Europe-Wine-Region-Guides

It isn’t the views but rather the aromas that capture you as you drive through the Dão wine region: pine, eucalyptus, the fresh forest pours through the crevices of even a closed car door window. The aromas are overwhelming. The view, however, is surprisingly …

How are wine corks made? It’s a much longer process than you might imagine – it can take up to half a century to get your first quality wine cork from a tree. Following my visit to the cork harvest in Portugal, I put together a …

The Couvent des Jacobins is an integral producer in Saint Emilion’s wine history. It’s not very often you get to taste a vertical going back half a century, but while in Bordeaux recently I was lucky enough to do an excellent vertical at one …

The Douro is easily one of the most spectacular wine landscapes in the world… The Douro river snakes its way through the valley where vines and stacked stone terraces appear to almost tumble down dramatically steep schist hillsides, the very sight of which induce …

Lavaux is one of the most striking wine regions in Switzerland with dramatic vineyards dropping off into Lake Geneva and facing France to the south. Over 800 hectares of continuous vineyards are blanketed on the steep hillsides beside the lake and vines have been …

As a journalist visiting wine harvests, I’m pretty used to swanning in and out while others are doing the hard work. While the harvest team are busily picking grapes under the hot sun, I usually just take photos, kick around a few rocks with …

There’s a black bunch next to a white bunch, which is next to a pink bunch. “This is the problem in Austria!” says winemaker Dorli Muhr, as we stand between vine rows and windmills in Spitzerberg. “The vineyards have passed down so many family …

The crumbling stone walls, first laid some 2400 years ago, stand at complete odds with the budget airline jumbo jets flying overhead. Hvar may be a party destination to some, but there’s a completely different side to this Croatian island – one which has …

I don’t know what’s not to love about Istria. The people welcome you as if you have returned home after a long voyage; the rolling green hillsides are crowned with Medieval castles, and this is a land of truffles and wine. Honestly, within about …

Croatia is a beautiful country to visit on any holiday, but it is also a great option for wine lovers and wine adventurists. I spent 10 days hopping between wine regions and islands (and, yes, I did some beach hopping too) which was about right …