does anyone know of any online resources to learn about wines in the regions we're visiting?
 

Travelling to France ( Paris, Loire Valley, Ile de re/La Rochelle), Spain ( Barcelona and San Sebastian) and Italy ( Rome). Now that our itinerary is set, I would like to learn more about the wine and cuisines of each area. Can anyone recommend online guides that are fairly detailed by area? Or, first hand recommendations would be great as well. <BR>

Try<BR><BR>www.winespectator.com

www.frenchwines.com<BR><BR>cited several times recently by a well-known oenophile here.<BR>

Topping

Not on-line but there is a whole series of guides to various wine regions entitled "A Traveller's Wine Guide to...." We've used the ones for Germany, Alsace, and Italy. All were excellent. Have suggestions on hotels and restaurants, wonderful maps and lots of general sightseeing info as well as very complete info about wines and wineries in each district. They run about $18 but are very good and worth the money. Bought ours at Barnes and Noble.

vicki,<BR>For online guides to Spanish wines, try the following:<BR><BR>www.filewine.es (English version)<BR>http://vino.eunet.es (the Spanish Wine Page)<BR>www.thewinenews.com<BR><BR>I'll second Julie's rec. of that very good wine travel guide series, "A Traveller's Wine Guide to Spain". We've used it often for our wine tours of the Basque Country, Rioja and Catalunya (Penedes, Ampurdan). I also purchased my copy at B&N. We also have the excellent "The Wine Roads of Spain" by Marc and Kim Millon (Harper Collins), "The Wine Atlas of Spain and Traveller's Guide for the Vineyards" by Hubrecht Duijker (Mitchell Beazley) and the newer "The New Spain: A complete guide to contemporary Spanish wine" by John Radford (Mitchell Beazley) in our travel guide library. <BR> <BR>While in Barcelona, I'd certainly take an easy day trip by car or train (45 km) south west to Sant Sadurni d'Anoia, the home of cava (sparkling wne) in the Penedes to visit either the Freixenet cava cellars, right across from the train station, or the pretty Codorniu cellars, housed in a lovely Modernist building (Catalan Art Nouveau) further down the road. Both offter daily tours-we toured Freixenet- they show you a video first, then take you around in a little tram and offer tastings afterwards. In the same trip (by car) you could also visit the Torres wine empire in nearby Vilafranca del Penedes.<BR><BR>The Basque area of the Rioja wine region, the Rioja Alavesa, centered around La Guardia or Biasteri in Basque, is a good 2 1/2 hrs. southwest of San Sebastian-too far for a day trip. <BR>But for a great late morning drive then lunch while in the S.S area, make sure you do take the 15 km drive west along the Bay of Biscay coast from S.S. to the delightful Basque fishing village of Getaria, one of the D.O. regions for the unique Basque white wine, txacoli, which is light, refreshing, tart and slightly fizzy with a kind of crab apple taste-it's perfect for seafood, fish dishes and the amazing pintxos served in San Sebastian's endless tapas bars in the Old Quarter. You can try txacoli in Getaria at the wonderful (but informal) gourmet restaurant "Elkano" on the main road, the N634, (fabulous fish/seafood and a terrific wine cellar), at the atmospheric "Mayflower" tavern at the pier or buy a bottle to take home at the txcacoli bodega store a block from "Elkano" on the N634 or visit the most well known bodega, "Txomin Etxaniz" on Mayor 42 but call ahead: 943 140 702 to make sure they'll be open for visitors. The txacoli wines are relatively unknown in the US, often hard to find outside of Spain and not featured in the "Traveller's Guide to..." book.<BR>Happy travels!

Vicki<BR>You can read threads, search and post messages/questions at both:<BR>www.wineloverspage.com &<BR>www.westcoastwine.com<BR>Very informative. <BR>Ciao, <BR>Gregg