Wine Tourism – What are the best places for wine lovers?

Wine tourism, like gastronomic tourism, is gaining more and more strength worldwide. This concept is merging gastronomic tourism, wine and culture, adding a great value for those who love wine and good food. It is a specific type of tourism for wine regions. This type of tourism is as beneficial and enriching for tourists as for wineries, which use it to promote their products and get free feedback from their customers to help them improve the quality of their products.

What are the main destinations within Spain?

As mentioned before, wine tourism focuses on the areas with the highest wine production. The truth is that in Spain, in almost all the autonomous communities we can find wine tourism, as we are the third country with the largest wine production in the world behind Italy and France. Therefore, we have more than 70 denominations of origin from different parts of the peninsula, which proves once again the diversity and richness of Spanish wines.

However, there are certain places with a greater tradition and wine history that deserve to be visited by any wine lover. Among these sites we can highlight:

• La Rioja
• La Ribera del Duero
• Penedés
• Jerez de la Frontera
• Galicia
• Castilla la Mancha

What are the main wine tourism destinations outside Spain?

Wine tourism is a widespread practice throughout the world, however, we can tell you some places that are truly worth visiting if you have the opportunity, as they can offer you a unique experience.

• In Europe, we can highlight places of Italy such as Tuscany or the Langhe, Bordeaux, Burgundy or Val-de-Loire in France and some other places like Paris, Porto, Mainz, Mosel or Santorini, are some of the many destinations.
• In Australia, we can highlight Barrossa Valley, located in the south of Australia, has managed to become popular for the quality of its wines and its endearing natural environment.
• In the United States, we find the wine region of California that has an area equivalent to nearly three-quarters of France, representing over 90% of wine production in the United States.
• In Argentina, we can find a very interesting region called Mendoza, which combines an interesting variety of specific factors like melting waters, valleys with mountainous landscapes and an enriching local gastronomy.
• In Chile, the region of Valparaiso is also well known in the wine world for its unique geographical characteristics that influence surprisingly on the maturation of wines. This region is especially known for its white wines.

Hopefully this post has encouraged you on a journey into one of these landmark places for wine lovers.