Posting this review publicly because I never received any sort of follow-up from Platypus after our trip. Our group of 6 was super disappointed with our private wine tour experience, and definitely won’t be recommending Platypus to anyone in the future.
First, we paid the extra $65 for someone to help us plan our itinerary, but I chose 2 of the 3 wineries we visited, and the winery they chose didn’t take into account any of our preferences. I asked for smaller/boutique production with pretty views, and they recommended Cline which was the most commercial of all and didn’t have any views.
Also, it was clear that no accommodations were made by Platypus at any of the 3 wineries other than simply making the group reservation. At each location we spent about 20-30 minutes of our time checking in and waiting for a server. Any other wine tour that I’ve ever done (in the US, Europe, and South Africa), when we arrived at our reservation our tastings were already set up and we had a server to guide us through and tell us about the wines and vineyard. This was definitely not the case with Platypus which was really disappointing.
Our driver was also less than helpful. We tried asking her basic wine questions during the drive that she didn’t know answers to, and also asked her about nearby wineries that she couldn’t tell us about. We expected more with how much we were paying.
All in all, I would have never paid nearly $800 for this service if I knew it would basically be equivalent to an Uber service. Out of our 4 days in Sonoma, our day with Platypus was the low point of our trip.
