Category Archives: wine tourism

Three Things We Learned about Sicilian Wine

May 19, 2026 By in Italian wine, wine, wine tourism Leave a comment

Sue and I recently returned from a trip to Sicily. We had a great time and learned a lot about the region and its history, the people and their culture, and, of course, the wines. Here are a couple of things we want to share with you about our experience.

Sicily vs Italy

Sicily is part of Italy (it is Italy’s largest region), but Sicilians aren’t Italians. They are Sicilians. You can ask anyone and you’ll get the same answer. The history and culture are different. Even the language is different. Sicilian isn’t an Italian dialect; it is a different language. And the wines are different, too. There are commonalities, to be sure, but the differences are impossible to ignore.

Some members of our tour group were pretty familiar with Italian grape varieties (Pinot Grigio, Sangiovese) and regions (Chianti, Barolo), but they found that didn’t help them navigate the Sicilian wine scene, which features grape varieties such as Catarratto, Zibibbo, Grillo, Inzolia, Nero d’Avola, Nerello Mascalese, Frapatto, and regional designations such as Etna DOC and Cerasuolo di Vittoria DOCG.

The differences between Italian and Sicilian wines were initially a barrier, but soon evolved into an invitation to experiment and discover. One important factor is the fact that Sicilian wines, like their Italian cousins, are what we call culinary wines, best enjoyed with food and not on their own (the ubiquitous Aperol spritz is good for that).

(Note: I use the term “Italian wine” here to designate origin, but nothing more. As I wrote in “Around the World in Eighty Wines,” there is no such thing as Italian wines. There are only the regional wines of Italy.)

Resurrecting Marsala

One of our goals for this trip was to get a better understanding of Marsala, which was once Sicily’s signature wine. Marsala is a Sicilian original, but it owed its popularity to English merchants who fortified it for ocean transport stability and then more or less industrialized its production to compete with Sherry, Port, and Madeira on export markets. At one point Sicily found its wine industry almost completely shaped by exports, with strong white wine made in the western part of the island for Marsala production and strong red “cutting wine” made in the east to blend with lighter Italian and maybe even French wines to bring them up to snuff.

Marsala seems to be used in cooking these days more than as a beverage. I have never understood what the fuss was about back in the day. Maybe we’ve only tasted industrial Marsala? This was a chance to find out.

Marco de Bartoli is known for its commitment to authentic Marsala, but our schedule did not permit a winery visit, so we asked Giuseppina de Bartoli for advice. She sent us to the Versi di Rosso wine bar in Trapani, advising that …

We produce only one type of Marsala, Marsala Oro Superiore Riserva , and at the moment there are 3 different vintages ( 2020, 2009 or 1988). I recommend our Vecchio Samperi Perpetuo, that isn’t a Marsala DOC, but the prebritish wine , the historical wine of Marsala area.

Sylvia, our guide and somm-in-training at Versi di Rosso, was very enthusiastic about our tasting request. Vecchio Samperi Perpetuo was more nuanced and complex than the other Marsala wines we tasted and you could see why the British merchants would be attracted to them. It was lighter in weight and body than we expected and very smooth. The “perpetuo” part of the name derives from the old practice of moving and mixing the wine from barrel to barrel over the years, much like a Sherry solera, but of course not like Sherry in other ways. It doesn’t fit the rules of “modern” Marsala, of course, and so doesn’t wear the DOC label. We tasted the Marco de Bartoli Marsala Oro 2009 at Enoteca Solaria in Siracusa and found it a richer variation on the same theme.

OG Marsala is out there and worth seeking out, but you will have to make some effort to find it. We are glad Marco de Bartoli and other producers keep the flame alive.

Sicilian Discoveries

We discovered a wine called Cerasuolo di Abruzzo when we visited that region a few years ago and loved it right away. I guess we assumed that Sicily’s Cerasuolo di Vittoria (from the Vittori region in the south of the island) would be a crisp pink wine like its Abruzzo namesake. Wrong. It is a deep red wine with great acidity made by a blend of Nero d’Avola, Sicily’s most-planted red grape, and Frappato. Completely different, but we fell in love with it after tasting a sample from the COS Winery.

Sweet wines are another thing that Sicilian producers do very well. Donnafugata Ben Ryé is one of Italy’s most celebrated sweet wines — a powerful, aromatic Passito di Pantelleria made from sun‑dried Zibibbo grapes. We enjoyed this wine in both the U.S. and in Italy, but we dove deeper into this category until we got to Sicily.

Our Versi di Rosso guide Sylvia was excited to serve us her favorite Marco de Bartoli wine, Bukkurum Sole d’Agosto, another Passito de Pantelleria. We enjoyed other wonderfully balanced sweet wines at meal’s end, including the Gulino Jaraya Siracusa Passito DOC shown here.

We had hoped to try some Malvasia di Salina and the Malvasia di Salina Passito, but, alas, it just didn’t work out.

We learned a lot on this trip. This column just scratches the surface, but we hope it inspires you to visit (or re-visit) Sicily.

Wine & Tourism in Sicily: Benanti Winery Shows the Way

May 12, 2026 By in Italian wine, wine, wine tourism 3 Comments

Sue and I have just returned from a trip to Sicily. We went as tourists — Sicily is one of the few regions of Italy we haven’t visited until now — but you can be sure that wine was always on our minds.

Sicily’s Tourism Boom

We were not alone. Tourism is booming in Sicily, with international visits growing even faster than on the mainland, according to official statistics. As anecdotal evidence, I offer this: The Rick Steves “Best of Sicily” tour we enjoyed is essentially sold out for the rest of the year. Add Sicily to the list of “must-visit” Italian destinations.

The Sicilian wine industry has taken note of this trend and is working both to attract wine tourists to Sicilian shores and to introduce traditional tourists to the pleasures of wines. A recent article in Il Sole 24 Ore titled “Sicilian wine, the future lies in targeted exports and wine tourism” explains the strategy.

Sicilian wine is preparing for the coming years with a double objective: defending exports in a more fragile international scenario and transforming wine tourism into a stable lever of growth. This is the picture that emerges from the Nomisma Wine Monitor research for UniCredit, presented today in Palermo together with the 2026 edition of Sicilia en Primeur, scheduled in the capital from 11 to 15 May.

Sicilian wine export numbers have held up better than those for Italian wines overall, according to the study, as Sicilian producers have been better able to take advantage of shifting consumer preferences from red wines to white wines. But perhaps the bigger story is tourism in general and wine tourism in particular.

In this strategy, wine tourism becomes a decisive element. For Italian wineries, it is already worth 3.1 billion euros and generates an average expenditure of 123 euros for the purchase of wine in the cellar, 41 euros for tasting, and 145 euros for an overnight stay. In Sicily, the phenomenon has an even more international profile: the clientele is mainly made up of foreigners, particularly Americans, Germans, and British. And there is one figure that weighs in: in the Etna municipalities linked to the Etna Doc specification, tourist arrivals grew by 17.4% between 2019 and 2024, against a regional average of 12.4%.

Even more significant is the figure for Americans. Among US wine tourists who want to experience Italy in the next two or three years, 26% indicate Tuscany and 16% Sicily. The island is already the second destination evoked, and this places it in a favourable position in one of the most important markets for regional wine.

Although cellar door sales to visitors are obviously important, it is important to remember that wine tourism is an opportunity to connect wine to history, culture, and cuisine and to establish personal connections. Sue and I have seen this effect in South Africa, for example, and especially in Portugal, where the recent growth of tourism has established an identity that embraces Portuguese wine.

The game will shift here: less dependence on trade flows alone, more ability to retain value in the territories. If Sicily knows how to transform its reputational advantage into experiences consistent with the identity of the wineries and capable of speaking to an international audience, it will be able to strengthen export, brand and marginality together.

Case Study: Benanti Shows the Way

Our tour group’s scheduled visit to the Benanti Winery in the Etna zone provided an excellent example of how the wine tourism strategy can work.

The Benanti Winery is noteworthy in several respects. Giuseppe Benanti was one of the leaders in the Etna quality wine push starting in 1988. The winery is known for its commitment to native grape varieties, its focus on single-vineyard wines, and especially for its signature wine, Pietra Marina Etna Bianco Superiore. Joe Bastianich highlighted this 100 percent Carricante wine as one of Italy’s finest wines in his 2010 book Grandi Vini. New York Times wine critic Eric Asimov listed it as one of his most memorable wines of 2025.

Brothers Antonio and Salvino Benanti have taken their father’s vision to the next level, making the business side of the winery as strong and intentional as the production side, raising quality all around, and fostering the growth and reputation of both the Benanti brand and of Etna DOC wines generally.

Wine tourism is an integral part of Benanti’s plan. The visitor experience is carefully designed, taking place at a hospitality facility (not the working winery) and focusing on history, place (Etna and the vineyards), family, and culture. The wines are tasted with local cuisine (of course!) in a beautiful setting. It is a first-class experience carefully designed and executed with intent to create a favorable and lasting impression.

We asked Salvino Benanti about the strategy to embrace wine tourism.

You are right about tourism being on the rise. It is something we are witnessing all over Italy, with Tuscany leading the pack and Sicily trailing just behind. I am, personally, very glad about this surge, because it allows us to come into contact with new enthusiasts every day and build a loyal community. The way we manage this sudden rise in numbers is simple. We only offer curated, high-end experiences, therefore segmenting our audience at the source and making sure that only seriously interested visitors reach out to us. This allows us to create a strong bond with our guests, effectively converting them into eager, spontaneous ambassadors of Etna and Benanti.

Since our visit was part of a Rick Steves tour, Sue wondered how that relationship got started. Salvino Benanti explains that …

The relationship with RS [Rick Steves] dates back to 2013. Rick’s local guide, Alfio Di Mauro, visited us “incognito” on a gloomy, cold winter day and casually asked if we would be available to host a group of cheerful Americans in the coming weeks. We said yes and…. the rest is history. Rick himself has visited us on two occasions and we really appreciate his drive, energy and commitment to his customers and his suppliers. He is a great man.

Over the years, we have hosted thousands of RS travelers — some more than once — and we have also met many back in the US. What Rick has created is really a great community, which we are proud to belong to!

Significantly, the Rick Steves guests are generally tourists first and wine tourists second (if at all), but the Benanti experience seems to draw these two threads together. The results include cellar door sales in Sicily, retail sales back home, brand ambassadors throughout North America (Benanti’s largest market), and growing awareness of Etna DOC wines.

Of course organized visits like ours is only one element of a wine tourism strategy. While we were in Catania Sue and I participated in a cooking class organized by Cotumè. It was a fun experience and we enjoyed the food and wine when we were finished. Sue later discovered that the cooking experiences take place at several nearby wineries, including (of course) Benanti.

The future of Sicilian wine tourism is promising, but to be really successful it must go beyond cellar door sales to build markets and reputation abroad as the Benanti Winery is doing. The opportunities are great, but there are challenges, too, which we will address in next week’s Wine Economist column.

Rediscovering the Diversity of Tuscany’s Wines with San Felice

August 19, 2025 By in Italian wine, wine, wine tourism 1 Comment

Sometimes it takes a special event to nudge you to take another look at a familiar winery or wine region. That’s what recently happened to us with the wines of Tuscany in general and San Felice in particular.

A Tuscan Wine Giro

Our old friend Peter and new friend Gina are newlyweds planning their first visit to Italy. They’ve booked a house near Montalcino for a week. Did we have any tips? Yes, of course, we love talking about Italy and Italian wine, so we met over Sunday lunch on the patio. Brianna, Peter’s daughter, also joined us.

We decided to feature San Felice wines because they have wineries in several Tuscan zones (San Felice in Chianti Classico, Belle’Aja in Bolgheri, and Campogiovanni in Montalcino) and so can represent the diversity of the region’s wines very well. As a bonus, the Campogiovanni winery would be easy for Peter and Gina to visit during their stay.

The lunch and wine pairings were great. We began with In Avane Chardonnay Toscano IGT just to show that even a familiar international grape variety can have a distinctive Tuscan twist. Then we moved on to the Bell’Aja Bolgheri Bianco, which is a white blend built around Vermentino, a grape variety our friends hadn’t tasted before. Although many people equate Tuscany with red wines, the white options are there and delicious.

The Red and the White

Red wines? It was time to compare and contrast two interestingly different styles: the Borgo Chianti Classico (a blend of Sangiovese and Pugnitello) and the Campogiovanni Brunello di Montalcino (Sangiovese all the way). The wines were very different and showed just how much there was to explore within the San Felice range and, by extension, within Tuscany, too.

The lunch was a success and we can’t wait for Peter and Gina to get back from their trip and tell us all about their new discoveries. In the meantime, Sue and I have rediscovered another of the San Felice wines. Our garden is producing eggplant and tomatoes right now, so our variation on pasta alla Norma was on the menu a few days after the lunch. The wine we picked was the San Felice Pugnitello Toscana IGT and it was a perfect match. Pugnitello is an ancient Tuscan grape variety that San Felice has worked hard to revive as a varietal wine and as part of the Chianti Classico mix. We really loved the depth and bright acidity of the single-varietal wine, which was perfect to cut through the richness of the pasta sauce.

You know, these San Felice wines are all really excellent, Sue noted as we were finishing the last of the Pugnitello. Delicious, distinctive, not a single false note. I’m glad we had an excuse to rediscover them and share them with special friends.

Generational Thinking at San Felice

The rediscovery of San Felice’s wine gave me an excuse to look more deeply into San Felice, the wine company. Like the famous Antinori winery, San Felice can trace its origins back hundreds of years. Unlike Antinori, however, it is not family-owned. For more than 50 years Società Agricola San Felice S.p.A. has been part of the Allianz Group, a multinational insurance and financial services company headquartered in Germany.

Many people (including me) agree with Piero Antinori that the wine business is well-suited to family ownership because long-term generational thinking has advantages over quarterly-statement thinking in the wine world.  This is perhaps why a disproportionate number of winery firms, including many of the largest and most famous, are in family hands.

But family ownership is neither necessary nor sufficient for success in wine. Sue and I have visited many cooperatives, for example, that seem to think in terms of generations (the generations of their grower family members), some after suffering the disastrous consequences of short-term strategies.

And there are some financial firms, like Allianz, that have married the generation thinking of their businesses (products like pensions and life insurance, for example) to the generational requirements of the wine game. Allianz is not the only firm of its type in global wine. The financial giant AXA Millésimes, for example, owns chateaux in Bordeaux and wineries in Portugal, Hungary, and the United States. TIAA, the company that administers my university retirement fund, is one of the largest vineyard owners in Napa Valley. The long-term thinking required for pension investment is remarkably consistent with the generational thinking that  is one key to success in wine.

Looking more deeply, I am impressed with how Allianz has invested in and developed San Felice both in terms of the vineyards and wines that impressed us so much, but also now the development of tourism and hospitality programs such as Borgo San Felice Resort.

Cheers to Peter and Gina. I hope they enjoyed their Tuscan adventure. I know they will enjoy the wines they discover there. Thanks for helping us rediscover the wines, too.

Field Notes from a Visit to the Sherry Triangle

June 3, 2025 By in Spain, wine, wine history, wine markets, wine tourism 1 Comment

Sue and I recently returned from three weeks in Spain. We spent a few days in Madrid (where we dropped in at FEV General Assembly meetings), but most of the time in Andalusia, home of Sherry and Montilla-Moriles wines. Great wines, good food, and welcoming people. We soaked up a lot of information (and wine, too).

This is the first of a brief series of Wine Economist columns about our experiences and what they tell us about these wines and their wine market more generally. We begin with a “field notes” column, a kaleidoscopic collection of observations meant to give you a sense of what we saw and heard on the wine road in Spain. More focused articles will follow shortly.

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Sherry, which is fortified, is from the Jerez-Xérès-Sherry region and made from Palomino, Pedro Ximénes, and Moscatel grapes. The Sherry Triangle is the name given to the Jerez D.O., the only region where true Sherry wines are made. The “triangle” is roughly defined by lines connecting the cities of Jerez de la Frontera,  Sanlucar de Barrameda, and El Puero de Santa Maria, where the wineries are located.

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People like to say that wine is made in the vineyard, but in the case of Sherry, what happens in the cellar is key. It is difference in cellar processes more than grape quality or variety that determines what type of Sherry will be in your glass. In this regard, Sherry may be more like Champagne and Port.

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About half of our time in Spain was focused on wine; the other half on the  history, culture, and people of Andalusia. We visited five wineries chosen to give us a view of the wine industry’s diversity in this region.

  • Bodegas Williams & Humbert, the producer of Dry Sack, Don Zoilo,  Canasta, and other brands.
  • Bodegas Lustau, whose Sherry wines are widely available in the U.S. market.
  • Bodega Gonzalez Byass, maker of a wide range of  products both in Spain and around the world, including the famous Tío Pepe brand.
  • Bodegas Tradición, a relatively young winery making very old wines.
  • Bodegas Alvear in the Montilla-Moriles region near Cordoba. The Montilla wines are kissing cousins of Sherry, but can’t wear the official Sherry seal.

We enjoyed conversations with many wine industry people including Susana Garcia Dolla of OIVE, César Saldaña of the Sherry D.O. Consej0 Regulador, and Mauricio Gonzalez-Gordon of Gonzalez Byass. We benefited from advice from our friend George Sandeman. Many thanks to everyone who hosted us, answered our questions, and helped us get the most out of our visit.

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We usually taste wines with trade groups, not “civilian” consumers, so we were very interested to see what would happen when we accompanied a typical tour group to Bodegas Alvear. We first tasted a light, fruity unfortified white wine and then three of the traditional wines: Fino, Olorosso, and Pedro Ximenez. At the end of the tasting the question was asked: Which ones do you like? All hands went up for the fruity white. Only a few hands were raised for Fino and Olorosso with a few more for the PX.

The wines were great (Alvear is the oldest winery in Montilla and one of the best in Spain). The wines from Montilla-Moriles focus more on Pedro Ximenez, which grows there the best, with similar techniques but they not generally fortified. Very hot temperatures, very ripe grapes, high natural alcohol levels. That’s the story of Montilla.

The fruity white, which is called “El Rebate” after the step at the entrance of a Montilla house,  is meant a welcoming gateway to the world of wine. It was a familiar taste to our touring friends and they loved it.

The Fino and Olorosso presented them with unfamiliar tastes, dryer, nutty, without fruit notes. The excellent PX, an Alvear speciality, was really well balanced, but sweeter than our new friends were accustomed too. Sue and I loved it. Most of our friends didn’t understand it or the other traditional wines very well.

The same wines at a trade tasting would probably have an entirely different ranking from the civilian group. We report these results because they help explain why Sherry (and the similar Montilla) wines are unlikely candidates for broad consumption. They are different and it takes a little effort to understand and appreciate them. It is effort well spent, but a barrier nonetheless.

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Sherry is not one specific wine. Many styles, many aging regimes: Fino, Amontillado, Manzanilla, Oloroso, Palo Cortado, Pedro Ximénez. Cream sherry (made sweet by the addition of rectified grape must or, even better, sweet PX wine) is what people think Sherry is, but isn’t. Lucious PX is sweet but balanced. One of the most memorable tastes of the trip was at a Taberna la Montillana in Córdoba where we were served a Bodegas Toro Alba Don PX 1955 at the end of the meal. Amazing.

However, Sherry is often stereotyped as a sticky, sweet apéritif that granny drinks at Christmas, which might be an insult to Sherry, granny, and Christmas!  But most Sherry wine produced is dry, the style preferred in Andalusia. It reminds us of the problem that Riesling confronts. Riesling is too sweet, people say before they have even tasted it. But most Riesling that we encounter today is dry or off-dry.

Some Sherry wines are sweet, of course, just as some Riesling wines are sweet. In Sherry’s case the stereotype probably results from very popular and widely distributed brands like Harvey’s Bristol Cream, which are sweet; people generalize from that experience. Getting people to embrace dry Sherry can be as hard as getting them to try dry Riesling.

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Sue and I had an “ah ha” moment at Bodegas Tradición. We were tasting through their wonderful wines. Did we want to try the Cream Sherry? We hesitated (which is not like us). Maybe not, we said. Cream Sherry has a bad reputation (see above). Well, try our Cream Sherry. And it was great, a blend of Amontillado and PX with superb balance. We had to abandon our prejudice. Back home, we bought and enjoyed some Harvey’s, too. Time to review stereotypes for Sherry and more generally!

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As in the Douro Valley, there is a movement in Andalusia to produce more non-fortified wines using the traditional grape varieties. Sue and I were on the lookout for these table wines during our visit and we were a bit surprised by what we found. We expected white wines because Sherry grapes are white. But we were disappointed with the white wines we found. It seems that Palomino does not ready yield really great wines (I am sure there are exceptions because we only had time to taste a few of them.

The red wines we tried surprised us. First came a Palacio Quemado Crianza produced by Bodegas Alvear from an old vine Tempranillo vineyard north of Seville. Distinctive, wonderful with the traditional foods of Córdoba. Then we enjoyed the Finca Moncloa, produced by Gonzalez Byass in the Cadiz region. It is a special project designed to preserve and promote the native Tintilla de Rota grape. The blend of native and international grape varieties was terrific both times, especially with roast lamb.

What’s New? Portuguese Translation of “Around the World in 80 Wines”

August 20, 2024 By in globalization, Shameless Self-Promotion, wine, wine tourism 5 Comments

The Portuguese translation of my 2018 book Around the World in Eighty Wines is here. A Volta ao Mundo em 80 Vinhos was released last month by the Brazilian publisher Editora Valentina.  The new book is available from the publisher as well as through the usual online sellers including Amazon.com here in the United States.

What’s the book about? Well, here’s a brief excerpt from the summary to test your Portuguese language skills! (The English language summary can be found on the book’s Amazon.com page.)

Inspirado no clássico romance de aventuras de Júlio Verne, Mike Veseth nos leva à sua Volta ao mundo em 80 vinhos. A jornada começa em Londres, metrópole histórica da enologia. Logo viajamos pela França e pela Itália, para, em seguida, darmos uma guinada em direção a irresistíveis relatos sobre o vinho na Síria, na Geórgia e no Líbano. Toda taça de vinho conta uma história, e assim cada um dos oitenta vinhos aqui selecionados tem algo importante a revelar. Sem mais delongas, seguimos pela África do Norte até a Argélia, um dos maiores exportadores de vinho do mundo, e atravessamos o Mediterrâneo para chegar à Espanha e a Portugal. Acompanhando as rotas comerciais portuguesas, desembarcamos na Ilha da Madeira e depois na África do Sul, onde fazemos um rápido desvio para saborear o mais famoso Pinot Noir do Quênia. Como assim? Pinot Noir no Quênia? É isso mesmo? …

Authors don’t get rich from translation rights, but it’s exciting to see the new edition because it promises to expand the global audience for my book. Brazil and Portugal are important wine-producing and consuming countries and the Portuguese-speaking world is, well, worldwide. It seems like I find Portuguese and Brazilian influence wherever I go. Europe, Africa, Asia, the Americas, everywhere!

A Volta ao Mundo em 80 Vinhos is the third of my wine books to be available in translation. It joins “Вокруг света за 80 бутылок вина.”  (the 2019 Russian translation of Around the World in Eighty Wines) and “Războaiele Vinului” the 2017 Romanian translation of the 2011 edition of Wine Wars,. on the Wine Economist foreign-language bookshelf.

“Obrigado” to Editora Valentina and my other international publishers for their creativity and hard work. Thanks, as well, to all the readers for their support.

Leveraging Wine & Tourism in Collio DOC

July 30, 2024 By in Italian wine, wine, wine markets, wine tourism 1 Comment

[This is the second in a series of articles inspired by our recent visit to Collio DOC in north-east Italy. Click here to read last week’s introductory report.]

When Sue and I first visited Collio in 2000 we stayed in the newly opened agriturismo rooms at Venica & Venica and in a rustic cabin at La Subida.  We dined well at several memorable restaurants including Trattoria al Cacciatore at La Subida and Trattoria al Giardinetto in Cormons.

Wine Tourism and Economic Development

Guided by articles in Gambero Rosso and La Cucina Italiana (and Ornella Venica’s wise personal recommendations), we found great food, wine, and many fun things to do. The foundations of today’s wine tourism industry were already in place. We returned to Collio in 2015, 2019, and now in 2024. We’ve discovered new hospitality and wine tourism opportunities each time.

A strategic focus on wine tourism makes good sense for Collio and the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region generally. The vineyard area is relatively small compared to the Veneto, for example. Yields are necessarily limited to protect quality. From an economic development standpoint, the two ways to grow for the region are to increase price (through rising reputation, for example) and to leverage the wine’s magnetic pull through tourism development. Both forces are powerful in Collio and they can work together to drive the region forward.

Casanova & Castle, Wine & Golf

More and more high-quality hotels and restaurants can be found today, which is necessary but not sufficient for the growth strategy. This time we stayed at the Relais Russiz Superiore, for example, adjacent to the famous winery (which is now owned by a partnership between Marco Felluga and the Veneto’s Tommasi Family). One of our favorite wineries, Gradis’ciutta, offers visitors the opportunity enjoy the hospitality of Borgo Gradis’ciutta, a cluster of buildings that date back to the 1500s with nine rooms and three apartments. Engaging visitors beyond the tasting room counter is clearly a priority today.

The most ambitious investment in tourism and hospitality is probably  Castello di Spessa, where we stayed during our 2019 visit.  The business combines the historic castle (famous for its connection to the notorious Casanova!), hotel rooms, dining and event facilities, well-kept vineyards, a substantial winery operation, and even a golf course. We ran into California winery owners in Collio on holiday, who said that they came for the golf and stayed for, well, everything else!

Collio was a great place to visit 20  years ago and it has grown in every way, but without losing the characteristics that drew us to it originally (and have kept us coming back). But this is just the beginning, according to Ornella Venica, who challenged us to consider how much more Collio and Friuli have to offer to visitors interested in food, wine, history, culture, and nature.

The Vine Academy

Our first stop on this trip to Collio was lunch at the recently opened restaurant at Accademia Vine Lodge. The food and wine were delicious and the setting beautiful, but what sticks in my mind is the fact that this attractive wine tourist destination is also an education institution. When wine tourists are not filling its rooms, groups of earnest students move in.

The Accademia Vine Lodge has a double personality. It is both an attractive venue for visitors like us and also the home of the famous Simonit&Sirch vine pruning institute. The restaurant’s wine list includes bottles from Collio and the region, of course, but also from some of the more than 150 Simonit&Sirch clients around the world.

The vine lodge fascinates me because it reminds us that wine tourism can spring up in many ways. It isn’t just wineries with food or rooms, for example. Here is a case where globally respected technical expertise in the science and art of vine pruning has grown into a venue that has broad appeal.

Collio & the Beach

A highlight of our visit was an evening event called Collio & the Beach, set on a broad shaded patio beside the beach at Baia di Sistiana near Trieste. Could a seaside party draw a different demographic profile than typical winery tasting rooms? This was a wine event, but not just a wine event. Bustling booths were pouring local wines, for example, but the longest lines were for delicious foods such as porchetta, frico, watermelon, and hand-carved local Prosciutto d’Osvaldo.

We sampled from the different wine stations, eventually focusing on Friulano because it is so popular in this region. We were surprised, however, that the longest line was for Pinot Grigio! In fact, the line never ended because some folks got their pour and moved directly to the back of the queue so that they could try another wine.

Pinot Grigio? Really? Here in America, Pinot Grigio is often made in unexceptional styles, designed more to avoid offending than to develop distinctive characteristics. But these Pinot Grigio wines were different because many of them were made in that traditional Ramato style, with lots of skin contact. These wines, which are both old-fashioned and cutting-edge in terms of style, had appeal that spanned the generations. And they matched up perfectly with the traditional food and festive venue.

The 70 Percent Solution

Sue and I keep returning to Collio because offers so much that we enjoy and appreciate in terms of food, wine, culture, and nature. It seems to us that Collio today is doubling down on the “Collio Experience” and not just the wine. That was the case at Collio & the Beach and Castello di Spessa. And the experience especially stood out at  Subida di Monte in Cormons.

Once upon a time, this was a small family winery, but new owners saw the “experience” potential to leverage the winery with hospitality investments, including Locanda alle Vigne. The restaurant features traditional dishes in a fabulous setting. We were there on a late June Thursday night and the place was packed with guests of all ages.

The winery anchors the operation, of course, but the hospitality business generates 70 percent of the revenues, bringing more and different consumers to Collio and its wine.

Back to the Future?

Our Collio journey began at Venica & Venica and La Subida and both are still leading the way. The plans for a wine resort that Giampaolo Venica showed us in 2000 are now very much realized, for example. Very impressive!

La Subida has created a more casual restaurant called Osteria la Preda de la Subida that’s become one of our favorite places to eat. It is popular with tourists, but delights locals, too, with its celebration of the traditional food and wine of the region. It’s where we had our last meal (for this trip) before heading for our airport hotel near Venice.

Collio shows that wine and hospitality are two industries that can leverage each other to generate both happy visitors and also economic development opportunities. Other regions should take note!

The Hedgehog & the Fox: Discovering the Wines of Lugana DOC & Garda DOC

June 27, 2023 By in Italian wine, wine, wine markets, wine tourism Leave a comment

Today’s Wine Economist is inspired by Isaiah Berlin’s famous essay “The Hedgehog and the Fox.” The fox knows many things, Berlin wrote, drawing on an ancient Greek parable, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.

People are like that, don’t you think? And there are wine regions like that too. The Lugana DOC on the shores of Lake Garda in Italy, for example, reminds me of the hedgehog, with its clear focus on one important wine. The Garda DOC, on the other hand, is home to many different ideas of wine. It is the fox.

Please read our report below and see if you agree — and which wine critter you find more appealing.

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Lake Garda in the Italian north is one of Europe’s great summer playgrounds. No wonder visitors flock there from all over Italy and from Germany and Switzerland too. There is something for everyone. The lake itself for watersports, of course, along with beaches and campgrounds, theme parks, and more. The local economy benefits from the region’s understandable popularity and so does the local wine industry. I’ll bet both were hit hard when covid restrictions put a lid on tourism. They seem to be booming now.

The Lake Effect is Strong

Wine, not theme parks, was the focus when Sue and I joined a group of journalists from Germany and Denmark for a tour co-hosted by the Lugana DOC and Garda DOC consortia. The fact that the program embraced two overlapping but very different wine regions made this an unusual adventure.

Burton Anderson acknowledged the impact of Garda tourism on the Lugana wine industry in his classic 1990 guide The Wine Atlas of Italy,

Its success has been attributed to the fact that it is white and comes from the well-frequented Garda resort of Sirmione, but the real point in its favor is its graceful personality that appeals to both novices and to people who take wine seriously.

The wines are shaped by the combination of the Turbiana grape variety, also known as Trebbiano di Lugana, plus the beneficial lake effects, and the subtle variations in vineyard geology that result from glacial activity that made this region fairly flat but far from homogeneous. The Lugana DOC wines, as I wrote a few weeks ago, balance salinity against minerality in ways that please and provoke further investigation.

A Visit to Cantina Ottella

Although restricted to just one grape variety, we found tremendous variety in the Lugana DOC wines. A memorable visit to Cantina Ottella opened our eyes to the possibilities. Ottella is a project of the Montresor family, who have been making wine here for four generations. Michele Montresor showed us the winery with its fantastic modern art collection and then we began with the wines. Picked early, the Turbiana grape variety makes sparkling wines that are justifiably popular. Picked a little later, in September, the Lugana DOC wine showed the salinity and minerality that defines it so clearly.

The next wine caught our attention. Le Creete is harvested later, in October, from old vines from a single vineyard. It was complex and even more interesting than the wine before. The Riserva was elegant, with well-integrated oak. An amphora wine dedicated to Michele’s father Ludovico came next. Stunning in its complexity. Then, finally, a Lugana DOC from the 2007 vintage, to show that Lugana can age elegantly and develop gracefully. Quite an experience. And proof, if we needed it, that Anderson was right when he said that these Lugana wines have what it takes to interest experienced wine enthusiasts even as they delight beginners.

Foxy, but in a Good Way

Cantina Ottella is famous for its Lugana wines, but they also produce wines with grapes from their vineyards in other local appellations. The evening before our visit, for example, we ordered one of their Garda DOC red wines called Campo Sireso with dinner. It was a blend of Corvina Veronese, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon from the Garda wine zone. The wine was fantastic and caught our attention.

The “fox” Garda wine zone is very different from Lugana’s “hedgehog.” Approved grape varieties for Garda include both native grapes (Cortese, Trebbiano, and Garganega whites and Corvina and Marzemino reds, for example) and international varieties, too (Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc whites and Cabernet and Merlot among others on the red side).

This means, of course, that Garda has something for everyone who comes to visit Lake Garda in the summer months and the existence of red wines is perhaps especially appealing to visitors from Northern Europe who might have a particular preference for red wines.

But Garda’s fox-like character also means that it has more trouble defining its identity in export markets, which is a shame since the wines can be very good indeed.

Sue and I were fortunate to be able to visit several wine producers who have adopted different market strategies. Come back in two weeks for these “hedgehog” and “fox” case studies. In the meantime, next week’s Wine Economist will feature a special “Independence Day” flashback column.

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Many thanks to the Lugana DOC and Garda DOC consortia for hosting us for this visit. Thanks, as well, to the wineries on our brief tour who generously gave us their time, knowledge, and very good wines! The winery list includes La Moretti, Ottella, Azienda Zenato, Cascina Maddalena, Ca” Maiol, Borgo la Cuccio, Colli Morenici, Bulgarini, and Perla del Garda. If you see wines from any of these producers on a shop shelf or wine list, please give them a try. You won’t regret it.

Wine Book Review: On the Wine Trail with Lonely Planet

May 16, 2023 By in book reviews, wine, wine tourism Leave a comment

Lonely Planet Wine Trails 2 (Lonely Planet Food, 2023).

The Lonely Planet Guide folks have released a new guide to global wine trails. The big book (320 pages, 2.4 pounds) lays out itineraries for 52 potential weekend wine country visits. It is a colorful book, full of maps and photos, and worthy of consideration if you are planning trips, interested in how wine tourism has developed, or just want to make imaginary vineyard visits.

Each chapter is organized according to a set structure, starting with an overview and map followed by brief profiles of six or seven wineries (a reasonable number to think about for a weekend trip). Accommodations?  A couple of options are provided along with three dining choices and some ideas for non-wine things to do. Just enough to get you started.

Sue and I have visited many of these regions and, in general, I’d give the Lonely Planet itineraries solid marks. They might not always be the wineries we would choose to visit or the hotels and restaurants we’d pick, but they would certainly steer a first-time visitor in good directions. This is not a surprise, since the wine tourism chapters were written by an international team of experts.

Creating a big book like this is an exercise in choice. What do you put in? What do you leave out? You can’t possibly include everything in 300+ pages. Something has to give! This fact became apparently to me some years ago when I was asked to edit a book for a New York Times series. I was given the entire 20th century of New York Times content (all 100 years) and tasked with telling the story of globalization. What I learned was that you have to begin with a story and build around that, which is sort of a top-down approach that prioritizes the narrative. A bottom-up approach, which relies upon the facts to form their own images, is fiendishly difficult to pull off.

The decisions when looking at wine tourism begin with the question of what regions to include. Fifty-two is a big number, but there are many more wine trails around the world. When a French wine periodical published a list of the 35 best wine tourism destinations back in 2012, they found that 29 of them were in France. Zut alors! That’s not much for the rest of the wine world.

The Lonely Planet guide lists eight French itineraries including the “greatest hits” of Burgundy, Bordeaux, and Champagne. Italy and Spain get seven entries each, including the most famous and most-visited regions.  So far just as you might expect. But while Australia has seven entries, big-name Barrossa is not one of them. And Napa is not anywhere on the USA list, which takes you from the Finger Lakes of New York, through Pennsylvania wine country, to Grand Valley, Colorado, and on to Walla Walla, the Willamette Valley, Sonoma, and Santa Ynez.

Other parts of the wine world receive less space. Argentina, Canada, Chile, England, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Lebanon, Portugal, Romania, and Slovenia get one entry each. New Zealand and South Africa get two entries each.

At first this inconsistent treatment of famous regions versus the rest bothered me, but I’ve decided that it is probably OK within the context of this book. Reading about the charms of Colorado wine country, for example, might encourage someone to look beyond the big name appellations when visiting France or Italy. And that would be a good thing.

This method of mixing the famous with the lesser-known continues within the chapters in terms of the winery choices presented, accommodation options, and dining recommendations. Some of the choices left me scratching my head (why list hotels and restaurants in Portland, for example, when there are so many good choices in the Willamette Valley wine country itself?), but in general I’ve decided that the Lonely Planet guide is quite useful. It gives readers the basics and invites them to explore.

Readers who don’t go beyond the recommendations here will have a good time. Curious types who use this as a springboard to dive deeper into the wine tourism pool will have even more fun because when it comes to wine the wines, wineries, restaurants, etc. that  you discover yourself are often the most satisfying.

Arizona Wine Revisited

March 28, 2023 By in wine, wine markets, wine tourism 1 Comment

It has been 15 years since our last visit to Arizona to check out the wine scene (our report appeared in an early Wine Economist column), so it didn’t take much to persuade us to go back to see how things have changed.

Our first trip was based out of Tuscon, near the main vineyard areas in the southeast of the state. This time we traveled up north to scenic Sedona to explore Arizona’s newest AVA, the Verde Valley. Our visit was interrupted by that big winter storm that swept across the country last month and threatened to block our way home. But all’s well that ends well — we were able to start our fieldwork in Sedona and end it in Old Town Scottsdale, which is home to many tasting rooms.

Here is our report, starting with some broad facts about Arizona wine and then drilling down a bit into specifics.

Bigger and Smaller

The Arizona wine industry is both bigger than you think and smaller than you might imagine. Arizona now has 108 wineries according to the January 2023 issue of Wine Business Monthly. That includes 90 bonded wineries and 18 “virtual” wineries. Virtual wineries? Yes, this is a growing trend. These are wine brands without vineyards or their own winemaking facilities. About 1000 of California’s nearly 5000 wineries are virtual operations. And virtual wineries account for almost 300 of the 900 total wineries in Oregon.

Arizona ranks #17 among U.S. states based on the number of wineries — bigger than you might have guessed. But the individual wineries tend to be small. Arizona Stronghold Vineyards, for example, is the largest winery in the state with an annual production of about 20,000 cases.  Total production for the state is about 350,000 cases a year, we were told. If that’s correct, that means all Arizona wineries taken together make about as much wine as Daou Family Estates or JUSTIN Vineyards and Winery (data from Wine Business Monthly).

Lattitude versus Elevation

One reason you might not expect Arizona to be a wine state is its latitude. It can indeed be very hot in Arizona, which is why snowbirds flock there in the winter. But elevation compensates for latitude in Arizona much as it does in Mendoza, Argentina.

Wine grapes grow well in Arizona at elevations between 3500 and 6000 feet. Most of the vineyards are in the southeast near Willcox and about 75% to 80% of the grapes are grown there. But other parts of the state have active winegrowing, too, including the Verde Valley near Sedona.

Arizona wine is a premium product — there is no such thing as Arizona Two Buck Chuck. Lack of scale is one cause of higher cost, of course, but basic supply and demand play an important role. The amount of vineyard acreage has not increased as fast as the number of wineries seeking grapes. So grape prices have risen and wine prices along with them. We heard several people talk about $3000 per ton grape prices, for example, and that means $30+ bottle prices.

The vineyards are smaller than you will find in many regions and tend to be planted with many different grape varieties, further limiting economies of scale. I don’t think Arizona has a “signature” wine grape variety, although Syrah and GSM-style blends seem to be on every tasting room list. One reason for the kaleidoscope of grape varieties is just that Arizona is a young industry still in the experimentation stage.

Free to Choose

Another factor, however, is probably that making wine in Arizona means being free to do what you like to a certain extent. In Napa Valley buyers expect to find Cabernet Sauvignon. Ditto Malbec in Mendoza. In Cottonwood or Jerome, on the other hand, you can follow your personal preferences.

One source of this freedom is the fact that a lot of Arizona wines are hand-sold direct-to-consumer. Arizona wine sales regulations allow small wineries greater freedom for direct sales, so many focus on tasting rooms and wine clubs. Several wineries, for example, have tasting rooms in Willcox, Scottsdale, and Cottonwood. Scottsdale is a big tourist destination and Cottonwood is just a short drive from popular Sedona.

Local Market Focus

In part because of the scale issues and local regulations, most Arizona wineries focus on in-state sales through their direct channels. There is a lot of work to do to make Arizona wines more visible within Arizona before taking on bigger markets. Sue and I thought that on-premise sales might be a good way to spread the word, but neither Sedona restaurant we tried had Arizona wines on their list.

One manager shrugged when we asked about the situation. Too costly, he said. I can appreciate that problem. Once you apply restaurant markups to Arizona wine that visiting diners might not have heard of, it could be a tough sell.

But not impossible, as we discovered at lunch at a great Mexican restaurant in Scottsdale. They featured Chateau Tumbleweed wines in their by-the-glass program to support local producers. We tried a Mourvedre-forward GSM blend called Dr. Ron Bot and it was terrific with our meals. We appreciated that the Arabella Hotel where we stayed in Sedona featured Arizona wine tastings for guests.

Arizona Highlights

We enjoyed our brief visit to this part of Arizona wine country. Highlights included …

Arizona Stronghold

  • Arizona’s largest winery is small (by California standards) but mighty. The wines we sampled were delicious and we were very impressed with the entrepreneurial spirit. Arizona wines are relatively expensive for the reasons noted above, but somehow Arizona Stronghold manages to produce a good-value line of wines called Provisioner that includes “Float Tripper Sipper” canned sparkling wines that are a perfect complement to the Arizona outdoor lifestyle. Very impressive.

Page Spring Cellars

  • The Verde Valley is a great spot for outdoor activities and for wine tourists, too, with several wineries and even more tasting rooms. But with most of the vineyards down south in the Willcox area, there are not many classic destination wineries with vineyards, cellars, and tasting rooms. Page Spring Cellars has it all plus an outstanding restaurant. No wonder it attracts thousands of visitors each year for the wine, the food, and the experience.

Carlson Creek Vineyards

  • A winter storm prevented us from visiting the tasting room in Cottonwood, but we learned a lot about Carlson Creek Vineyards in an hour spent at the Old Town Scottsdale tasting room. The place was really buzzing on a weekday afternoon and the wines were among our favorites of this visit. If you visit Phoenix and don’t check out the wine scene in Old Town Scottsdale you are missing a bet!

Caduceus Cellars / Merkin Vineyards

  • Caduceus Cellars and Merkin Vineyards are projects of Maynard James Keenan, the frontman for rock groups including Tool. Some celebrity wineries are vanity projects or over-hyped branding exercises, but wine clearly is the central element here. We weren’t able to visit the winery in Jerome, but the Merkin tasting room in Old Town Scottsdale is a popular stop for both food and wine. Sue and I shared the signature charcuterie platter perfectly paired with Caduceus Nagual del Agostina, a white wine made from 80% Vermentino and 20% Malvasia Bianca from the Agostina block vineyard in the Verde Valley’s Cornville district. That’s a blend of grapes you might not expect to find in Arizona, or anywhere else, but it really worked. Arizona is full of surprises like this!

Cove Mesa Vineyard

  • Cove Mesa’s tasting room is in Cornville, with newly planted vineyards nearby. Cove Mesa is another example of a winery trying lots of different grapes, including a new planting of Assyrtiko.

The Arizona wine industry has come a long way in the 15 years since our first visit. It will be interesting see what the future holds. In the meantime, keep Arizona wine on your radar!

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Thanks to the wineries, hotels, and restaurants that hosted us or helped us with our research. Special thanks to Melissa Rein Lively for organizing our visit.

The Wineries:

Accommodations:

Restaurants:

Arizona Flashback: Desert (Not Dessert) Wine

February 21, 2023 By in emerging wine regions, wine, wine tourism Leave a comment

Sue and I are in Arizona this week, exploring a wine region near scenic Sedona that is completely new to us. Look for a full report in the coming weeks. In the meantime, we thought you might be interested in this Flashback from 2008, which reports on a previous Arizona wine expedition.

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Desert (Not Dessert) Wine

Wine Economist / March 28, 2008

I spent Friday in the Arizona wine country – south-west of Tucson near Sonoita – with my “research assistants” Michael, Nancy, and Sue. I thought that I would learn something from talking with winemakers here, and I did, but it wasn’t exactly what I expected. Here is my report.  …

A Working Hypothesis

My hypothesis going into this research was that the wines themselves would be a bit problematic, as emerging region wines often are, and that the biggest challenge would be in the vineyard not the cellar — growing wine grapes in the high desert.

Our first two winery stops quickly made me change my mind about the quality of Arizona wine. The wines at Dos Cabezas WineWorks were intense and flavorful, with a spicy complexity that surprised me. I am not a wine critic, so I will not bore you with amateur tasting notes and doubtful ratings, but we were very impressed with these wines and bought some to give as gifts to Arizona friends who did not know about Arizona wine. Todd Bostock, the winemaker, really knows how to draw flavor from Arizona (and some California) grapes. Todd is working with Dick Erath in addition to his own projects and I think this collaboration bodes well for Erath’s Arizona wines, when they are ready, and for the region’s reputation.

Our second stop was Callaghan Vineyards. Kent Callaghan’s wines were strikingly good. We noted the depth and distinctive character of these wines, particularly the Tempranillo- and Petit Verdot-based blends but also a Mourverdre, Syrah and Petite Sirah blend. These wines were different from Bostock’s and gave us a hint of the potential range of Arizona wine styles. Kent let us taste some library wines and the question, can Arizona wines age well, was answered in the affirmative. We bought wine and had it shipped home, which is I suppose the highest praise a wine consumer can provide.

We visited one other winery, a new one that I won’t name, that made the sort of wines that I originally expected to find – what I would describe as immature wines showing wood in the wrong places. They served to put Bostock’s and Callaghan’s achievements in context. It is possible to make very good wine in Arizona, but it’s probably not easy.

The Globe in Your Glass

Wines have started to appear from many regions not on the list of “usual suspects:” India, Thailand, Peru and Brazil, for example. Brazilian wines actually make a cameo appearance in the film Mondovino, but not in a way that makes them seem in any way part of the classic tradition of wine.

It is possible to grow wine grapes at unexpected latitudes, but special conditions are necessary. In Arizona it is the desert at an elevation of about 4500 feet, where summertime highs are only in the 90s and the temperature at night can drop by 35 degrees. Elevation compensates for latitude. This advantageous diurnal variation along with lots of sunshine and rocky red soil are a good recipe for wine if you can add the right amount of water – not too little or too much.

Climate is not the problem I thought it would be and I think some of the wines we tasted displayed that mystical terroir that is the holy grail of wine critics. But climate change is a problem and that’s the unexpected story here. (I’ve written about climate change and wine in Chateau Al Gore.)

Kent Callaghan told me that the climate seemed to him to have changed significantly in the last 18 years. He reported recent crop yields of just a ton an acre for some varieties due to unfavorable weather. Some of the plantings of the classic varietals that showed promise earlier now seem misplaced so he has started slowly to change over to grape varieties that are able to produce consistent quality in the evolving environment.

This helps explain the use of California grapes for a few wines I tasted (to compensate for low Arizona yields) and the effective use of unexpected varietals (Tempranillo from Spain and Petit Verdot, a Bordeaux blending grape). Having learnt to make good wine in Arizona, winemakers like Callaghan have had to learn the process all over again with new varietals. In this regard I think they are perhaps ahead of the curve – winemakers all over the world will have to adjust to climate change in the decades ahead.

I understand that the Erath Arizona vineyard is being planted with many different varietals. It sounded to me like an experimental vineyard when I heard the list of plantings, but I think there is more than guesswork involved. I expect that Erath, Bostock and Callaghan and other talented winegrowers will figure out what Arizona’s terroir is meant to produce. It will be interesting to track Arizona’s progress and see how its wines fare in a world where the environmental givens are shifting and the market conditions becoming increasingly diverse and competitive.

Wine and Wine Tourism

The wineries I visited are all relatively small with limited distribution, so don’t expect to find these products at your local shop. Production is limited to a couple of thousand cases, even with the use of California grapes to fill in the gap left by low local yield, and sales are mostly cellar door. The winemakers I spoke with are beginning to develop wine clubs and internet sales facilities, but most of the product is sold face-to-face. Restaurant placements, if done well, can help build reputation, but there is not much money in it for a small winery. And output isn’t usually big enough to fill a distributor’s pipeline. All of this may change in the future, of course, but for the present it is a craft industry. The future of Arizona wine, at least in the short run, is local not global.

And that is not necessarily a bad thing because exploiting the local is an important strategy and it seems to me that Arizona has a good potential for wine tourism. The world will probably come to Arizona wine before the wine is produced in sufficient volume to venture out into global markets.

The country around Elgin and Sonoita is strikingly beautiful and closer to Tucson than Napa Valley is to San Francisco. It is already a desirable day-trip destination from Tucson because of its bicycling and horseback riding opportunities. All you need is wine (and food) to complete the deal. The wine is already there, as we learned, and the food, too, but the word hasn’t leaked out. That, I think, is about to change.

Note: Thanks to Michael, Nancy and Sue for their help with this report and to Joyce at Dos Cabezas and Tom Bostock and Kent Callaghan for taking time to talk with us.