it starts The 1999 Merryvale Mike carried in to Mo's by the River. Issue one The First Bottle Is for Friends A wine group rebuilt in Reno, a garage wine bar on Jones Street, and a Dry Creek winery named for friendship. By Patrick R. Dunn On a Friday night this summer, the patio at Mo's by the River in Reno was starting to cool as the sun dropped behind the houses on Jones Street, and...
17 days ago • 13 min read
Vianarra · Issue #19 · September 30, 2026 The Man Hosing Out the Bins They came in a little after two on a Saturday in late September, the part of the year when flatbeds stacked with bins of picked fruit share the two-lane roads with rental cars and every winery on the road smells faintly of fruit turning into wine. It was their third stop of the day, and they had reached the point where the flights and the friendly faces behind the counters start to run together, and they had nearly driven...
19 days ago • 8 min read
VIANARRA Issue #18 · September 23, 2026 The story found along the way Please Visit Our Website By Patrick R. Dunn What came in the mail I joined a new wine club recently. The welcome email arrived the same day. It said I was receiving it because I had just become a member, gave the name of my membership level, and asked me to visit the winery's website. It was signed by the corporation. That was the welcome. I belong to more clubs than I should, and this season I went back through what they...
26 days ago • 4 min read
A hospitality storytelling newsletter for winery owners, winemakers, tasting room managers, boutique hotels, inns, and independent restaurants, about the story a property already has. The owner was at the bar Issue #17 · Wednesday, September 16, 2026 Bacigalupi 65th Anniversary Goddard Ranch Pinot Noir, carried in to La Famiglia, Reno. Somewhere in the first half hour our server mentioned that the owner was from Maine, which in Reno is not a small piece of information. I grew up in West...
about 1 month ago • 9 min read
A hospitality storytelling newsletter for winery owners, winemakers, tasting room managers, boutique hotels, inns, and independent restaurants, about the story a property already has. The staffing decision made in August Issue #16 · Wednesday, September 9, 2026 Kayla at Scott Harvey Winery, Shenandoah Valley, on a club pickup day over Labor Day weekend. The third stop was five minutes from the second and we didn't arrive cold. We came in with two people we'd just spent an afternoon with, who...
about 1 month ago • 6 min read
Vianarra A hospitality storytelling newsletter for winery owners, winemakers, tasting room managers, boutique hotels, inns, and independent restaurants, about the story a property already has. Nobody in Matera Has Heard of Freeman Tilden Issue #15 · Wednesday, September 2, 2026 A hospitality storytelling newsletter for winery owners, winemakers, tasting room managers, boutique hotels, inns, and independent restaurants, working with owners and their teams on the story a property already has. A...
about 2 months ago • 7 min read
Vianarra The Best Host I Met Works for a School District Issue #14 · Wednesday, August 26, 2026 The vineyard outside the tasting room. He told me the soil had to be trucked in. He pours on weekends. During the week he works for a school district, and there is nothing in his background that would put him near the top of a stack of applications for a tasting room floor. I do not know how he came to be standing behind that tasting room counter. Of everyone I met over two days in six tasting...
about 2 months ago • 4 min read