Wineries on both coasts of the U.S. are starting to ban tour bus and other groups from their tasting rooms, an international wire service reports.

The reason for the ban is an apparent growing breed of visitors who are hitting wineries to get drunk rather than simply sample the wine. One California winemaker has a name for them -- limo lushes.

They frequently travel in groups from one winery to another to knock back drinks, with their behavior prompting action by wineries that have started to ban bus tours, draw up etiquette guides, and charge for entry.

The Wine Press of Long Island, published in New York, has come up with a few tips for wine tasting tourists:

Tip No. 1: It's a tasting room, not a bar at happy hour.

Tip No. 2: Don't hog the tasting counter.

Jane Starwood, editor of The Wine Press, told the wire service that Long Island wineries -- located east of New York City -- have established a "card system just like in soccer."

"If a group comes into a winery and they're really loud and rowdy, they're given yellow or red cards and warnings," she said. "And sometimes the tasting room will call ahead to others along the route and warn them."

Starwood said it wasn't just a local problem. She had heard similar tales -- from wineries in the Finger Lakes region of New York, near the Canadian border -- of college students going wild.

In California, it's an occasional Saturday occurrence at the Tobin James winery in Paso Robles, said co-owner Lance Silver. Located 200 miles south of San Francisco, the winery doesn't charge for tastings, as many of its competitors do.

"We know if you taste our wine, you'll probably like it and buy a bottle," he said, noting that roughly 70 percent of Tobin James' wine sales come from the tasting room.

"Now, 90 percent of the folks who come are just fine but then there's always that one group," Silver said. "They're loud and disturbing because they've been to five wineries already. And they're drunk. And they try to steal a few things because they think it's funny. They're limo lushes."

The Miner Family Vineyards in California's Napa Valley, about 60 miles north of San Francisco, doesn't charge for its tastings either, but it also doesn't allow tour buses and limousines.

On a weekday, there are maybe 30 people who stop by the tasting room in Oakville, but on the weekends it can be 300.

"It always seems to be a bachelorette party that is here more for the drinking than the tasting," said Miner Family Vineyards' spokeswoman Mia Beuhler. Silver speculated that "out here, the bachelor parties go to (Las) Vegas, the bachelorettes go wine tasting."