OK – so you’ve booked a tour, and you’re really excited, and now you want to know which wineries you’re going to!
We totally understand the desire to preview your big day. But if we’re sending you a link to this page, it’s because we don’t yet have an itinerary for you, and there’s a good reason for it. We ask you to please, bear with us and trust the process. We have been putting together amazing, 5-star wine tours for over 10 years. We have our process and it’s important we have the creative control to do it our way.
Here’s a few things to understand as to why we still need more time:
1) We do not have a routine “route.”
Every tour we do is a carefully crafted day, personalized to your tastes and your personality. We frequent over 60 different wineries. Each of them are different in many ways. We select a few of them for you based on what we think is going to be PERFECT for the day. This is why we have our Questionnaire – it will help us begin to understand what kind of day you’re looking for.
2) There are other intangibles that go into our decision-making process.
We factor a lot of things in to our choices that can only be sorted out as we get closer to the date of your tour. Each guide has their own set of “best relationships” to draw from. We factor weather in to the considerations. (Some wineries are only fun when it’s sunny. Some wineries are delightful when it’s raining!) If we have heard about a special event or if a winery is running a deal or pouring an interesting limited-time flight – we consider all this as well. We will sometimes even call ahead to the next winery and make sure it isn’t crowded. If it is, we’ll think on our feet and pick a different one. The list goes on… the day is dynamic, and having the ability to “call audibles” will make your tour the best it can be.
3) There’s no big hurry to set an itinerary.
Some of you may be familiar with Napa or other regions where you almost HAVE to have appointments all set up in order to get to the “good” places. This is not quite as important for the Willamette Valley in general, and particularly not for the wineries that we love and frequent. Remember – we’re “Backcountry” Wine Tours – we stay away from the crowds as a rule. We have special relationships with many wineries, and even winemakers saved on speed-dial in our phones. Putting together a stellar day on the fly is super easy for us.
4) Setting up itineraries far in advance is very restrictive.
Things change. The assessment of what’s awesome is dynamic. Certain wineries are better in different seasons than others. Sometimes there are short-run opportunities to take advantage of. And sometimes it’s as simple as this – the hosting winery may not even know if they’re available yet, and I’m waiting to find out what their schedule is like. Please trust that we’re not slacking off and you’re going to miss the primo boat. No, we’re letting the Primo Boat present itself in due time. You’re in good hands – trust. 😉
5) All we do is go to great wineries.
I know some of you would like to see which wineries you’re going to in order to confirm that they are at the quality level you are looking for. To this concern, I humbly ask you for your trust. We’ve been doing this since 2011, and have hosted literally thousands of wine tours. Our whole reason for getting into this was because we saw a need for a company who put quality over all other considerations. That’s our specialty! The wineries we frequent are ALL in the top-most tier excellence, both in the quality of wine AND the quality of experience. If I told you the names of the wineries at which we’ve had the most amazing experiences ever, you probably wouldn’t even recognize the name anyways. So just let the day unfurl as it is meant to. You did your research, you found the best Tour company – now let us do our thing!
6) If you are just curious to know a sampling of what you might experience:
I have put together a pretty exhaustive list of the wineries that are on our regular rotation. Feel free to browse those. But don’t let a website get you anxious about where you want to go. We know the *real* story behind all these places. If you have properly explained what you’re looking for on your Questionnaire, then we will 100% have the expertise to choose the right wineries just for you.
7) Don’t worry – we won’t duplicate any wineries you’ve already been to.
This is a common concern for guests who have been here before, or are doing a day in wine country before their tour date with us. With over 500 wineries to choose from, and over 60 just on our “regulars” list, there is absolutely no reason why we would ever bring you to a place you’ve already been. (Unless of course you want to!) This is actually one of the many advantages to our “winging it” attitude: you can just tell your guide where you have already been, and they can quickly scratch them off their mental list and select from the many others we know and love. Very easily handled on the day of the tour.
I hope this little essay makes it easier to go with our flow! We truly appreciate your business and we want you to know you are in good hands! We look forward to hosting you and creating the perfect day in the Willamette Valley for you! Cheers!
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