Comments on: The future of wine tourism is already there

By: tomfiorina

tomfiorina — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 19:46:55 +0000

Thanks, Heide, that’s an early Christmas present for me. Please email me directly at the email address listed on the ABOUT page if I can be of any assistance to you. I wish you and yours a safe and joyous holiday season and all the best for the new year.

By: Heide

Heide — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 15:12:53 +0000

Tom,
Thank you for your generous reply. I will purchase one on your books and take
your educational recommendations, plus keep reading your blogs of course.

By: tomfiorina

tomfiorina — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 09:43:52 +0000

Heide, I appreciate your comments and interest in my writing. Your questions are good ones, and I agree with you that price does not always equal quality. The best wine, as you pointed out, is the one that you enjoy. I, too, enjoy a good white wine, and I can see nothing wrong in not liking red wine--but, perhaps, you just haven't identified a red wine to your taste. To find good wine at a reasonable price (at least French wine), you need to look outside of Bordeaux and Burgundy, where the wines are priced to reflect their reputations. I would suggest reading some of the books that I've recommended on my blog ("RECOMMENDED READING"). If you buy any of these after clicking on the link from my site, I receive a small commission from Amazon, which is how I hope to make some money from this blog. I've also added some Google ads, as they also bring in a little income. In reality, it's only my interest in French wine, and the passionate men and women who make traditional, natural wine, that keeps blogs like this one going, as any income pays only for the site hosting fee. Now that this commercial message has ended, I would suggest that you consider taking a wine course. Decanter.com has a list of courses in different parts of the world. I took an online introduction to wine course through the University of California at Davis that has proven to be very useful. The French Wine Society in Washington, DC has created online interactive courses and wine appreciation events that are informative and interesting. There are too many wine blogs to list here, but I hope to cover that subject on my blog in the future. I hope that you continue to enjoy The Vine Route and please don't hesitate to send any questions or comments to me.

By: Heide

Heide — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 21:04:17 +0000

I find all your knowledge and history in these blogs stimulating for a mind “thirsty” for information regarding wines. I cannot stop reading all these blogs.
What way would you suggest for a “beginner” to start learning about wines?
I am very picky about wine and know almost instantly if I like a wine or not, that
is how I base my limited wine judgements. I do not like most red wines. I will confess I do not drink expensive wines and have found when I have tried expensive wines I do not like them more than less costlier wines.
Is there such a thing as not liking red wines at all?
Thank you,
Heide Steinkraus

By: Tom Fiorina

Tom Fiorina — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 18:01:58 +0000

Well said, Iris. I’ll be writing next week about Iris and her Lisson vineyard, deep in the wild, beautiful Parc Régional Du Haut Languedoc, in the Languedoc-Roussillon’s Hérault department. The photos and story of this amazing woman’s battle with the park’s wild boar to make natural wine will make you want to visit her.

By: Iris

Iris — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 12:09:15 +0000

“France being France, a grassroots operation to improve wine tourism is about as likely as seeing teeth on one of those hens that patrol a good number of French rural gardens” – well said:-)… they will start, as you mention already, by creating a new governmental board or cryptically signed association…

But as a small winery owner in a beautiful landscape, who has been trying to promote the richness of my region via several blogs for 4 years now, I can confirm, that it’s worth while, to deliver broader information to “do-it-yourself” tourists and wine-amateurs. Our Midi region in the South of France, just an hour away from the overcrowded coast is ideal for day-trips, which change people from pure sunbathing on the sand during their family holiday during summer. While the fathers (and more and more mothers:-) Benjie tasting the wines in the cellar, they normally don’t get across in their supermarket, children usually enjoy playing around with the cats – if they a older, they may have their first “sniff” of wine in a glass, which interests them, when they’ve learned before, where it grows and how it follows its way from the vines into the bottle. It’s like discovering, that milk comes from cows before ending in tetra-bricks…and by this way, it’s an “investment into the future” for the wine maker…

In spring and autumn, it’s more likely, to receive couples, who like to combine sightseeing, nature, light sports and the tasting of local products. Following the whole circuit of the vineyard before diving into the cellar provides them with all of it – and they are very often fond of being able to drive home with a box of bottles, to remind them of all the aromas met during their promenade on the hill-slope…

Fixing these intimate meeting on rendez-vous only, helps the owner, to be totally available for his guests and to receive them individually, so to consecrate enough time, to make them feel really welcome.

Nothing to do with the receptions of whole cars of tourists in a scheduled program guided by a sales-person, you could find in bigger structures and which are often considered from these clients as pure entertainment, without creating a firther attachment to what should be the center of interest:

a deeper understanding of the marvelous transformation of simple fruit into something that can make you dream and recall everything you have met in it’s birth place…

By: Tom Fiorina

Tom Fiorina — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 15:35:28 +0000

Thanks, Pat, I’m glad that you enjoyed that post.

By: Pat

Pat — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 15:05:19 +0000

I enjoyed reading this post and found it very informative. Just found your blog and will add it to my google reader so I can read future post.

Pat