Platypus Napa Valley Wine Tour

Into the Napa Valley with Platypus Wine Tours

It’s winery tour day. I’m being picked up at 10.05 am so am up and sorted out for that time point. The room phone rings at 10 am: “Your driver’s here” says the receptionist. He’s early I say but I’m ready and will be down immediately.

I’m using the same company as 2015, Platypus Wine Tours, as it was so good last time. Truth be told, I don’t if other tours are available but I enjoyed the Platypus day back then. I did the Sonoma Valley then. It’s a lot more expensive than last time though (well it was 8 years ago), and now you have to pay the tasting fees yourself at the winery.

This year I’m doing their Napa Valley tour. Rob and Beth are on the bus when I board. They’re from Philadelphia and combined his work trip out west with some vacation. After a couple more pickups, we’re on our way. There are eight of us today. Chris, our driver and guide, asks us all to introduce ourselves.

He tells us he’s a big fan of pop and rock music – all sorts – and by way of a twist, asks us to tell everyone on the bus about the first and last concert we went to. Rob goes first then hands over to me. Dr Feelgood back in 1975 were my first gig, and I add a bit of colour by talking about how they laid the seeds of punk rock.

As for my last… well of course that was last week in Seattle. So I tell the whole Coldplay story from the start, without mentioning who I sat next to on the plane until the very end. After about 5 minutes story-telling, I deliver that as the ‘punchline’ and everyone cracks up in amazement. They are all gobsmacked. As am I. Did that really happen?

Madrigal Winery

Madrigal Winery leaflet

After all our tales have been told, we arrive with neat timing at out first stop, Madrigal Winery. We’re given a full, in-depth and interesting insight into their business by an employee, Rick. It is a very small ‘boutique’ operation that only sells direct to the public. No wine is sold via shops. Quite how they make money and survive, I don’t know.

So I ask. Rick replies that they don’t produce enough quantity to interest distributors. He goes on to tell us that it’s a late harvest this year, pointing out the many grapes still on the vines. We get to taste some of the grapes, Merlot and Malbec varieties. Chris has a refractometer that measures sugar content in a grape. He shows us how it works. Sugar content is just one factor in deciding when to pick the grapes. Having looked at the refractometer, he says it might be another few weeks before harvest is complete.

We sample some wines, white, rose and red. What I notice is that the samples we get are noticeably smaller than in 2015. It was an interesting stop and the wines were good. Expensive of course, but as per last time I can’t buy because I can’t get the wines back to the UK easily.

Benessere Vineyards

Vineyards leaflet

Next stop is Benessere Vineyards, where we also have lunch provided, a turkey and cheese sandwich. This winery focuses exclusively on Italian grape varieties, an unusual choice in the Napa Valley. We again sample white, rose and red wines.

Chris had said on the way there that they were quite laid back at Benessere, and in reality there wasn’t much explanation given about the wines. The samples were small again. Apart from one red, I thought the wines were decidedly average.

I don’t think any of our group bought any bottles at this stop, where as some did at Madrigal.

AuburnJames Winery

Business card

Our last stop is at AuburnJames Winery. It is another boutique winery but at least the samples are larger, almost twice the size of the previous two stops. All the wines here were nice. Eric, our host, is very good as well, explaining all about the winery and wines we taste.

The tour complete we head back to Napa, the group being dropped off at our various hotels. It was a good day out. It’s not a cheap day and the generally smaller sample sizes niggle a bit.

It was though a good group on the bus, there was some good chat amongst us throughout the day. Chris was also a good guide. I of course did my own Napa Valley tour back in 2015. That was good but so was today in its different way.

“Can you hear me?” * No…

Back in my hotel room, I hardly notice I’ve been sampling wine all day. Probably down to the smaller samples… I had planned to go to a different bar tonight but one of the barmen last night said there was a live rock back on at Joe’s tonight. So I change my plan and return to check out the tunes.

I have a Reuben sandwich for dinner, which was good. There’s some light chit-chat with folks at the bar as they come and go, but nothing serious. The band start playing at 9.15 pm but they are not very good. The worst aspect is that the singer’s vocal are completely muffled. I can hardly make out any words he’s singing.

They are called Xstatic but I’m not exactly that in listening to them. I recognise about every other song. One’s I do know were Walking The Dog, Knock On Wood, Low Rider, Honky Tonk Women, Sweet Home Alabama and Sharp Dressed Man. The vocals are so lost in the mix though that they were about a third of the way through Honky Tonk Women before I recognised it.

I want to stay but I really can’t work out or hear most of the songs. They take a break after Sharp Dressed Man and I decide to leave. I can’t believe they didn’t do a sound check to test the vocals. Maybe someone told them in the interval but by then I’m back at the hotel. I write some diary before bedtime. Despite the disappointment of the band, it was a good day overall. Not too many days left now, the end is in sight.

* Can You Hear Me by David Bowie