Eye on Wine Tour with Goordon Larum in Napa Valley

My girlfriend and I just got back from San Francisco and had one of the best vacations in memory. As great as our trip was the best part for me was the day tour in Napa Valley with Gordon ';Gordy'; Larum. At first we were concerned that this may be a hoax (thanks in part to a bunch of devil%26#39;s advocate responses on Trip Advisor by some of you) but it was far from that.

Gordy picked us up right at our hotel in downtown San Francisco and from the moment we left he spent most of the day educating us on Napa%26#39;s wine country and telling us great stories that were hysterical. I felt Gordy’s winery picks were excellent and there is no way that I could have chosen those stops myself. Gordy is fully open to going to any winery of your choice however we chose to take his recommendations and we substituted one of our own in. The whole town of Napa knows Gordy and he seems to be very well respected among the locals. I also must thank the winery owners that took the time out of their day to allow us to taste, learn and bask in the wonderful Napa weather on their properties. Their knowledge, dedication and storytelling made the entire wine experience that much better. After about my tenth glass of wine I came to realize viticulture would have been a better undergrad then finance for me.

My biggest concern during each of the tours was how my girlfriend would respond to all of the wines since she is not the biggest fan. When we got back to the hotel I asked her what her thoughts were of the tour and she said she had blast because she was able to find at least one type of wine at every location that she enjoyed drinking. The tour gave her a new appreciation for wine and taught her things that some real connoisseurs may not know.

For anyone curious about going on a Napa wine tour I would highly recommend going on it with Gordy as your teacher/chauffeur if you’re looking for a casual wine tasting experience. His vehicle is extremely nice and clean, he is very respectful and I felt like I should have paid Gordy more then I did for the tour based on everything we got to experience that day. Just to be clear I am not related to Gordy nor do I have any relation to his company. I fully back the previous post by ';jjodoin'; since she seemed to have the same experience I did with Gordy. I will promote Gordy%26#39;s wine tour to all of my friends and colleagues.

By the way I am fully prepared for all of the negative responses since this is my first post on Trip Advisor and apparently that’s a red flag. All I can say is to trust my opinion of Gordy and his tour because this is the first time I have booked a vacation using Trip Advisor and everything worked out great not to mention my wine collection just got a lot better.

Thanks again Gordy,

Mike and Alison.

Eye on Wine Tour with Goordon Larum in Napa Valley

Thanks for your kind words on my previous post. It just solidies my post was an honest one.

The one thing I learned from my initial post, is to not worry about the negative posts (should you get any), there are so many people out there who will truly appreciate having you share your experience, which will assist them in planning their future trips to Napa! Which is what we all use TA for :-)

Gordy is great and I can%26#39;t wait to go back and tour with him again! I am so glad you and Alison had a wonderful time!

Cheers!

Eye on Wine Tour with Goordon Larum in Napa Valley

Um, I wasn%26#39;t trying to be negative. When someone%26#39;s first post is an outstanding review of a paid tour guide it raises some suspicions (or maybe its just me that%26#39;s leery of these post).

I meant no harm as previously stated.

I figured this wouldn%26#39;t be like some of those typical groups where an all out war would occur with regards to a post. More then anything I just wanted to give thanks to Gordy for doing such a great job and I hope more people get to experience his tour.

I think many people are leery of these posts. They all sound the same---';Gordy picked us up at our hotel and . . .'; ';Eye on Wine is the only way to go.'; It sounds like this guy Gordy wrote the whole thing.

I checked his website and there was no mention of a tour....

You are correct, there is NO website for his tours and when we were there in April we told him he DESPERATLEY needed one….it’s good marketing (he says he is working on that currently). Most of his business is by word or mouth or repeat business, so there was never a need for a website. He does provide references for you to check out (outside of TA and/or Yelp).

And yes, I still talk to Gordy, I feel as though I gained a friend as well as a tour guide when I visit Napa in the future!

If you want to give him a chance then do so; if you don’t you will not have a hard time finding an alternate tour provider in Napa to suit your needs.

The Eye on Wine website is for Gordy%26#39;s wine broker business he runs during the winter in order to get bottles to buyers who cannot purchase them directly from the wine makers. Gordy did tell us there is a gentleman working on his tourism website as we speak so that he can eliminate the confusion between the tour/brokerage businesses.

You take one tour with him and now know him so well you can speak for how he runs his business? Maybe you can answer this question, since it seems impossible to find out anything about him online (other than here): does he even have a business license as a tour guide?

Geez! Canynon, here%26#39;s Gordy%26#39;s #; (707) 815-2619, why not call him and ask him all the questions you have directly?

Please report back to all of us what you find out.

So I%26#39;m still trying to decide about this wine tour with my friends. Maybe I%26#39;ll show them all these comments and let them decide. I don%26#39;t have hours to spend figuring it all out.

Do you really drink ten glasses of wine? I think my limit is one or two. So is the rest all wasted?