For some people, wine tasting is an event on a vacation.\u00a0 For others, especially those who live close to Wine Country, it\u2019s an occasional excursion.\u00a0 Then there are some, like ourselves, who choose to take several days or even a week and spend the whole time in a particular wine region, with the primary purpose of tasting wine.\u00a0 We do it every year somewhere in California and have arranged our vacations that way in France, Italy and Australia.\u00a0 But that\u2019s not all.\u00a0 This sort of vacation is also about immersing ourselves in the natural (and man-made) beauty of the region, picnicking, dining, lazing by the pool and generally relaxing.<\/p>\n
A multi-day wine tasting excursion is not the same as a series of one-day trips.\u00a0 While each vacation day may stand alone, there are some significant differences with day-long outings from a central location outside Wine Country.\u00a0 For one thing, there is no need to rush back to wherever one came from at the end of the day.\u00a0 For another, one can sleep late and still be out tasting as the wineries open.\u00a0 And there is none of the psychological pressure to see and experience as much as possible each day; what does not happen today can wait for tomorrow.\u00a0 There might even be a day where the morning is spent in some other activity like visiting art galleries and the afternoon left to the wineries.<\/p>\n
Most important perhaps is that a dedicated wine taster (anyone who spends several days going from winery to winery is by definition dedicated) can approach the wines differently and gain a more focused perspective.\u00a0 One day might be given to comparing an unfamiliar grape, such as Syrah or Pinot Gris, at multiple wineries.\u00a0 Another could be dedicated to comparing different winemakers\u2019 approaches to Bordeaux blends or Chardonnay.\u00a0 Visitors with some knowledge of the best-known labels might enjoy a day of tasting only wines from unfamiliar vineyards; there is no better way to deepen one\u2019s understanding of the region and its products.<\/p>\n
As with day-trippers, a multi-day vacationer should limit visits to a concentrated region.\u00a0 Napa Valley, for example, aside from being a geographic region is also an American Viticultural Area (or AVA).\u00a0 There are 16 sub-appellations from Calistoga in the north to Carneros in the south.\u00a0 (Just to confuse matters, the area around Napa City does not have a sub-appellation, although we think it should.\u00a0 And to carry the confusion even further, most people refer to the sub-appellations as AVAs anyway.)\u00a0\u00a0 It is possible for a vacationer with several days to spend to return to just one AVA and learn how adjoining properties growing the same grapes make very dissimilar wines, adding fuel to the argument that it is winemakers\u2019 skills that make the difference.<\/p>\n
Oh, but wait\u2026\u00a0 When you actually see the properties, with minute differences of sun, elevation, proximity to water and other aspects of microclimate, you will be able to say that it is all about terroir.\u00a0 Only by giving yourself the opportunity to go into depth within an AVA does one get the knowledge to participate in the argument at all.<\/p>\n
If you do spend several days winetasting, it is important to avoid a certain jadedness.\u00a0 If all you have been tasting has been wine of an extremely high quality, the bottle you can afford to order at dinner may seem a little bland, or maybe more than a little.\u00a0 Of course, there are many winemakers in the great winemaking areas in the US and abroad who aspire to greatness and not a few who achieve it.\u00a0 If you focus only on tasting the very best that one particular region of Wine Country has to offer, you will miss many excellent wines that you will be able to buy once you get home.\u00a0 You might try one of those wines and say to yourself \u201cGee, this awfully good.\u00a0 I wonder why I didn\u2019t care for it when I was on vacation.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s all too easy to become an instant wine snob.\u00a0 Don\u2019t let the superb be the enemy of the very good.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For some people, wine tasting is an event on a vacation.\u00a0 For others, especially those who live close to Wine Country, it\u2019s an occasional excursion.\u00a0 Then there are some, like ourselves, who choose to take several days or even a week and spend the whole time in a particular wine region, with the primary purpose … Continue reading A Wine Tasting Vacation<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=305"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":319,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305\/revisions\/319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}