I inquired about this service a few weeks out from our trip to Napa (9/1/18). Brian called me right away to introduce himself and ask about our winery preferences. This was a great start. We were travelling for our 25th wedding anniversary and told Brian that I wanted something special and memorable. I left the itinerary to him based our preferences. We are not wine experts so we left it to his experience to choose the right places. I didn't hear back from him until a couple days before our trip. I reached out to him to ask for the itinerary since I didn't want to book another tasting at the same winery on other days of our trip. He emailed me back with the list of 4 wineries and our lunch stop (Artesa, Domaine Carneros, Etude, and Bouchaine). That's it, no other follow-up via email or telephone. This seemed odd considering all the other reviews I read that he was fully engaged with the customers beginning to end. Anyways, on the day of our excursion, Brian didn't show up. Instead, Sherard, one of his team members picked us up. Again, I was under the impression he or his wife would be our guides based on prior reviews. I will say that Sherard was very professional and attentive. He showed up at the hotel right on time and was ready to pick us up as we left the wineries. He was a nice guy and enjoyed his company. The one NEGATIVE about our entire experience was lunch. We were on a roll so far and visited three great wineries. We were having a great time and having a romantic experience thus far. However, for lunch we went to the Carneros Deli. I expected something a bit more romantic...and nicer. It seemed like a corner gas station deli. This kind of deflated the romantic bubble. My wife and I just laughed of the experience as we ate our lunch outside on their patio with the local vineyard laborers. My sandwich was great and my wife had a burger which was OK. Not really what we were expecting for a romantic lunch. The lunch experience is the reason why I'm only rating this experience a 4. We arrived to the last winery and had to rush since they closed soon and we had to make it back to the hotel by 5PM. I also attribute part of the rushing to having to drive out of the way for lunch ( at least 20-30 minutes round trip) when the wineries were pretty much centrally located. I though we were eating at one of the cafes nearby we passed a couple times. The excursion ended right on time. We got exactly what I paid for, an excursion in a luxury SUV to 4 wineries and lunch with a prompt and professional driver. However, the details that would have made this experience over the top were not there. I'd still highly recommend this business. I just wanted to point out that details matter.
Response from Host
Sep 2018
Thank you so much for your feedback, we learn through each one of them. I wanted very much to be your driver as I know how very special a honeymoon is to a couple. Unfortunately, due to a scheduling conflict, that wasn’t meant to be, so we asked our brother Sherad to be your guide.
The lesson learned from this is that we need to have a better open line of communication with our guests about who their tour guide will be and if there is a problem, our guests will be notified as soon as we’re able.
Since the Carneros wine region is in a relatively sparse area, finding a place to eat has sometimes been a challenge for us and Carneros Deli had been our go to spot. I couldn’t agree more that the place is not romantic at all and wish we could have a do over for the lunch! We discussed your critique and have decided to remove that stop from our list and replaced it with The Boon Fly Café, a local and tourist favorite in its place.
Once again, we thank you for taking the time to let us know about your experience with us. Please know if given the opportunity, we would personally love to work with you again in the future and upgrade your previous experience.