Unfortunately, my husband and I did not enjoy the tour we took with Platypus. I was greatly looking forward to learning a little bit about wine while getting to relax and enjoy the wine and the scenery. However, this was not the case. The tour first took us to Lassiter winery. The woman at Lassiter who poured the wines lectured us for an hour. We learned every nitty gritty detail of the wines, and then some. I felt like I was in a college course about wines. I mean, we even sat through a story about the previous owner of a train pictured on one of the wine bottles for 15 minutes. I was hoping we would be able to enjoy how beautiful their property was, but instead we sat and were lectured for what seemed like forever. I was so bored I was almost in tears. When the woman was finally done talking, the tour guide jumped in with his own stories. We didn't even have a chance to get to know the other people on the wine tour at all. To top it off, we went through all this without so much as a full glass of wine. At least if we were going to have to listen to hours of people talking, give us a full pour!
Next we went to Deerfield. I was hoping the tour would get better, but it did not. At this winery we ate our lunch in the cave. Who wants to eat in a cave when you have the beautiful scenery of Sonoma?! We did a tasting at Deerfield, and thankfully the man pouring the wines did not talk as much as the woman from Lassiter. However, the tour guide seemed to take this as his opportunity to speak at length about everything he knew about wine (which is... extensive). Worse, he didn't join our group at the table to talk, but stood awkwardly behind me for 30 minutes lecturing. Again, we didn't really have a chance to speak to anyone on our tour.
After two excruciatingly boring tastings, my husband and I couldn't take anymore. We asked to be dropped off at our hotel. This was our anniversary, and it was honestly the least fun thing we could have done for it. What I imagined would be a relaxing afternoon, enjoying wine, learning *a little bit*, turned into a horribly boring college course on wine with barely any wine.
Everyone I have spoken to who took a wine tour in Sonoma seems to have enjoyed their tour thoroughly. I don't know if we just got a dud of a tour, but this was miserable for us. I would never recommend anyone take a platypus wine tour after the experience we had. I would suggest that either: a. this tour be rebranded as an educational tour with a few tastings, not a wine tour or b. have the tour guide moderate the tour better, so participants can enjoy more wine, more socializing with each other, and less lecturing. We had such a limited time in Sonoma, and I am so disappointed we decided to use one of our days on this tour.
Réponse de l'hôte
Jul 2021
Thanks for your review, Sam. Again, I'm very sorry we failed to do better for you on this tour. Since we have conversed about this situation, and I refunded your tour fees, I won't go into it further. Our tour guide will be much more aware in the future. Best wishes!