Inspiration

Best Wine Regions to Visit

And the wines to buy if you can’t buy plane tickets to all of them. 
Willamette Valley Oregon
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We asked some of the top wine experts in the U.S. to share where they’re going in the New Year. From South Africa to Italy, their recommendations for the best wine regions in the world to visit in 2020 don’t disappoint. And while oenophiles will love these interesting destinations, there’s also plenty to do outside the vineyards.

This story was originally published in December 2018 and has been updated with new information. All products featured in this story are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

All products and listings featured on Condé Nast Traveler are independently selected by our editors. If you purchase something through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

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    Lombardy, Italy

    Right in the center of northern Italy, not far from the chic boutiques and elegant restaurants of Milan, you’ll find the small wine-producing area of Franciacorta, where some of the best Italian sparkling wines are made. “It’s Italy’s best-kept secret!” says Kat Hawkins, the beverage manager and sommelier at Shaw’s Crab House in Chicago. “People always talk about Champagne, but the wines in Franciacorta are made in the same style, the classic method, using chardonnay, pinot noir, and pinot blanc grapes—standing in for pinot meunier, more commonly used in the Champagne region. You’re getting really high-quality wines at a fraction of the price.” North of Milan, the alpine valley of Valtellina is also emerging as a nebbiolo wine hub, with dry, fruit-forward reds that are rivaling those of neighboring Piedmont, famous for nebbiolo-based Barolo and Barbaresco. Visit Lombardy in the spring, when temperatures are pleasant and everything is waking up, or in the fall to catch harvest season at its peak.

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    Western Cape, South Africa

    “I’m dying to visit South Africa, particularly the Western Cape,” says Ali Schmidt, wine director and manager at Emmer & Rye in Austin. Best known for sauvignon blanc, this region is making waves with other high-quality whites, too. “The wines of young new producers like Alheit Vineyards, Craven, and Thorne & Daughters have caught my eye with their elegant takes on chenin blanc,” says Schmidt. “The intensity of their minerality coupled with fresh stone fruit and a weighty generosity are creating a new archetype for everyone's favorite Loire grape.” When you go, start with a few days in Cape Town, then head out to the Cape Winelands—the largest wine-producing region in South Africa. Plan your wine trip around the wineries you want to visit, as the area is too big to see all in one trip. 

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    Willamette Valley, Oregon

    The Willamette Valley is not a newcomer in the wine world, but it’s been leading the way when it comes to more sustainable winemaking practices. Hope Well Vineyard in the Eola-Amity Hills is a case in point. “Mimi Casteel is a rockstar,” says Mark Guillaudeu, the beverage director at Commis and CDP in Oakland, California. “Her regenerative farming practices are leaps and bounds ahead of anything I've seen or heard of—and it shows in the wines. Her pinot noirs are some of the most delicate, ethereal wines I’ve ever tasted, surpassing even many grand cru bottles from Burgundy.” While Hope Well doesn’t have a tasting room, there are many more sustainable wineries to seek out on a day (or multi-day) trip to the Willamette Valley. Helmed by Maggie Harrison, Antica Terra makes small-lot, organic chardonnay and pinot noir, and family-owned Sokol Blosser is a classic pinot noir producer in Dundee and a beautiful winery to visit. Less than a one-hour drive from Portland, the Willamette Valley is gorgeous year round, but summer and early fall, when farming activity is in full swing, are the best times to visit.

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    Sicily, Italy

    “Sicily is by far one of the most dynamic and exciting places for winemaking right now,” says Joe Campanale, owner and wine director at Fausto and co-owner of LaLou in Brooklyn. “Twenty years ago, people didn’t think of it as a place for high-quality wine. Today, there are some incredible protagonists that push the region to do better and try new things.” Arianna Occhipinti, for example, made the frappato grape famous and was one of the first to believe that Sicily could make elegant wines. While the region is known for marsala dessert wine, corporations have industrialized it and produced it in mass. Marco De Bartoli started making marsala in a more artisanal way again and now produces a complex wine. And if you’re in Etna, seek out Girolamo Russo’s Etna Rosso, a great red for lovers of pinot noir and nebbiolo but with a light smokiness and minerality. “If you’re planning to visit wineries, May is a pretty relaxed time in the vineyard, which will give you a better shot to hear from the winemaker directly,” says Campanale.

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    Niagara Peninsula, Canada

    The thought of heading to Toronto to taste wine may seem a little odd, but “I think it’s one of the more exciting cities in North America with regards to food and wine, and what's happening in Niagara Peninsula is super cool,” says Miles White, co-owner of the Graft Wine Shop in Charleston. “Aside from the chance to taste ice wine from famous producers like Inniskillin, there is a bit of a boom of dry, still, old-school wines being made here,” he says, such as traditional cold-climate riesling, pinot noir and chardonnay, as well as cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, and gamay. Hop in a car, drive along scenic Lake Ontario in the autumn, and taste your way through some of Canada's most exciting wineries. Don’t miss Pearl Morissette’s minimalist “barn” and its superb wines. Added bonus: They have a fairly new restaurant at the winery that’s excellent.

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    Alentejo, Portugal

    Porto and the Douro Valley are the better known wine destinations in Portugal, but Alentejo in the south of the country is well worth a detour: It’s only a 1.5-hour drive from Lisbon and an even shorter way from the famous rocky beaches of the Algarve. But the main attraction here are the wines—both whites and reds made primarily with indigenous grapes like touriga nacional, aragonez, and alicante bouschet among others—as well as the wineries. Alentejo boasts some of the most amazing, design-forward wineries in all of Europe—from the Guggenheim-looking Herdade do Freixo to the winery cum contemporary art center Quinta do Quetzal. “Herdade do Arrepiado Velho made some of my favorite wines,” says Michele Gargiulo, sommelier at Jean Georges in the Four Seasons Hotel in Philadelphia. “The complexity, minerality, and structure of their touriga nacional is stunning. I love to pour it for cabernet sauvignon lovers—they’re blown away by it. But there are so many more producers that make fantastic wines in the area. The quality is outstanding and the prices are outrageously low.”

Laura Giannatempo is a writer, cookbook author and former editor with a passion for all things food, wine and travel. She’s the founder of ViaVai Travel, a company that creates immersive food and wine travel experiences to less traveled regions of Italy, like Piedmont and Liguria. She lives in... Read more
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