The 10 wine regions worth building a trip around, ranked by the wine and the visit together, with the grape to taste and the city that gets you there.
We ranked these ten on the standing of the region’s wine first, then on how easily a visitor tastes it at the cellar door. Every one is a day trip from a Wimup guide, and each pick names the grape that made its name and the months of its harvest.
The benchmark for red wine since the 1855 classification, and about 110,000 hectares of vines around one city. La Cité du Vin sits on the quays, and the Médoc and Saint-Émilion châteaux are an hour’s drive; most of the famous ones open by appointment only.
California’s first designated wine area, approved in 1981, and the Cabernet against which the New World is measured. Most estates take reservations only, so book before driving the hour north from San Francisco.
The hills between Florence and Siena whose boundary Cosimo III de’ Medici drew in 1716, now marked by the black rooster on every bottle. The SR222 strings the villages of Greve, Panzano and Radda together, and many farms pour at the door.
The first demarcated wine region in the world, set in 1756, and a UNESCO site since 2001 for its terraced slopes. The Douro line runs from Porto to Pinhão along the river, and the quintas around it pour port and dry reds.
The source of most of Argentina’s wine and the home of its Malbec, grown under the Andes. Luján de Cuyo starts at the edge of the city, and the higher Uco Valley is a long day by car or tour.
Old-vine Shiraz country, where Langmeil’s Freedom block, planted in 1843, is believed to be the oldest surviving Shiraz vineyard on earth. Tanunda and Nuriootpa are about an hour from Adelaide, and most cellar doors take walk-ins.
Stellenbosch, Franschhoek and Paarl, the Cape’s winelands, under granite mountains. Stellenbosch Wine Routes, the country’s first, opened in 1971 and now counts more than 150 members, under an hour from Cape Town.
France’s oldest wine route, opened in 1953, runs 170km along the Vosges foothills through half-timbered villages. The white wines are named by grape, and Colmar sits halfway along, with cellars open in Riquewihr and Eguisheim.
Wine made in buried clay qvevri, a method UNESCO listed as intangible heritage in 2013 and traced back some 8,000 years. Telavi and Sighnaghi are about two hours from Tbilisi, and family cellars pour amber wine at the table.
The valley that put New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc on the world’s tables, and the source of most of the country’s wine. The cellar doors cluster around Blenheim, about two hours’ drive east of Nelson.
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