Wine Tourism

The new and improved Hanford House Inn

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The colors on the walls are gorgeous and each room blends gracefully into the other. Our second floor room was simply furnished and very comfortable and inviting. Breakfast was outstanding. Not being an Eggs Benedict fan, I was totally surprised with the mellowness of the Meyer Lemon sauce. Delicious.

About the Tempranillo Grape of Rioja

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This Bodega is not only known for its outstanding wines but it has, what most wine experts agree, the greatest wine museum in the world. We moved among the grape varietals in the garden listening to Rafael speak about the most important grapes grown in the Rioja wine region.

The Priorat and Montsant Wine Regions of Spain

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The Priorat is a county and within that county resides two official wine regions, the Montsant (D.0.) and the Priorat (D.O.Q). Geographically the Montsant wine region surrounds the Priorat wine region, and what separates the two regions is the soil. The Priorat soil consists of layers upon layers of slate, with a thin clay soil separating each layer. They call this soil “llicorella.”

Trends in Wine Tourism

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We were delighted to attend the Wine Tourism Conference last month held at the Flamingo Hotel in Santa Rosa. We met a lot of new people in the wine industry, as well as some new winery owners, winemakers and wine bloggers. We especially appreciated the intimate settings of the winery dinners offered as pre-conference visitations.

The Wine Industry Panel discussed the increased interest in visiting wineries in Southern Oregon, the state of Virginia and the Paso Robles wine region of Central California.

We learned that New York’s Finger Lakes is one of the fastest growing wine regions in the country. After having met author Evan Dawson at the European Wine Bloggers’ Conference in 2011, we read his book “Summer in a Glass,” which is a very personal look at winery owners and winemakers in this upstate wine region. We definitely have added that area to our “wish list” of future wine travel.

Wine Tourism in the Finger Lakes wine country
A great read on the Finger Lakes wine country

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