Travel & Wine Update

Travel & Wine Update

The Best Wines in the World

The Haut-Médoc zone is home to the ``famous four`` appellations of Margaux, Pauillac, Saint-Estèphe and Saint-Julien. The 1855 classification of Bordeaux wines was created at the request of Emporer Napoleon III, to be presented at the Exposition Universelle de Paris. Showcasing the very best French wines, the classification ranked sixty top Bordeaux reds. The original rankings still stand 160 years later, with only one change; the promotion of Chateau Mouton Rothschild to Premier Cru status in 1973.

Travel & Wine Update

The English, Christopher Columbus and Port Wine

If Portugal is the mother of Port, then England is certainly its father. The famous Port firms were begun by people with such properly English names as Sandeman, Croft, Graham, Cockburn, Dow, and Warre.

Travel & Wine Update

Of Castles & Wine - The Lore Valley of France

The Loire Valley is the heart of France, famous for its natural beauty, magnificent châteaux and great wine. The region is rich in history and culture: Renaissance writer Rabelais was born here; Joan of Arc led French troops to victory in the Hundred Years’ War in the Loire; and, as the Cradle of the French Language, its residents speak the purest French.

Travel & Wine Update

The Wild West of Wine - Paso Robles

Paso Robles is a wine region for the wild-hearted. The town El Paso de Robles (which means Pass of the oak trees) was co-founded by Kentucky outlaws Frank and Jesse James’ uncle Drury around 1869. Today, Paso Robles is still considered by many as the wine industry’s wild west, characterized by that same rule breaking diversity and innovative spirit in which the town was founded.

Travel & Wine Update

The Valpolicella Wine Region of Italy

Valpolicella, known as the ‘pearl of Verona’, is a hidden gem just East of Lake Garda, Verona. Valpolicella is an intensely beautiful region whose name comes from “Val polis cellae” and means “valley of many cellars” and is characterized by the steep, vine-laced ridges that run alongside its gurgling mountain streams.

Travel & Wine Update

The Istria Wine Region of Croatia

Istria is a heart-shaped peninsula in the north-west of Croatia, where the hills are dense with truffles and the coast appears to glitter. This is the millennial’s Tuscany – the food is influenced by nearby Venice (Italy controlled the area until 1947), the verdant olive groves inland produce award-winning oils, the sea is Instagram blue and surrounds cobbled fishing villages.

Travel & Wine Update

The Dalmatia Wine Region of Croatia

Dalmatia is one of the four wine regions in Croatia and covers the area from the city of Zadar and its hinterland to the Konavle municipality in the far south. The southernmost region of Croatia, Dalmatia, is most often recognized as home to Dubrovnik, the iconic UNESCO city whose walls cradle its preserved stone buildings and rows of terraced stairs; a city which evokes an indescribable feeling of wonder that electrifies even the most seasoned world travelers.

Travel & Wine Update

Chenin Blanc in South Africa

While the Loire Valley may be the viticultural birthplace of Chenin Blanc, the grape’s true resurgence lies in South Africa, where two-thirds of the world’s Chenin Blanc originates. Also locally named Steen, Chenin Blanc currently occupies nearly 20% of the South Africa's vineyards. It is mostly grown in the coastal regions of Stellenbosch, Paarl and Swartland of the Western Cape Province, each with distinctive terroir.

Travel & Wine Update

The Ribera del Duero Wines of Spain

Ribera del Duero is an important wine region in Castilla y Leon northern Spain. Its reputation is largely thanks to the high-quality of its red wines, with the best examples renowned throughout the wine world.