The Beauty of Wine Touring
Wine Trips are one of the great pleasures in life. Whether you are away on holiday and want to find a new activity for the day – or maybe you decide to go on a 3 or 4 day wine trip, it is certainly a pastime that ticks a lot of boxes. As well as visiting bars and restaurants to enjoy local wines and customs, for me, the highlight is actually visiting the vineyards/estates/chateaux themselves. This is where you can really get to grips with what wine is all about. And the beauty of visiting a few different estates in a region is about experiencing different styles and scales. For example, if you are in Southern Rhone, you could visit the iconic Chateau Beaucastel in Chateauneuf du Pape – and it is a stunning, grand and opulent estate that has wines that are collected all over the world. Just down the road in Vacqueyras, you have the artisanal Le Sang des Cailloux vineyard. These vineyards couldn’t be more different in style, culture and probably price point – but from an experience point of view, both absolutely fantastic and highly recommended. At Waud Wines, we have been running wine tours (branded as our Tour du Vin) for the past 10+ years – funnily enough starting out with the Rhone trip and visiting Beaucastel and Sang de Cailloux in 2011. These trips are primarily for our Waud Wine Club members – and we typically host two or three trips a year. Taking between 10 and 16 members each time, we have ticked off a very good proportion of the famous wine regions of the Old World. In France, we have covered Rhone, Loire, Burgundy, Bordeaux, Languedoc, Alsace, Champagne and South West France. In Spain, our first trip to North East Spain was a particular highlight visiting Priorat, Montsant, Penedes and Costers del Segre. Of course you have to fit in a trip to Rioja – and this was a super trip visiting the famous Muga, La Rioja Alta, Marques de Murrieta, Miguel Merino, Roda and more. This year sees a touring party head to Ribera del Duero for the first time – visiting Figuero and Arzuaga that we list already – but also to new estates such as Bodegas Aalto and Pesquera. The two Italian trips have also been great fun. Tuscany was particularly good – with visits to Frescobaldi Nipozzano, Ornellaia, Poggio al Tesoro, Tua Rita and Allegrini San Polo. We have a new trip to Tuscany in October 2023 – where we expect to visit Tenuta San Guido, Querciabella and cult favourite Bibbi Graetz. Sicily was certainly an excellent trip too. During the Covid years where we were confined to the UK – we decided to take advantage of the very popular English wine culture – with a trip to Kent and Sussex. In Sussex, Rathfinny was the highlight of the trip – and we certainly have converted a huge number of our clients to enjoy their wines. From Kent, of course you have Chapel Down, the biggest producer in the UK, as well as an interesting trip to Balfour Hushheath.
Upcoming Tours:
In 2023, we look forward to hosting the following 3 trips; Ribera del Duero in Spain – May 2023 Loire Valley in France – July 2023 Tuscany in Italy – October 2023 The second two tours are sold out, but we do have places available for the Ribera del Duero trip. We would love to welcome you to join us on one of our wine tours. They are fun, relaxed and mildly educational, in great company, so please do keep your eyes peeled and sign up where you can! Very best, Charles Waud
