I expected more out of this wine tasting tour. I understand that no tour should be the same, however I believe that a tour should feel like just that: a tour! There was more tasting than touring, which may be all that a lot of people want anyway, but I was hoping to (safely) get out into at least one of the vineyards to take a closer look. The first stop allowed us to lounge while experts brought each round of wine to us. That was nice and i have no qualms with it. The second stop was mostly about eating lunch and the wine tasting was more like a self service ordeal. At that stop, it was easy to feel like you had to gorge yourself with your lunch and then try to chug samples of wine if the line wasn't too long. It felt rushed and too improvised. Our guide and driver were very nice, but they were running two tours at the same time, and it was noticeable. The last stop was the only one the felt like a tour, as the son of one of the owners gave us a brief but educational tour of their winery. It was at that stop that I saw a lot of what I was expecting: touring while tasting while getting to know about the winery and it's wine. Sole suggestion, if possible, allow guests to see more of the three vineyards on the tour. It just might enhance the experience.
Réponse de l'hôte
May 2022
Dear Summer,
Thanks for your review. It sounds like you had an enjoyable experience on a busy Saturday in Wine Country, which is normal in the industry. Please understand that since Wine Country is so busy on Saturdays, we are limited to what we are able to do as far as galavanting throughout the vineyards. The seated hosted serving that you received at the first stop is preplanned to keep things moving at a very busy boutique winery which we like to show our customers before they go to the next two wineries, which are much larger in both size and wine production. If we don't streamline the first winery with the staffed poured tastings at your table, your 75 minute wine tasting experience at your first stop would turn into a 2 hour stop due to the small size of the boutique winery.
Regarding lunch at the second winery, we have to streamline that as well on Saturdays by having our customers pre-order their meals with us, otherwise that too would become a very long stop simply due to amount of traffic in Wine County on a Saturday.
Even with the third stop, which we are happy to hear you enjoyed, that is in a way streamlined as well on Saturdays, as you receive your first pour upon arrival, your next two pours with a tour guide provided by the winery, and the last two pours via tasting tickets for you to use at your discretion.
All of our wine tours are normally 5 hours long, however, Saturdays has its limitations due to heavy traffic in Wine Country which then forces us to have to streamline our wine tours a bit more, otherwise the tour would easily turn into 7 hours, which would certainly then bring about many complaints that the tour was too long and that it took too long to get wine tastings.
We hope you come again, and if your do, we recommened trying us next time anyday between Sunday - Friday, when you will surely get more time to wander around the vineyards a bit more and receive extra attention from the staff at each of the wineries.
Lastly, we did want to mention that based on your review (which came across very positive from our perspective), that we felt it was deserving of four stars as opposed to the three stars which you left. If you feel the same or if you mistakely clicked on three stars instead of four, we would be very grateful if you would take the time to make the correction, as we value our rating very much. Thank you for your patronage and we hope to see you again sometime soon!
Sincerely,
Socal Wine Tours :)