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Wine Enthusiast Magazine listed the Ten Best Wine Travel Destinations for 2012 in a series of articles published last month on their website. I found eight of the ten. The big one for me was Virginia. It’s the only region on the list that Kathy and I have visited, although we visit Virginia wineries and vineyards a couple times each year and have done so now for several years. The Virginia wine regions tend to draw people to them.
Just last month I wrote a blog suggesting that the International Wine Tourism Conference should consider Virginia as a sight for a future conference. In my blog I mentioned the proximity to Washington D.C., Virginia’s rich history and that a number of wineries are preserving that history. The Wine Enthusiast article by Alexis Korman also mentioned the historical sites and Washington D.C., but also added pastoral landscapes, horses and affable winemakers.
Wait, aren’t all winemakers affable? Actually we discovered one assistant winemaker in Virginia that wasn’t that friendly. He was from another notable world wine region and bashed Virginia because of its humidity and insects. What he didn’t realize at the time was that people are discovering that winemakers in Virginia can make wines that they like to drink regardless of humidity and insects.
Alexis Korman also mentioned in her article the prominent wine varieties in the state including Viognier, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot and Merlot. The varietal grapes mentioned in my December blog were slightly different. It included Viognier, Petit Manseng, Petit Verdot and Tannat. Petit Manseng is becoming more popular as well as Tannat. I deliberately did not mention Cabernet Sauvignon because at an earlier wine conference in the state, a panel of Virginia winemakers agreed that Cabernet Sauvignon doesn’t always ripen and can’t be counted on year after year.
Here is a list of eight of the Wine Enthusiast’s best travel Destinations for 2012.
Virginia, United States
Priorat-Cambrils, Spain
Central Otago, South Island, New Zealand
Tokaj-Hegyalja, Hungary
Mosel Valley, Germany
Champagne, France
Colchagua Valley, Chile
Santa Barbara, California, United States
Cheers,
Terry
FAM Trips
FAM is short for familiarization. A FAM trip is designed by a sponsor to provide experiences for the participants. If the participants are bloggers and media, they will write or broadcast about these experiences. Since 2008 we have attended both group and individual FAM trips designed for bloggers and media. It is interesting to note that not all sponsoring agencies like group FAM trips.
Our first FAM trip was with a group of writers, one was a magazine editor that had issues with all the wines we tasted and winemakers we met. The other media representatives on the trip felt sorry for us because we were in the same van as this individual who had nothing good to say about our online publication. On the other hand, we have been with group FAM trips where the group gelled together and worked well together. The reason sited by sponsoring agencies against hosting a group FAM trip is the occasional participant that causes a sour note for all the other writers. It was probably good for us to experience this, however we have also experienced group trips that were very positive.
So we are keenly interested in experiencing the FAM trip to Italy with 20 other bloggers and media. Fortunately we already know four of the twenty and look forward to meeting the others. We met Paul & Merrill Bonarrigo at their Messina Hof Winery on our first visit to Texas in 2009. The following year we met Tom Plant while attending winery media events in Temecula, California. Later in 2010 we went on a wine tour with Tom and wrote about his tour company WINEormous. Although we were both at the 2011 Wine Bloggers Conference in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2011, we didn’t meet Marcy Gordon until November at the Wine Tourism Conference in Napa. We have been emailing Marcy since the November conference.
The Italy FAM trip is sponsored by Wine Pleasures. It will include visits to wine related sites in Umbria and Campania. We are looking forward to meeting other writers that have a passion for wine. Over the next several weeks, we’ll write blog entries about them and their publications. In addition to visiting wineries, the group will also attend the International Wine Tourism Conference in Perugia, Italy.
Cheers,
Terry