What an excellent experience! We did an off-season tour arranged by Tiffany (who was very helpful and patient with my million questions).
Here's what to expect:
* If you do an off-season tour things are a little more complicated due to possible inclement weather. They need 2 miles of visability to fly. We got very lucky at the last minute because the weather was looking pretty unfavorable about a week prior, and then ended up being a light drizzle in the morning and dry and party cloudy by take off. It was perfect, but I was REALLY stressing about having to reschedule due to weather (only because I was keeping this a surprise until we showed up at the hangar, and who wants to reschedule a birthday surprise?). Like I said, we got lucky, especially this time of year.
* I tried to throw my husband off by stopping to get gas and getting back on the way there an awkward way. He's terrible with direction so it threw him off a little. I didn't even want him to know we were going to McMinnville for fear that he would figure out the surprise. I had to map my way to our Air Bnb with headphones in and no visual map so he wouldn't see the directions. Once we parked at the Air bnb I sneakily ordered an Uber to pick us up. Now he knew we were in McMinnville, but wasn't sure why.... The hangar is a brand new building for the company, so they don't have a lot of signage and the Uber driver got confused and drove past the building where you can see the helicopters in the back. Dang, he figured it out.... Oh well, we were there and he didn't know the whole plan....
* We were welcomed into the building, and I told him not only are we going on a helicopter, we are going on a helicopter WINE TOUR. Yeah, I managed to finally surprise my husband! We had a wonderful light breakfast from Red Hills market, cheese stuffed croissant, and some breakfast style charcuterie. All excellent. They also served some champagne (in hindsight, I would have had just one glass). At this time they showed us a humor filled safety briefing video and we got to chat with our pilot.
* After about 30 minutes, we walked through the building to our sweet ride for the day and loaded up, and before we knew it were up in the air, incredible! Our Pilot was awesome, telling us about the area and the AVA's as we headed to our first stop.
Stop 1- Elk Cove Vineyards
When we were coming down to land, a bunch of people came outside to take photos. We felt like rockstars! We were greeted in the Vineyard with a glass of wine, then escorted into a private tasting area and were talked through each wine and some history of the winery as we sipped. We then took a little tour of the facility and invited the pilot to join us before we had to take off again. This was a beautiful Vineyard and I would love to see it again in summer. We chose not to purchase wine at this stop, and they did not charge us a tasting fee.
Stop 2- Natalie's Estate
We landed down the hill, and a car picked us up to take us up to the tasting room which was surrounded by big old trees. It was very cozy. Natalie's Estate provides a nice charcuterie board with their wine tasting and their bold reds were amazing. This was our favorite stop. Another couple walked in to do some tasting and they explained to the couple that they were doing a private tasting. My husband and I insisted that we were more than happy to have them stay and taste these excellent wines. We chatted with them and told them all about the helicopter wine tour and told them they must try it someday. We also had our delicious lunch from Red Hills Market here, a meat plate, delicious quinoa salad, sparkling water, chocolates, and 2 sandwiches. We purchased 2 bottles of wine and were not charged the tasting fee. We would definitely go back to this winery.
Stop 3- Domaine Divio
This spot was beautiful to fly into and they were PACKED so all eyes were on us. Because they were so busy, we were served our tasting flight and some light charcuterie and left us alone. This was different than the prior 2 locations who really took the time to describe each wine. We were a little disappointed in the experience at this location (this is not at all a reflection of Tour deVine). Perhaps this is only because the bar was raised so high at the first 2 locations. We did not purchase wine at this location, and were charged $20/person for the tasting.
Altogether, this was an amazing experience for us. And I was happy to finally surprise my husband! Here are some tips:
* If you want to surprise someone, consider arranging for the helicopter to pick you up in downtown Portland. I didn't know they did this until I saw it in a review about a week prior. It will cost a little extra. That would have been sneaker.... Or they can pick you up at another winery at the start.
* Expect to pay about $500/person for an off-season custom tour (totally worth it and you get the helicopter to yourselves), and of course the vineyards won't be lush and green, but they are still beautiful year round.
* Wear shoes that can get a little muddy (it wasn't too bad though).
* Drink water and pace yourselves! This ended up being a lot of wine by the end. Maybe have one glass of champagne with breakfast and not 3! Whoops!
Now, after all this I hope to someday do an on season tour when everything is green. Thank you so much Tour deVine for giving my husband a wonderful 40th!
