Confession: before I went travelling, I had no real clue about wines. At all. The most I ever cared about was how much a bottle or a glass cost and what colour it was.
Also, I rarely drank red wine as I found it too heavy and it gave me heartburn. I guess that’s what happens when you drink cheap wine and have no idea what you’re drinking.
One of our first stops in New Zealand was a volunteer position working on a vineyard. We helped cover the vines with netting to allow the grapes to grow without the birds eating them and worked in return for getting free room and board. It was hard work but it was nice to see how a vineyard worked and to receive home-cooked meals with ingredients grown straight on the farm each day.
While we were there, the owners let us sample some of the wine they produced and we bought a bottle from them before we left. It was here that I first began to appreciate just how good wine can be when you choose a grape that you like the taste of and when you invest a little more money.
Since then, I have tried many wines around the world. Some were delicious and, dare I say it, almost creamy in texture. While others were just downright disgusting (I’m referring to the boxed cheap wine I drank in Montenegro here. But at only a couple of Euros for an orange juice-sized carton, I couldn’t say no!)
Although I’m still always on the lookout for good wine offers online and at the supermarket, I try and spend more time picking out wine that is a little more expensive or looks like it would match my meal. And I owe that to the fact that I discovered so many delicious wines while I was travelling, sometimes by accident.
Here are some of my favourite wines that I drunk around the world.
Clos Marguerite Sauv Blanc / Pinot Noir, New Zealand
This was the vineyard that we worked at. The Pinot Noir was also the first red wine that I tasted and actually loved. Ever since then, I have preferred red wine over white wine (something which had never happened before). It was also here where I realised that Sauvignon Blanc is my favourite white wine. The wines here aren’t cheap (because it’s a small, private vineyard) but I definitely want to order a bottle from the harvest of the year we worked there, even if just to keep it as a souvenir!
Zestrea Pinot Noir, Romania
We stumbled across this wine by accident. We had been planning on climbing the mountain which overlooks the town square in Brasov (which also has a Hollywood-style sign) and wanted to watch the sunset with a bottle of wine. After umm-ing and ahh-ing in the alcohol section of the supermarket, we decided on this one because we liked the look of the label (sorry, some old habits die hard!) It was delicious and not bitter or heavy at all.
Lambrusco, Bologna
Bologna is the home of Lambrusco wine and so you can find many different brands of it for cheap prices in the supermarkets. We bought a couple of different brands while we were there (unfortunately I have forgotten the exact brands), but it is a fizzy, fruity wine that makes you feel as though you are celebrating something, even if you aren’t! If you ever go to the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, be sure to pick a bottle of it up!
Bricco Riella Moscato D’Asti, Amsterdam
I recently went on a High Wine experience at a posh hotel here in Amsterdam that I had won through a competition. It is a modern take on traditional afternoon tea, where you are served four different wines and four small tapas-style plates of food. This Moscato was the last wine, served with the dessert course and it was the most delicious Moscato I’ve ever had. It wasn’t too sweet, as they can sometimes be, but it was light and fruity. Definitely going to be buying a few bottles of this for the house!
Gluhwein, Germany/Austria
I’ve loved Gluhwein ever since I visited my first Christmas market in my home town of Manchester, but last year we were lucky enough to visit several Christmas markets in Germany and Austria. Needless to say, I ended up drinking Gluhwein (a hot, spiced wine made usually with red wine, cloves, cinnamon, sugar and oranges) almost every night for two weeks. It’s not great for your waistline, as I found out, but it is so warming and tasty on a cold winter’s night. Plus, it just smells like Christmas in a mug.
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