Our fourth and last Platypus tour of this trip, was a Platypus Tour to three wineries in Sonoma, but closer to town (and our hotel) than the previous one we had taken up past Healdsburg and to the Russian River Valley.
We were picked up at our hotel, the boutique Inn at Sonoma around 10am.

Unlike all of the other Platypus tours, our group of six people were all staying at this hotel. The other two married couples (one from Ohio, and one from Atlanta) were traveling together, as they were related to each other via siblings and marriage. We immediately hit it off, and we had one of the best Platypus Tour days I can remember with such a fun group!

We started off going to Sebastiani Winery, which was a short distance from the hotel and downtown Sonoma. While Platypus generally uses smaller and boutique wineries, Sebastiani was the exception as it was a large scale winery with mass production.


I had been to Sebastiani on my own years ago, and I knew it was one of the older wineries in Sonoma. Even though it was a large winery, it still had a quaint and intimate feel to it, as we had our own tour and tasting with a dedicated Sebastiani host, who greeted our Platypus bus in the parking lot with a tasting glass of vino for each of us. What a nice welcome and way to start the day!

As Sebastiani had a storied history of over 100 years in the business, they naturally had a nice selection of barrels and memorabilia, which we viewed (and even climbed up!) once we toured their museum-like tasting room, before comfortably having our tasting by the fireplace.



Everyone loved Sebastiani, and as the others in our group had also taken Platypus before, we could all appreciate the contrast in wineries they took us; i.e. large scale, boutique, and ultra-mini scale; variety is the spice of life and wine is no exception! Here is a gallery of our visit to Sebastiani.
After our wonderful stop at Sebastiani, our next stop was to the Mayo Family Winery. I bought a cool red cap there with the Mayo Winery name on it, which is one of my favorites from this trip.

We of course bought some of their lovely wine, which we enjoyed during our outdoor tasting, and even a bit as we were shown thru the production facilities and barrel room. At Mayo, we also had our lunch supplied to us by Platypus. Here is a photo gallery of our visit to Mayo FamilyWinery, at the Sonoma location.
Finally, our last stop of the day was at Wellington Winery. This winery was purchased by the Belmonte family in 2014, and they are still in the process of re-branding the wines and scaling down production to produce higher quality estate and French-Bordeaux style of wines. The day we were there, was the Grandfather’s birthday, and the winery had a half price “birthday sale” on the Estate Il Patron Bordeaux Blend wine, which we bought a case of and had it shipped home to Florida. It was a great quality vino from Sonoma County, and also a great way to wrap up the tour day with Platypus. Here is a gallery of photos from Wellington Winery.
After our visit to Wellington Winery, we headed back to our Inn at Sonoma and we gathered our purchases and said our goodbyes and safe travels home.




It didn’t seem like it as we’ve lost track of days on this two week trip so far, but it was actually Valentine’s Day and DOS had booked us reservations for El dorado Kitchen Restaurant, located in the El Dorado Hotel on the Square in Sonoma. We’ve eaten there several times over the years, and love this Sonoma-trendy-wine type restaurant that has good food in a casual setting without being pretentious.


After dinner we walked back to the hotel, and on the way to our room we saw our friends and fellow Platypus tour guests from our tour today, relaxing in the hot tub at the Inn! It was cool outside by this time of night, but it looked warm and comfortable in the outdoor jacuzzi. We didn’t even think to bring our swim trunks on this trip originating in Chicago, or we might have taken the plunge as well.

Anyway we said good night and safe travels, as we all were checking out in the morning, and heading back to our home destinations within a day or so. What an awesome day we had (and Valentine’s as well!)! Thanks to Platypus Tours and our new friends for making this such a fun and enjoyable day!
