11 exciting reasons to be a wine tourist
You love travelling, and you love wine?
Perfect.
Now let’s combine the two and you are in for the best-ever travel experience you could imagine.
The best of all, you do not need to be a wine geek to enjoy visiting a wine region. It’s sufficient you come with a good portion of interest and curiosity.
Wine regions exist around the world, including locations you would never guess vines are growing. And even the smallest wine regions will offer some kind of wine tourism.
From the historic winegrowing nations of France, Italy, Spain, and Germany to southeastern Europe, Australia, New Zealand, China and increasingly other Asia locations, expanding wine regions across the U.S., South America, Canada, and South Africa, you will find wine regions abound around the world.
Below, I have listed the main reasons that make wine travelling the most amazing experience.
Breathtakingly beautiful landscape
Wine regions offer some of the most beautiful landscapes in the world.
From the incredibly steep slopes in the Mosel Valley in Germany to the gently rolling hills of Tuscany, Sicily’s Mount Etna region, Bordeaux, the stunning Douro Vally in Portugal, California wine country, the South African Winelands, the diverse wine regions of Canada on the shores of large mountain lakes, and anywhere in between, you will find yourself in some of the world’s most stunning locations.
Beyond the sheer beautify of the landscape, within a wine region you will usual find small (and often historic) wine villages full of charm, chateaus and castles dotting the landscape (mostly in Europe), along with beautiful historic and modern cellar buildings.
Meeting the winemakers
If you want to learn about wine, there is no better way than to do so from the people that make the wine.
The first people you will come across visiting a winery’s tasting room are most likely the staff dedicated to look specifically after visitors. But you might be surprised how often you will be able to speak directly to the winemaker.
Especially when travelling to the lesser-known areas or visiting smaller family-led wineries, the winemaker and owner will be part of the tasting room staff. And they will take the time to speak to you as soon as they realize you have a genuine interest. So, start to ask questions. They do not need to be sophisticated. Simply demonstrating you like to know more will be enough for the winemaker to talk you through the story of a wine or of the winery.
Discover local wines you never knew existed
Find a well-stocked wine shop near you, or look online, and you can find many wines from a wide range of locations to take home. But even the best wine shops (local or online) will miss a great deal of local wines.
Especially wines from smaller, lesser-known wine regions are still largely sold almost exclusively on the home market. The same is true for wines made from indigenous grape varieties, which often represent only a small (albeit growing) quantity of wine production.
Many wineries will ship only part of their full wine range internationally, focusing on those wines they know will find a large customer base. Meanwhile, they often sell their flagship wines, special editions, and those wines produced in small numbers only locally or within the borders of their home country.
Visiting a wine region, you will be offered to taste wines you never knew existed.
Wine never tastes batter then in the region where it’s made
This age old saying remains true to the core.
It is just something completely different to sip a wine directly where it’s produced.
While scientifically, this is certainly just nonsense, it’s kind of what you hear all the time. I’d think it is down to a different mindset when you are on vacation, all the additional impressions from new surroundings to having the time to sit down and enjoy the wine.
So whether true or not, it’s another compelling reason to go on a winery tour.
Wine regions are fantastic foodie destinations
It’s an accepted rule. In an area where wine is produced, you will find excellent food by default.
Food and wine belong together, and you can trust that a wine region will always be a fantastic culinary destination.
Local restaurants will usually offer farm-to-table locally sources food that pairs perfectly with local wines.
And growing wine tourism over the past decade has encouraged many wineries to add food to their offerings. Whether that’s adding a selection of food and wine pairings at their tasting rooms, a wine picnic in the vineyards, or opening a full-fledged restaurant on site, when visiting a winery today you will usually find a wide range of food options too.
Attending wine festivals and events
Around the world, wine regions will host their own wine festivals and other wine related events.
If you travel to the German wine regions, for example, you will realize that from around March through to October nearly all the small wine villages will host their own wine festival. Other wine related events are also taking place regionally such as ‘open wine cellars’, food and wine pairing events, wine picnics, and more.
In Italy, fantastic wine related events are the cantine aperte (open wine cellars), calici di stelle (wine under the stars – a wine tasting event in the vineyards held annually in August).
Simply google ‘wine festival’ for the region you plan to visit. It would be quite a big surprise if you would not come up with a list of different events worth to attend.
Stunning art and architecture
At the most basics, expect to find beautiful wine-related properties.
Historic winegrowing nations such as France, Germany and Italy boast many historic wineries located at former monasteries, castles, and grand manor houses. Meanwhile in the so-called new world wine destinations (those outside of Europe even though many of them also look at centuries of winemaking), wine cellars are often more modern, with often spectacular design. Though even here you will still find old historic properties in the mix.
And while building spectacular new wine cellars and tasting rooms spotting quirky modern architecture and design started in the new world regions, this historic winemaking nations are now following suit. Including the trend to add art installations and exhibitions at the winers.
Thus, expect to be in for stunning art and architecture experiences travelling to a wine region.
Gorgeous winery accommodation
Whether it’s a wine-related hotel within a wine region or a winery that offers guestrooms, wine regions around the world have created stunning accommodations.
Across Europe, you might find yourself staying in old monasteries or castle like properties. Other wineries have built their own wine hotels on-site, often spotting stunning modern architecture.
Or look for those wineries offering such quirky accommodation like wine barrels, barns, cottages, or tents directly in the vineyards.
The range of accommodation close to vineyard areas has increased tremendously over the past decade. Many of those locations today offer wider wine-related packages, including excursions to wineries and vineyards, wine tastings, wine and cooking classes and wine tasting menus at their own restaurant.
Wine regions offer a large range of activities beyond wine
It’s not all about the wine when visiting wine regions. While it might be the main reason, you won’t be limited to wine tasting.
Across the world, wine regions have extended the list of activities for visitors.
By default, you can expect to find many kilometres of hiking and biking routs through the vineyards. Other exciting activities can range from cooking classes, art courses (painting, pottery, photography, etc.), hot-air ballon rides, horse riding, wellness and spa treatments, boat excursions on nearby rivers or lakes, kayaking, music events, and more.
Wine tourism is (largely) sustainable
Working with nature is essential in wine regions. That’s why the surface of vineyards worked organically is rapidly growing globally. And a strong local mindset adapting to sustainable production and overall sustainable lifestyle also translates into wine tourism.
Wine regions are implanting sustainable tourism by offering improved public transport (also ideal when going wine tasting), increase train connections to the area, and other measures to improve smart tourism.
Wine tourism benefits local businesses
We all want to be more conscious travellers and wine tourism by definition benefits local businesses. When you travel to a wine region, go wine tasting, eat local, and perhaps stay directly at a winery, your visit will directly feed into the local economy.
Travelling to a wine region will allow you to explore the area through local flavours and expand your knowledge about wine and food.
Carrots and Tigers 