My Husband and I booked this tour due to wanting to visit Temecula and have a wine tasting tour and visit numerous vineyards as it is hard to choose just one as they are all beautiful.
We booked a week before and socal wasn’t our first choice but other websites were fully booked. The website and description and reviews were all very professional and we chose the “late tour” 2-6pm.
This tour is advertised as a wine tasting tour, transport between 3 wineries and samples of wine. I have read reviews about how informative the “tour guides” are and will describe each vineyard and tell you some history about them.
This is not a wine tasting tour! We were ushered onto a mini bus and straight away rap music was played very loud whilst other parties sung and danced. It was a 4 minute drive to the first winery (we could have got an Uber and been a lot more comfortable) we were shown to a table with another party, given a glass of something and given a tiny ticket to cross off extra tastings. We were then left to ourselves and did not see the bus driver until he came to pick us up for the 2nd winery.
It was a 7 minute drive to the next winery, again having to deal with loud music on the “party bus” and groups of women dancing. I was asked a couple of days prior to order lunch as it would not be available to order on the day and this would be served at the 2nd winery. Ordered cheese and charcuterie board. Bus driver disappeared as soon as dropping us off. Enquired at the winery about lunch and was told they didn’t have a restaurant and didn’t serve any extras. The only good thing was that I wasn’t charged for this, but obviously not impressed as spent the majority of the time wandering around searching for answers and food. Also not a wine “tour” as advertised, but simply dropped and left at basically a bar, as no information or tour is given of the winery or vineyard.
The 3rd winery things seemed to pick up when we were told we would be provided with a wine tour and visit of the cellar. This got my hopes up only to be let down again as the man running the tour was not informative, he was catering to mainly women and hen parties making jokes and I still don’t know any more about wine than I did when I began the “tour”
Once the “tour” was over, we were only given 2 tickets at this place for tastings (not as advertised) and once we tried to get the tastings so we could leave, we were told they had ran out of white wine! I didn’t think it could get any worse but for a winery to run out of white wine is unacceptable. My Husband was then forced to ask for red wine which came chilled.
I would never book a wine tour through this company again. I was extremely disappointed that it is not clear what you are booking, this cannot be sold as a “wine tour” Even if you were a hen party or big group of women, It may seem like value for money but you would get more value by taking a taxi to a number of bars and just buying some wine and asking the bar staff for suggestions.
Réponse de l'hôte
Oct 2021
Ugh. As if there are not enough Karens every where you go these days. It's as disheartening as it is exhausting, right? This person states that customers "sung and danced" and that she had to "deal with loud music on the party bus and groups of women dancing." What can we say? We have happy customers who enjoy our tours, and yes, they can from time to time end up dancing and singing and having fun. GEE WHIZ!
The only truth which actually comes from this undeserving 1 star review is that the Late Bird Tour on a Saturday, which runs from 2 pm - 6 pm, does very often attract customers who are looking to have a great time and can tend to be a little louder than usual. This is 100% true, and that's okay because you know what, why shouldn't people look forward to getting a little loose on a Saturday afternoon in beautiful Temecula Valley Wine Country. If this type of crowd is not your vibe, then we highly recommend paying the extra $10 per person and take the earlier wine tours which begin at either 11 am or 12 pm. You can also tour any other day of the week if you are looking for quieter crowds because no matter what, Saturdays have always been and will always be a little more vibrant with the good, fun-loving energy which many people like to share with one another.
Amen!