I'm full of questions today. So I need to plan a bachelorette party for my BIL's fiance. She doesn't want to go out in the city at night and get all drunk and crazy. She loves wine though so I was thinking it would be cool to do some tours of the wineries.
A quick google search brings up a bunch of companies. Just wondering if anyone has ever done this before. I don't want to randomly pick a company if maybe someone here has used one they loved. Or should I just rent a bus and plan my own tour? In which case - any suggestions on where to go? I'm not a wine person so I dont know which ones around here (or in NJ) are good.
Thanks for any advice!
My little nuggets
Re: Winery Tours
I've only done wine tasting a few times on my own, but I really like the Bucks County Wine Trail, as far as location. I'm not sure about companies to go through but the last time I went to Buckingham to pick up some wine I saw a van full of chicks. They looked like they were having a really good time. It was just a nondescript white passenger van.
Good luck and have fun!
We did one for my friend's 29th. Her husband rented a school bus for 20 of us and we went to four wineries in Bucks County. He called ahead and set up appointment times so there would be a winery rep to talk to us. He collected the tasting fees for each person ahead of time to make the transactions at the winery easier. And we brought food and beer on the bus too.
Bus: First Student - it was $400 for 4 or 5 hours. It ended up being $45/person which included the bus fee, tip and the tasting fees.
We went to:
Buckingham Valley Vineyards ($3-5), Wycombe Vineyards ($5 fee), Rose Bank Winery ($5-7 fee) and Rushland Ridge ($3 fee).
I highly recommend Buckingham and Wycombe. Rushland was good too. I didn't like Rose Bank's wine - they leaned more towards sweet wines and fruit wines and it's not my thing but it may be yours.
Not related to this event, I've also been to New Hope Winery ($7, ok, lots of sweet, fruit wines but some decent traditional wines) and Crossing Vineyards (they were $5-$7 a few years ago, good wines)
Also, go here for info: http://www.buckscountywinetrail.com/
#1 12.11.11
#2 10.23.13 EDD
Awesome. Thanks girls. Sounds like renting the bus seperately is the way to go so we'll probably just do that. I was hoping to keep it around $50 a person.
Lando..I saw a bunch online that were all $99 a person and I know people aren't going to want to pay that. Or at least I don't! ha.
My little nuggets
If you rent a bus and decide your own itinerary, here are my personal thoughts on each of the wineries in order from best to worst:
Buckingham - #1 in my book. Great prices, love that the tasting room is self-serve and free, Diego Red is AWESOME, they have sparkling wines (yum) and the owners are nice.
Rushland - Grounds are someones house, so it's nothing spectacular to look at.. but another free tasting room, awesome owners, and good quality wines.
Rose Bank - Their wines are decent.. more sweet & fruit wines than anything else. They just redid their tasting room and added a huge barn, not sure when it opens. I am a fan because they are helping us make our commemorative baby-wine, which is on display in the tasting room fermenting right now!
Crossing - They are way overpriced for tours, wines & tastings.. but, the grounds are beautiful. So it's worth a stop just to sit outside and hang out.
New Hope - I don't like their wines at all, but it's a good location close to New Hope and Perkasie if you wanted to go there and then stop for lunch nearby.
Wycombe - Majorly overpriced, new winery still figuring out the kinks, wine is not that great.
I didn't add Peace Valley because it's a bit far out there, but their summer white is yummy.. and Sand Castle is far away too, but if you wind up going all the way up above New Hope and get to Sand Castle, they have pretty stunning grounds that remind me of being in Europe. and their Alpine Spice wine is my favorite.
Have fun!
You post has cemented my decision to guzzle a bottle of this tonight.
Jonathan Dean 4.5.08
Anna Capri 5.4.11