Wine Tours

Many people dream of a vacation that includes beautiful scenery, excellent food, interesting places to visit and perhaps even some form of exercise, like walking, hiking or bicycling. Luckily, such a trip is available in the form of the many wine tours and vineyard tastings available around the world.

Wine tours are so incredibly popular that entire travel agencies are dedicated to their arrangement and execution. Additionally, many people are able to handle all of their own arrangements because many of the world’s “wine countries” have vineyards and accommodations within easy travel from one another. Some of the most popular places for wine tours include:

• Napa Valley or Sonoma, California
• France
• Italy
• Spain
• Argentina – primarily locations on the western side of the country
• Barossa Valley in Australia
• Colchague and Maule Valleys of Chile
• Germany

Any wine tours involve a bit of planning and organization since not all vineyards are able to provide tastings or tours year-round. Additionally, some areas may require some research to determine the best methods of transportation from one area to another as well. For example, the hospitable weather and climate of Northern California makes it a year-round destination for wine enthusiasts and wine tours, whereas Germany has cold and snowy winters that may make a vineyard tasting or tour impossible.

As stated earlier, there are an amazing number of ways to enjoy wine tours, which could involve anything from travelling along with a bus full of other wine and food enthusiasts to river cruises, train journeys, bicycle excursions or chauffer driven trips.

The key to discovering the right tour is to all ready have a good understanding of wine, and choose the region that produces any particularly preferred or favorite wines. For example, someone who is very fond of Shiraz wines may want to include wine tours in their itinerary for a trip to Australia, where the Syrah/Shiraz grapes are produced. This would mean that day trips to the Barossa and Hunter Valleys along with McLaren Vale areas of Australia could form a large or very memorable part of a vacation.

In the United States the most popular wine tours begin in the traditional Sonoma and Napa Valley regions of California, but have begun to expand to neighboring states as well, with Washington State beginning to catch up to California in both production and popularity. The Columbia Gorge, Yakima Valley, Puget Sound and Cascades areas have many public wine tours at the more than four hundred bonded vineyards in the state.

Additionally, the states of Oregon, New York, and Michigan have thriving vineyards as well, most with tastings and tours available to visitors. There are also many annual wine festivals popping up in these busy, wine-producing states, and it would be a great idea to plan a tour during such an event.

One of the surest methods of enjoying European wine tours is by booking a journey with a specialty wine or gourmet touring company. Such groups have access to almost every facility in operation, and can completely eliminate concerns around travel and maneuvering the “back road” locations of many of the world’s finest vineyards and wine making facilities. Additionally, such arrangements usually mean that the wine is accompanied by perfectly prepared, gourmet foods. Such wine tours can often allow participants to discover small corners of a country that would have otherwise remained unknown to them, thanks in large part to the experts that staff such agencies. Wine tours are a wonderful method of learning more about the global wine industry, discovering new vineyards and vintages to share with friends back home, and provide a deeply satisfying way of taking a memorable holiday.