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Monday, February 22, 2010

Interesting Facts on Wine Tasting Tour

Wine tasting tours, as the name suggests, are tours designed exclusively for the purpose of sampling wines. Some of the best wine tasting tours are undertaken in Napa Valley and Sonoma Valley in California. These are internationally famous regions where all varieties of grapes are widely grown and further processed into wine.

Tourists to Napa valley are a blessed lot who have tremendous opportunities to taste hundreds of different wines from a plethora of wineries, assessing them and making comparisons. You can undertake a wine tasting tour by directly organizing the trip with the vineyards or through some reliable tourist operators.

A wine tasting tour revolves around visiting all the prominent wineries, both big and small, tasting the different types of wine and possibly meet the wine producers and gathering maximum information about the wine. There are some organizers of wine tasting tour who arrange for you to taste as many wines as you possibly can. The entire trip may be day long and traditionally comprise lunch, dinner, refreshments and other lodgings as well.

You can undertake a wine tasting tour either by bus or a separate limousine. In most cases, the tour arranged by a private company sells seats tickets in the bus to tourists and narrates the order in which wineries will be visited. On the other hand, a small group of tourists can travel in car or limousine privately visiting such of those wineries they wish to. However, in both cases, the driver has to remain absolutely clear-headed for obvious reasons.

In many cases, a winery or tasting area is also open to tourists during daytime only. With some select wineries, the owners might in addition offer tours of the wine lab and part with a lot of information that could interesting for people who are eager to know all about wines. Here are some valuable tips to make your wine trip truly purposeful.

  • Try something new and exotic with every winery you visit. Compare the wines aged in steel to those aged in oak. The more you experiment the wiser you will become.
  • Make it a point to jot down all that you are told by the knowledgeable winery owners... Most wineries offer a list that will assist you on keeping track.
  • You will be a big gainer if you undertake a wine tour during lean season. November through May is an excellent time if you want to avoid rush. You might be one of the very few guests all day, and the staff can give you undivided attention.
  • Winery staff, as a rule love to interact and help educate. They are trained to know a lot about the wines you taste. So, ask them questions and seek all types of clarifications.
  • Do not visit only the big and better known wineries. Go to some of the smaller ones in the area and you will be surprised at the quality of wine they sell.
  • Develop a sharp nose. The aroma of the wine is half the fun of tasting.
  • Be patient. If you prefer to visit during the peak seasons, you will have a great time tasting, but it may take quite some time for the staff to attend to you.
  • To test for a really good wine, swirl it around the glass. Legs or tears are what are left trickling down the glass after swirling. The stickier and longer the legs the better the quality.