So many spiels at winery tasting rooms are somber affairs, focusing on terroir, sugar-acid balance and — let us not forget — malolactic fermentation.

That’s not how Peju Province’s Alan Arnopole does it.

Arnopole, whose Peju business card reads “yodel meister,” is a one-man vaudeville revival, combining guitar-playing, ethnic accents, lame jokes, song parodies and wicked rapping to sell prodigious amounts of wine.

“And now for something completely different,” Arnopole recently told a mid-week tasting group, deploying a tag line from Monty Python to launch into the “Merlot Song,” then a rousing rendition of “Old Zinfandel.”

Six tasters looked on with slack-jawed amazement. They exchanged looks that said, ‘Is this guy for real?’

Arnopole kept topping himself. He launched into “The Zinfandel Rap” with a manic “Yo!,” followed by wine rhyme: “Here’s a little fact ’bout the zinfandel grape, second most planted red wine in this state, right up there with cab sauvignon, a big bold red that really gets it on.”

“Holy moly,” said a young guy from back East.

“Wow,” said his companion.

“I’ve never been to a place that is so much fun,” said a woman from Vacaville.

“And you thought wine tasting would be a stodgy affair, didn’t you?” Arnopole said.

If the Napa Valley has a celebrity tasting room worker, Arnopole is it. He’s featured on travel shows. Guide books mention him. Tourists get off the plane from Japan asking to see Alan.

This is all unexpectedly weird, Arnopole said. When he got hired by Peju in 1995, he was 48 years old and thoroughly discouraged. “I thought my life was over,” he said.

As a professional musician, he had toured America for 20 years with California Zephyr, a country-roots band. The life was hard, the financial reward meager, but he was living his dream, he said.

Back home, his wife, Susan Tough, held down the fort. She taught school and took charge of raising their two children. “During our daughter’s first year of life, he was only home 11 weeks,” she said.

As for her husband’s earning power, “It was feast or famine. You couldn’t really ever count on it,” she said.

“The initial agreement was, ‘Let me do it until I’m 30.’ We went past that,” Arnopole said.

When California Zephyr stopped touring, Arnopole took odd jobs. He delivered documents in Napa for a title insurance company and put heart and soul into the Napa Valley Music Festival, which was soon to die.

Tony Peju didn’t know he was hiring a showman to pour his wines. What impressed him about Arnopole was his “twinkly eye and his energy,” Peju said.

Arnopole stuck to the basics at first. He told visitors the story behind this successful family-run winery, touted the wines and suggested match-ups with food.

As he began feeling more comfortable, “I started doing little things I thought were entertaining, Arnopole said.

His wife remembers the day her husband came home and said he yodeled at work for the first time. “Oh my gosh, Alan. You’re going to get fired,” she said.

To the contrary. Owner Peju was watching and approving. “In a small family winery you can do anything you want,” Peju said. “Alan’s giving people more than they expect. They think they’re in a Disney music hall.”

Which is a good thing. Music relaxes people. Relaxed people buy wine. Lots of wine.

In his best year, Arnopole sold nearly $1.5 million worth of wine and related merchandise, his wife said. Annual sales of more than $1 million are not unusual. “Alan is still Alan, but he’s legit now,” she said.

While not providing sales figures, Peju confirmed that Arnopole is amazing at converting musical hijinks into sales. He’s probably the best tasting room salesman in the Napa Valley, he said.

Arnopole has been rewarded with perks, including a trip to Europe with his wife, a $6,000 Gibson guitar and a bronze statue of him playing the guitar.

At 62, Arnopole retains the enthusiasm of a teenager. While taking a reporter through the winery, he stopped to yodel into an empty 4,000-gallon stainless steel tank, then again in the barrel room where the acoustics mimicked the Swiss Alps.

“I can make up a rap with a yodel in it,” he said. “I call it rodeling.”

California Zephyr still performs two dozen shows a year, mostly in Northern California, and is working on a CD for release next year.

Their last CD, “Harvest Time,” includes “The Yodelmeister Song,” “The Nappa Rappa,” and “Napa Wine.” Arnopole said he has sold 5,000 copies at $19.95 from his tasting station at Peju.

As a volunteer, Arnopole continues to support annual concerts by local fourth and fifth graders, “O’ California” and “Sea to Shining Sea.”

Life works in unexpected ways, Arnopole said. Who would have thought that Peju would turn out to be his best gig.

“I’ve sort of been more successful working at a winery than 20 years when I was on the road,” he said. “Now the road comes to me.”