Sherry Li

Review of Farniente

Far Niente is like Mondavi in that you go there fo...

Far Niente is like Mondavi in that you go there for the tour and they give you a marketing-y spiel about the place, then have you taste their wine. Your perception is distorted after seeing their caves and antique cars. If you're not 100% objective about the wine, you'll get sucked in by the sophistry.

Don't me wrong, the tour is a lot of fun. Our guide was funny and we had a good time laughing at all his charming jokes. The antique cars were pretty cool, even to someone like me who doesn't really know that much about cars. And you really can't beat the manicured grounds. You can spend an hour there taking pictures of the 10,000 or however many tulips that just bloomed.

The wine is fairly mediocre and fairly expensive. The whites are not aged long enough and the reds lack character and strength. It's not something you should spend your money on since when you drink that wine, you won't have a charming tour guide to talk you into the wine or beautiful flours and cool cars to elevate your mood.

The tour and tasting come out to a pricey $50. For that kind of money, I'd rather go to Phelps or spend it at Redd on a delicious meal.

PS: When I made the reservation, they seemed very adamant about using directions on the website, instead of Google Maps. But it's not really that hard to fine, and Google Maps got it right. I thought this was kind of excessive.

PPS: I had to change the date of the reservation, but apparently that didn't go through so when we showed up, the lady seemed very suspicious that I had made a reservation. She wasn't very nice about it and that totally rubbed me the wrong way. In the end, she "let" us join the 3pm tour. For 50 bucks, I expected to be treated with more respect. At least give me the benefit of doubt that I didn't just jump over the iron gate and march up to demand a tour. Sheesh...