Report: Too many juiced at wine tastings

TEMECULA, Calif., Feb. 2 (UPI) -- California vintners are cracking down on limos and tourist buses who cater to crowds who like to get juiced at wine tastings.

In Temecula Valley, 21 winery owners now require transportation companies to police the customers they bring for tastings, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday.

In Napa County, numerous wineries have posted "No limo" signs, said Michael Korson, an investigator for the California Alcoholic Beverage Commission. And in Santa Barbara County, the sheriff's department has a disheveled undercover investigator who gargles with Jack Daniels and spritzes it on his clothes before heading to wine tastings to see which vinters will, and won't, serve an obviously intoxicated person, the Times reported.

It's not unusual for people to get drunk at wine tastings and vomit in the shrubbery, shed their clothes and shout and run about, said Tomi Arbogast, director of the Temecula Valley Winegrowers Association.

"Things like that happen in Vegas," Arbogast said. "We don't want them happening here."