My girlfriends and I started a wine club a little while back. It fell apart for a while, but the good news is that we started it back up! And this time we have taken it to another level. This time our group has expanded, and this time we took our group beyond the comforts of our homes. This month our wine club hit the vineyards, and had a girls day filled with limos, food, and a lot of wine! It was time for us to take a Long Island Wine Tour.

I feel as women we never really take time for ourselves. At least the women I know. We talk and talk about doing fun things but never do, but not this time. This time I decided that we actually would do what we said we would! Yay! So I set off on the mission to put a wonderful day together. I knew priority one was to get us a limo. Drinking and driving is a no no…so I hit the google machine and found Long Island Wine Tours.  We got 11 women all to agree to a day. It’s a miracle!

The package I was sold wasn’t exactly what came to be. The customer service wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, and the behind the scenes stuff was less than to be desired. Being in sales myself I know how important good customer service is, and I have to say I wasn’t impressed. I was impressed with our limo driver though. If behind the scenes stunk….he made up for it big time. He was personable and accommodated every one of our needs. Even ones we didn’t even know we had! Luckily the vineyards weren’t crowded that day, but we did get treated like VIP’s.

We went to three vineyards… Duck Walk, Pugliese Vineyards, and Vineyard 48. I have frequented many of the vineyards over the years (I had to as a proud wino!), and if you ask me which is one of my favorites I’d have to say Pugliese. I always have the best experience there, but this time it was my least favorite! Duck Walk was the best tasting experience. The server explained each wine and even gave us extra tastings (hmmm maybe the extra tastings were a bribe? lol). We took our time and enjoyed each wine and each other. After the tasting we had lunch. This is one area where I was disappointed. I was told one thing that set this company apart from the limo companies was the food, but a 6 foot hero and a small serving of macaroni salad wasn’t very impressive (although it was yummy). Pugliese was next. Normally this is my favorite, but I didn’t feel that they paid much attention to us. Finally we were on to Vineyard 48. Although I think they had the best wines, I felt that the servers were the worst. I have felt this way before. They are rather snooty, and their wines are the most expensive.

The day was great and it was so nice to go out and about with my girls. After every “girl time” event I always say…boy…we should do that more often, and this time was no different. The behind the scenes glitches aside, I highly recommend doing a wine tour. Everything is taken care of, no one has to drive, and the day is basically care free. Expensive? Yes…Worth the money? Not sure…but what I am sure of is that I’m glad we did it.