Tasting Wine When Traveling

Regardless of where we travel to, we always taste local wines during our time in the country. Sometimes we go on an actual wine tasting tour where we visit several vineyards and taste several of the varieties that they offer. Other times we seek out wine bars that specialize in serving local wines and then try a couple of different wines. Even if we don’t go to anyplace that specializes in wine, we’ll still ask the local restaurants about any wines that they would recommend from the region. We often find that the people that live there are extremely proud of their country’s wine traditions.

There are certain obvious places like France, Italy, Spain, and California in the US that not only offer wine tastings and tours, but often target tourists specifically to visit for their wine. However, we have been to many other countries that are not necessarily known for their wine and found that they have a wonderful wine tradition. Places like Peru, Panama, Egypt, Romania, and the Czech Republic all had wonderful selections. Obviously, Germany has many wonderful wines as well.

As we prepare to leave for Hungary and Slovakia in just a couple of days, we have learned that they also have a very proud tradition of wine. We have scheduled a wine tasting with a charcuterie and cheese board for one of the evenings during our stay. They are supposed to have several red and white wines that are excellent and we are looking forward to giving them a try. Have you ever been surprised to find good local wine during your travels?