Food and wine tours in Europe, from cellar to table

About this category

Every glass with something to eat

Most wine trips are a string of tasting rooms. Ours are food tours first, and the cellars sit where they belong, next to the kitchens, markets and farms that explain why a region drinks what it drinks. Pours are tasting size and always come with food, and our drivers and trains do every mile, so nobody drives after a tasting.

Italy has the most. Tuscany: Florence, Chianti and Brunello Country visits two Chianti Classico estates in the Conca d’Oro and two Brunello estates around Montalcino, and ends with Vino Nobile and Vin Santo. Sicily spends two nights on the north slope of Etna, with Nerello Mascalese and Carricante from vines more than a century old. Emilia-Romagna pours Lambrusco in a cellar on the Modena plain and Malvasia from the Parma hills.

In Spain, Andalusia: Seville Tapas, Jerez Sherry and Granada walks through a Jerez bodega from fino to Pedro Ximénez and drinks manzanilla in Sanlúcar. Portugal takes the train to Porto for the port lodges of Gaia and spends two nights near Pinhão in the Douro, with a quinta lunch and, in September, an hour of harvest. Lyon and Provence pours Beaujolais crus in the bouchons and walks a Châteauneuf-du-Pape vineyard among the galets.

One tour is in the United States: the Texas Barbecue Trail ends with an afternoon at two Hill Country wineries along Highway 290, a young region that surprises most guests after three days of brisket.

Wine is poured for guests 18 and over in Italy, Spain, Portugal and France, and 21 and over in Texas. Every stop has a good non-alcoholic choice, spitting is normal, and nobody keeps count.