Del Dotto Historic Winery & Caves — Attraction in Napa Valley AVA

I live in the Bay Area and travel to Napa at least 2-3x a month. I decided to make reservations for the cave tour at Del Dotto wines to celebrate my birthday and sadly my experience was the worst experience I have ever had in Napa. I left this winery feeling as if people of color are not welcome here.

What made this experience the worst was my tour guide Thomas. Thomas was extremely rude and unprofessional from the moment I met him. When my friend and I arrived, my friend was taking my photo at the entrance, as again it was my birthday, when her and I were rudely interrupted by Thomas. Thomas opened the entrance door, raised his voice at us and told us that we needed to get inside. He proceeded to insult me by telling me how much the tasting cost even though everything was prepaid. I didn’t appreciate being yelled at and spoken down to, but I didn’t want to create any trouble so I looked past it, and shot him a smile. As I walked towards Thomas, I continued to smile, introduced myself to him and asked him his name. He completely dismissed me, rolled his eyes, and told me to have the woman at the counter help me. From those first initial moments, I instantly regretted coming here to celebrate my birthday. I was so uncomfortable from Thomas’ rudeness that I even asked the woman at the counter if we could change our tour guide and sadly, Thomas was the only person available. After we checked in, we ended up waiting an additional 15 minutes to start the tour since one of the people who was on the tour was finishing up a phone call. I can’t help but feel that Thomas’ attitude towards my friend and I was racially motivated as Thomas did not rush the other couple or interact with them with the same negative energy that he gave my friend and I when we were taking photos. During our tour, my friend and I felt unwelcome the entire time. Thomas seemed to be on edge throughout as he barked orders at us and even yelled “come on! We have to go!” I understand that Thomas may run a strict schedule with all of the tours but there is a way to professionally & respectfully communicate to your guests. Additionally, as we went through several tastings, I noticed that Thomas joined us in tasting every wine. In all my experience wine tasting I have never had a tour guide drink with their guests. And maybe his lack of sobriety explains his odd and erratic behavior. Throughout the tour, he bragged about being the most sought after sommelier in the area. Thomas might know wine, but he lacks people skills and professionalism. At the end of the tour, Thomas never directed my friend and I on where to purchase the wine we enjoyed. Honestly, I don’t think I will ever return to Del Dotto and I regret not cancelling the tour from the start. There are several dozen other wineries with better customer service that you can visit in Napa - Del Dotto wines is...

Both locations are great - the new venetian caves are clean and modern and they spared no expense at the property, whereas the old caves are authentic, cozy in a musty sort of way, candlelit and equally inviting. While the service and tours are exceptional (prepare to taste a LOT of wine) more than anything, the wine at Del Dotto is what's most noteworthy. Really we think it's some of the best we've tasted in Napa. They employ free run methods and what you taste (straight out of the barrel) is often not even available (futures.) Their Pinots are great too. Didn't try a single white wine at Del Dotto. Oh, and the tours end with some really great snacks. Sidenote... we ordered a case of wine from them, it took them 2-3 weeks to finally tell us that they were ready to ship, but that by then it was too hot in their opinion for regular ground shipping and so they'd either suggest we overnight it (at our expense) or ship it months later in the cool season. I expressed that their delay in processing is what caused us to fall into the warmer season and therefore they should cover the expedited shipping since we didn't want to wait six months for our wine, and they obliged. Small hiccup but they obviously care about their customers and I would...

My husband and I visited Del Dotto for our anniversary, hoping for a memorable and refined wine tasting experience. Unfortunately, what we got was underwhelming at best.

Our tour guide, Glen, didn’t even introduce himself until I asked for his name well into the tour. While we expected to learn about the wine and the winemaking process, much of the tour was spent listening to Glen go on and on about his boss—so much so that it felt more like a fan club meeting than a wine tasting.

As for the wine, it was decent, but certainly not worth the hefty price tag. For a place that markets itself as high-end, we anticipated a tasting that matched the cost and hype. Instead, we were left unimpressed.

The biggest letdown came at the end: frozen pizza and tater tots. Yes, that was the grand food pairing. For a winery that prides itself on offering a premium experience, this felt like a joke—and not a funny one. It was a poor, mismatched ending to an already lackluster experience.

Overall, Del Dotto felt more like a tourist trap than a genuine celebration of wine. Sadly, we walked away feeling disappointed and a bit taken advantage of. Not the anniversary experience we...