Wine Travel

Region: Parras de la Fuente, Coahuila, Mexico

Climate: Dry, semi-arid, with high-altitude vineyards and large temperature variations.

Grape Varieties: Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, Merlot, Malbec, Chardonnay and others.

Notable Terroir: An oasis surrounded by the arid landscape of northern Mexico, with groundwater supporting viticulture in an otherwise very dry region.

Region: Douro Valley, Portugal

Climate: Hot, dry summers and cold winters, with strong variation across the valley.

Grape Varieties: Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinta Roriz, Tinta Cão and many others. We had two weeks to spare, laptops to work from, and no particularly sophisticated plan.

So we booked an Airbnb in the Douro Valley.

Our host was a local woman who had returned to a small vineyard that had belonged to her family. Like many plots in the region, the previous generation had eventually left it behind. There wasn't enough money in it.

She had come back to try something different.

Region: Cahors, Southwest France

Climate: Mainly continental with Atlantic and Mediterranean influences.

Grape Variety: Malbec, locally traditionally known as Côt or Auxerrois, with smaller amounts of permitted supporting varieties. We really needed to keep driving.

We had spent the beginning of our road trip slowly making our way through Burgundy, stopping for wine far more often than was reasonable. Now we had family waiting for us in San Sebastián and still had quite a few kilometres to cover.

And then we realised we were driving through Cahors.Malbec country. Obviously, we had to stop.

We hadn't planned anything, and almost everything we found seemed closed. Eventually we picked a domaine more or less at random, drove off the road and into the middle of a field, and knocked on an unmarked door.

I don’t know if the Wine Adventure activity is still ongoing. I was sure it was supposed to close at the end of the month, but I still wanted to share some of our experiences, especially now that we’ve bought a van and are travelling around.

If the contest is still on, cool! If not, also cool. Maybe it’ll inspire some people anyway. 🍷🚐

I’ll share some of the experiences we’ve had over the last few months in the next few posts. Maybe you’ll find them fun or useful, and maybe, just by chance, we’ll still manage to participate and win that voucher