I like to ask what other kinds of wines they enjoy drinking
Ask them what % of their wines they don’t sell in a given year. And how is that answer different from 5, 10 years ago?
And whose wines are their models – whose wines would they like some day to be similar to?
I typically ask when they expect their wines to go on sale…invariably they always say NEVER
Exactly.
Unless you plan on speaking in a language that you don’t know well, the idea of planning questions strikes me as awfully odd/awkward.
Frequently, whatever conversation I may have has nothing even to do with wine! The technical questions get terribly boring quite quickly.
That said, the one question I do try to ask, as long as I am jotting notes, is, How long has the bottle been open?
…from a special boxed appellation held under the counter for those more unique and challenging customers.
I find that a lot of what I learn is from observing and not necessarily asking questions.
Look in the vineyard. Do they use more narrow spacing between rows of vines or wider spacing. The former indicates more modern vineyard management practices, the later older ones - which could indicate older vines or sloppier vineyard management. Are there cover crops between the rows, certain plants on the ends of the rows (cannot remember their names, but know them by sight), etc., indicating more organic vineyard management.
Look at the winery. Do the barrels look all clean and new or do they look more grey like they have been there for years. Many of my favorite wines come from wineries like Stony Hill or Mayacamas where there is hardly a new barrel in sight. If you like the taste of new oak, your reactions may differ.
Is the winery designed so that the juice flows from one place to the other by gravity or does the wine have to be pumped from spot to spot (which is harsher on the wine).
Questions. Do they use stems? Do they use malolactic fermentation for their Chardonnays? How much do they fine or filter the wine? Where do the grapes come from for making the wine - I would be troubled in many cases if a winery grew Chardonnay (a cooler climate grape) right next to Cabernet (a warmer climate grape). How old are the vines?