Journey into wine

If you are at all like me there will be a small collection of strange, bright yellow liquids in oddly-shaped bottles cluttering up a dusty corner of a cupboard somewhere in your house; souvenirs of foreign holidays where that banana/lychee/cactus/monkfish-flavoured liqueur somehow tasted really nice at the end of a meal. Isn't it funny how all such bottles taste absolutely foul back in the cool reality of home?

And it's often the same with wine. There's an old wisdom that wine 'doesn't travel', and for lots of wines I have nursed through long flights or 36 hour car journies I wish I'd heeded that advice: dodgy Italian reds that taste like burnt Pirelli P5s; Maltese whites that would strip the enamel off an old tin bath. I've no doubt that sitting on a sun-baked terrace with a bowl of pasta in a balmy 28 degrees these genuinely did taste good, but context is everything in these matters.

So instead, let the Mountain go to Mohammed: wine-related travel is a growth business, and even if not a formal "wine holiday", many people have discovered that vineyard areas make for some of the most pleasant holiday experiences going. The natural elements are all there: a rural setting with sun-kissed slopes; a nearby river meandering slowly by; market towns and villages with well-established restaurants serving food that compliments the local production. Such idyllic places can be found all over the globe, but let's look at three prime examples:

The Napa Valley, California

Whilst the bulk of British tourism to the US is package holidays to Florida's amusement parks and beaches, the lure of California is also increasingly powerful. Just an hour or so's drive north of San Francisco is the Napa Valley, the USA's best-known wine region. Some wine buffs will snipe that the Napa has become too commercialised, too crowded with day-trippers. Whilst it's true that no wine region on earth is as geared-up for tourism as Napa, that reaction is a little bit churlish. Napa is a glorious sunshine setting, with distant hills glowing gold and welcoming stopping points all along the Silverado Trail wine route.

Napa is a very chic area with a wealthy population including lots of semi-retired industrialists, film makers and other US movers and shakers. This is reflected in a fabulous choice of fine restaurants and expensive hideaway hotels. As far as winery visiting goes, it couldn't be easier. The giant Robert Mondavi winery is one example of the kind of super-slick operation that has the purists blood up. Regular as clockwork, tours depart, samples are poured, and the gift shop tills ring with more tourist dollars buying Mondavi wines, coasters, key-rings and pens. But the bottom line is that the tour is first class and very informative, the wines are good, and the setting is lovely. The end of tour tasting is taken under a vine-covered pergola in the Mondavi gardens.

Alsace, France

High in the Northeast corner of France, hugging the German border, is the gorgeous region of Alsace. This is an area that most British tourists don't consider when a trip to France is mooted. Yet Alsace has so much going for it apart from its lovely wines. Under German rule until the first world war, Alsace has a distinctly mediaeval feel in the numerous villages that dot the wine route: impossibly picturesque villages, with cobbled streets, higgledy-piggledy half-timbered buildings and ubiquitous storks nesting on chimney tops.

Alsace has the second lowest rainfall in all of France, beaten only by the Mediterranean coast. The massive bulk of the Vosges mountains to the west protects the area from the elements, and the foothills form the slopes of some of the best vineyard sites. Alsace is also a fabulous place for the gourmet, with more Michelin-starred restaurants than you can shake a stick at, as well as simple winestuben and beer gardens. The town of Marlenheim sits at the northern tip of the wine route, and is where I ate one of my most memorable meals at the two-starred 'Le Cerf'. All along the meandering wine route south to Colmar are small winegrowers happy to show you around or pour you a sample.

The Douro, Portugal

A tale of two cities really - or two cities and a valley to be more precise. A visit to this area in northern Portugal, famous for Port and increasingly high quality table wines, should begin in the twin cities of Oporto and Villa Nova de Gaia, which straddle the river Douro. Oporto, Portugal's second largest city, is a charming (if hilly) old town with some lovely historical buildings. Designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1996, the railway station is just one building not to be missed. Walking across the Gustave Eiffel-designed Dom Luís I bridge takes you to Gaia, where the Port shippers have their lodges full of millions of gallons of maturing Port. Visitors are welcome, so take your pick for a glimpse of how this fascinating wine is produced - and a little tasting or two.

The grapes for Port are actually grown far up the river, in the baking heat of the dramatic and beautiful Douro Valley. Here ancient terraces are carved into steeply rising slopes on either side of the sparkling river. Following the contours of the hillsides, the vines cling to near vertical faces and harvesting by hand is back-breaking work. This is one of the most beautiful vine-growing areas on earth. Make your base at the wine town of Pinhão. You can take a small boat up the river from Oporto (around four hours sailing) and can travel back down by train, a journey which for its first hour at least is wonderfully scenic as the track hugs the river bank. If staying overnight in Pinhão, the grand Vintage House hotel is a lovely place with sumptuous surroundings and fine food, at prices that would seem laughable in central London (from £70 per room per night).

Tom Cannavan is author of The Good Web Guide to Wine and Publisher of Wine-Pages.com one of the world’s most popular wine sites.
TC