BootsnAll Travel Community

Not that I haven't been known to down a bottle of red on occasion, but I'm simple. So, this inquiry is for my wife, as her palette is a bit more, how do you say... refined than mine.

What's your favorite wine region - be it you've visited in person or maybe just know what's on the label - from around the world?

We're from Oregon, so our in-person experience has been limited to the Willamette Valley in norther Oregon and the Napa Valley in California. We're taking off for our RTW in October and the Marlborough Region in NZ (Courtney's FAVORITE!!) is on the itinerary to hit within the first few weeks.

Why do I see the next year of travel being centered around wine tasting...

If I ever go on a wine tour, it'll be to the Eger region of Hungary. It's an amazing country and Egri Bikavert is probably my favorite wine.

From what I've tasted from the cheap import section of the local liquor store, I'd bet there would be some good wine touring in Romania and Croatia as well.

My absolute favorite wine region is the Loire Valley in France. There you can sample wines in fancy vineyards and in the backyard sheds of smaller vintners. Plus, they have some fantastic sweet wines that make summer, dessert, ok, any old time, lovely. Of those, try Coteaux du Layon and Muscadet.

Last summer, I spent some time in the Okanagan Valley in BC, and had a great time going from winery to winery. Summerhill Winery, among others, makes ice wine, which is a sweet white. It is pricey but worth the cost for the experience.

I was pleasantly surprised to find a whole slew of wineries in Kansas, of all places. While you'll have to make up your own mind about that, I liked the novelty of elderberry wines. I had never even heard of this yet alone tasted it until I drove through Kansas.

May I suggest you check out 1000 wines- the tale of to BNA members RTW wine centric trip. Currently, Bri is working at a vineyard in NZ, pretty cool stuff.

Edit: and they are originally from OR

I've become very fond of Swiss wines over the past few years. Great stuff. Specifically, anything from Ticino, Vallis or Vaud. (Note: screw caps have no stigma here.) Zurich wines? Yuck.

Fogo in Cape Verde.

I very much enjoyed living and working in Marlboro, NZ.

But my favorite is my college town of Walla Walla, WA. Great big bold reds. But not quite as loud as Australian reds.

Rhineland, Germany was beautiful too. Gorgeous in springtime with green hills, flowers, and old castles to sleep in. If you like white wines, that is...

I've done several winery tours in Oz and tasted many wines and out of them all I'd say the "Barossa" is my favourite region. I love shiraz - a good full-bodied wine, peppery with strong overtones of berry. Wolf Blass did a beauty - the "Holy Trinity" which is from Grenache-Shiraz-Mourvedre vines. But like all wines, some years are better than others.

Their grey label Shiraz about $40 is a real treat. I recently scored just about the last remaining bottle of Whitchmount's 2004 Shiraz - it took out first prize at the Syrah du Monde. I've given my family fair warning it's all mine. LOL

Fortified wines are another of my passions, usually liqueur ports /some day I'd love to vist the vineyards of France.

EDIT: Net dropped out - So I'd love to visit the French vineyards - Bordeaux, Champagne, Languedoc-Roussillon. I've had some very good French reds and some not so good.

Don't drink whites much - give me white wine and I'm anybody's - nah it's the Reds, I've graduated to almost a full bottle and can still remain upright -woozy but upright.

But French champagne? Bollinger I reckon is my fav but Moet?Uh uh.