A recent trip took us down to Australia to stay with friends who live in Adelaide and tour the local wine regions. Adelaide is the largest city in the Province of South Australia, a port city on the island’s southern coast and South Australia’s capital. It is within an hour’s drive of three of South Australia’s most important wine regions. This is gorgeous real estate, rolling hills that are dedicated to grazing lands and various crops including vineyards. It is sparsely populated and still has that rural, undiscovered feel to it. And as we found, it is a terrific place to visit and taste. There is a great variety of wines to try: numerous different white and red varieties and a surprising range of microclimates, resulting in wines of many different styles. In addition to tasting some terrific wines, we also discovered an amazing foodie culture when we were there. It is a fabulous wine region to visit and we are already thinking about a return visit.
Biodynamics (also referred to as Biodynamic Farming or Biodynamic Agriculture) is definitely a hot topic in the wine world theses days. Some of the most revered vineyards in the world have adopted the practice. We are talking the likes of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, Domaine LeRoy, Maison M. Chapoutier, Domaine Zind Humbrecht, to name just a handful of the more than 700 worldwide wine estates employing this controversial and little understood practice.
Bodegas Muga is one of the leading wineries in Spain’s elite wine region of Rioja. We not only got to tour and taste at Muga, but the winery hosted us at a very special private lunch at their winery. Ten of us were a part of the very exclusive Bordeaux to Rioja wine tour put on by Iberian Wines Tours and it was Iberian’s connection with the winery that got us this special invitation. One of the great things about going on these tours is that you get into places that you simply cannot on your own.
Deutz is one of Champagne’sGrande Marques , the name the Champenoise give to the big houses in the region such as MoëtChandon, Taitinger, Bollinger, Veuve Cliquot, Pol Roger and the like. Founded in 1838 it was originally known as Deutz Geldermann, taking its name from founders William Deutz and Pierre-Hubert Geldermann, both involved in the wine trade by profession. Deutz is located in the village of Ay, one of the 17 villages in Champagne to be awarded the very prestigious Grande Cru status.
Bodegas Amaren, the sister winery to Luis Cañas, is a tribute to winemaker Juan Luis Cañas’ mother Maria Ángeles. Located in Samaniego, a town in the Province of Álava in Basque country, it lies within the Rioja Alavesa wine region, the smallest sub region of Rioja in Spain. Ángeles was a woman known for her dedication to the family vineyards as well as a passionate appreciation for the earth. It is that same commitment to quality and respect for the environment that the winery aims to bring to every bottle.
¿CóMO? Taperia opened in Vancouver, BC on November 26 to a buzz rarely seen in a city known to be especially demanding—and notoriously ruthless—on restaurants. ‘Como’ holds several meanings in Spanish including “come again” and “to eat”. It is an authentically Spanish phrase that is the perfect name for a concept that until now had been sorely missing in a place known for its world-class dining scene.
Canadians aren’t generally known to boast, but we’re lucky enough to have an airline that has been named North America’s Best Airline at the Skytrax World Airline Awards 7 of the last 9 years (including the past 2 consecutive years), so we’re going to make an exception. On a long-haul trip from Vancouver to Sydney, we had the opportunity to see firsthand that the accolades are truly deserved.
AdVINEtures was recently invited to Australia to host a group of 22 Flight Centre Canada travel consultants and show them the best of the Yarra Valley in 24 hours. Any wine lover will tell you that 24 Hours isn’t nearly enough time to discover any wine region, let alone one we had never been to before! Add the fact that we had no prior knowledge of what wine experience or interests our large group had, and we were in for an interesting challenge. Challenge accepted.
Special thanks to Flight Centre Canada, Tourism Australia, Chateau Yering, Healesville Wildlife Sanctuary, Coldstream Brewery & Yarra Valley Bike Hire for an excellent AdVINEture!
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