2023-2024 have provided us the pleasure of tasting wines from all around the Mediterranean, South Africa, and South America. It has been a deliciously fun adventure for a couple of craft beer drinkers from Colorado. During our 2023 adventures in Europe we found the craft beer options to be few and far between. Since we were in the process of discovering new places we thought we may as well sample the preferred local beverages too. When in Rome… While we loved tasting each country’s cocktail of choice, we discovered that wine always seemed to be the go to beverage no matter where we went. Come with us as we take you on an extremely novice international wine tour. We are not wine afficionados, so don’t expect in-depth flavor analysis. Instead we will share our experiences and some of the discoveries we made along the way.
Yeti Rambler 4 oz Stackable Cups
These little beauties are perfect travel companions whether you are living out of your bags or camping in the wilderness. Cold or hot, they handle wine as easily as espresso. The ceramic lining, insulated stainless steel, and lightweight stackable design make them our favorite travel wine mugs.
Southern Europe
It probably won’t surprise anyone to know that wine is extremely abundant around Southern Europe and the Mediterranean. Whether you are visiting Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, or Greece there are delicious wine options everywhere. One of the most pleasant surprises for Dog and Dragon was discovering how affordable wine is in these countries. Wine is so abundant in this part of the world that you can buy bottles at extremely cheap prices. It quickly became a game for us to see how little we could pay and still find good wine. The wine is ridiculously good even at low, low prices. We’re talking like $2-$5 per bottle for excellent wine. Turns out we played a very winnable game!
Some of the notable things we discovered about wine in this part of the world:
- This one is for all you English speakers out there. Maybe you know some Spanish and you think logically that vino rojo would get you a glass of red wine, because rojo means red. Not in Spain. Vino rojo will get you a rose. If you want a red wine you ask for vino tinto.
- Portugal has a unique green wine called vinho verde. While the name implies a unique color, vinho verde actually comes in white, red, and rose. Vinho verde refers to a verdant region of northern Portugal where the grapes come from.
- Our Portuguese friend Ricardo tells us if you are in a pub and they ask if you want white or red the correct answer is “full”.
- We did a Douro Valley wine tour with CMTour (sponsored link) in December from Porto. The tour included a river boat trip, lunch, and port wine tastings. For people who had always found port wines to be too sweet, we were pleasantly surprised to find the port wines from the Quinta de Sao Luiz were amazingly delicious.
- Douro Valley is a land of extreme temps. We discovered the temperatures in December to be radically different from where we were staying in Porto. While we loved the tour we totally froze our butts off on the river. Dress warmly in December people! If you go in summer, good luck. It is brutally hot in summer reaching 110F/45C. They say it is 9 months of winter and 3 months of hell in Douro Valley. Find out what the temp is like before you go and dress appropriately.
- Be sure to visit Santo Wines when you go to Santorini. Santo Wines dining room has one of the best views on the island. Enjoy a flight of wine on the cliff overlooking the crater. It is simply stunning.
- The top five wine producing countries in Europe are Italy, France, Spain, Germany, and Portugal.
South Africa
Before flying to South Africa we had no idea the country had such a rich wine history. Groot Constantia wine farm in Cape Town was founded in 1685. As we wrote in our recent Cape Town post, the wine estate produced wines of such quality that they were known world wide and frequently exported to various European royalty throughout history. Similar to Europe, South Africa is a wine lovers paradise. We had a awesome time exploring what the country had to offer related to the use of grapes. Some of our discoveries included:
- One of our favorite stories from Groot Constantia is that Napoleon Bonaparte loved their wines so much that he famously had them delivered to St Helena during his exile.
- Think of the Stellenbosch area as essentially the South African equivalent of California’s Napa Valley. It is known for its wine farms and stunning scenery. Stellenbosch is close enough to Cape Town to be an easy day trip. There is plenty to do and see in Stellenbosch so you could easily make it into a multi-day vacation stop as well.
- Pinotage is a unique type of grape developed in South Africa in 1924. It was created by combining Pinot Noir grapes with Cinsaut, or Heritage grapes. We discovered we loved the complex, vibrant, rich flavor of Pinotage and highly recommend it if you’ve never discovered this South African style before.
- There are vineyards throughout the country, beyond the Stellenbosch area. Near Mossel Bay we enjoyed a tasting flight at Reed Valley Winery during our trip to the Garden Route. Reed Valley is a gorgeous location with delicious wines and we had perfect weather during our visit.
South America
The Dog and Dragon wine tour continued into South America in early 2024. Again we were amazed at the abundance, quality, and affordability of the wines in the most southern reaches of the Americas. There are rich, delicious, amazing wines in seemingly every country. Here are some of our favorites discoveries:
- Argentina is known for its malbec. Whether you visit a high end wine store or a grocery store aisle you will find row upon row of malbec. As the signature wine in Argentina, you’ll find the malbecs to be both delicious and affordable like all those glorious wines in Europe. You can of course find malbecs at extremely high prices if that is what you are going for. We loved the malbecs in Argentina!
- Chile has amazing wines as well. Outside of France, Chile is known for its cabernet sauvignon. We also discovered an amazing Chilean red wine called carmenère. Once grown in France it is now grown almost exclusively in Chile.
- Uruguay has mastered its own variety of amazing red wine. Similar to the carmenère in Chile, the tannat wine grape made its way from France to South America. Tannat is now the red wine Uruguay is known for and it is fantastic.
Verdict
As I mentioned at the beginning this is a novice international wine tour discussion. Obviously we aren’t getting into any detailed descriptions of the characteristics of each wine. No hints of this and that. We’ll leave that to the sommeliers out there. If you are looking for that type of description from Dog and Dragon you’re likely to get something along the line of “I like this red. Its delicious.”. Follow the links we’ve provided for useful, professional descriptions.
What we have discovered is that a great portion of the world has a real affinity for wine. There are amazing wines to be found all over the globe. Wine is abundant and affordable. Depending on the climate there are excellent unique varieties to be found on your adventures. If you are a wine drinker you are likely to enjoy your travels even more when you discover the possibilities out there.
Our guide in Portugal referred to his belly as the “curve of happiness”. While we’ve been loving our tastings from around the world we have had to remind ourselves to enjoy our wine in moderation and keep exercising. Keeping the curve of happiness at bay is hard work at our age.
During our many adventures we have also run across a few craft breweries around the world. We’ve also discovered there are local, unique cocktails and spirits to sample in seemingly every country. That sounds like a great future post for another day. Until then, enjoy your wine explorations. Cheers!
