Visiting Wine Regions When You Do Not Know Much About Wine
Wine tourism sounds intimidating if you cannot tell a Barbera from a Barbaresco. In practice, the people pouring are almost always delighted to explain, and two visits a day is plenty.
6 min read
Two estates a day, and lunch at the second
A tasting takes an hour to ninety minutes if you are being shown the cellar. Three or four in a day is a blur, and by the last one your palate has stopped cooperating.
Book the second visit to include lunch where that is offered. Wine with food is the entire point, and tasting six wines on an empty stomach at 11:00 is how people end up asleep in the car.
Getting there without driving
Chianti has buses and trains to Greve. Beaune in Burgundy is a train station with walkable domaines. Porto's Douro valley is served by one of the great scenic railway lines. Jerez in Spain is on the Seville line.
Where public transport does not reach, a driver for the day split between four people usually costs less than a rental car plus the risk of drinking and driving.
- Train-friendly: Beaune, Greve in Chianti, Pinhao, Jerez, Colmar in Alsace
- Needs a car or driver: most of Piedmont, inner Provence, Priorat
Three questions that open a conversation
Ask what is planted here and why, ask what a good year and a difficult year taste like, and ask which of their wines they drink at home. That last question produces the most honest answer you will get all day.
Nobody expects you to identify aromas. Saying you like or dislike something, and asking why, is a better conversation than pretending.
Costs and etiquette
Tastings are 10 to 30 EUR in most of Europe, often waived if you buy a bottle or two. Spitting is normal and nobody thinks less of you for it.
Book ahead. Small family domaines are not shops and often have nobody free to receive walk-ins, especially during harvest in September and October.
Buying and shipping
Within the EU, carrying a few bottles in checked luggage is straightforward if they are wrapped and padded. Wine skins cost a few euro and work.
For anything more than six bottles, ask the estate about shipping. Many have arrangements and the cost per bottle drops sharply with volume.
