ChrisinCowiche
Posts: 7853
Joined: 12/16/2009 From: Cowiche, WA Status: offline
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Fun to think about! We have so far been contained to North America, but recommend a couple of others in California, really Central Coast, Paso Robles area is dense with good wineries and good wine town vibe. Monterrey/Santa Lucia/Santa Cruz is another good area on north end of Central Coast, and you may have covered it with Santa Ynez, but the whole Santa Barbera County and a bit north are also good wine country feel. Prices for everything are lower in these areas compared to Napa, but that can be said of all of North America. Going North you mention Oregon-Willamette, but there other Oregon regions worth considering. Southern Oregon scenery, Crater Lake, Ashland, coast make the wine niches more appealing, and it's a pretty new are for wine tourism. That has pluses and minuses. Similar East of Portland is the Columbia River Gorge, stunning scenery and good beer and wine scene, maybe an add-on either of those areas with a Willamette trip though there are plenty of wineries and sub AVA's to explore there regardless. Washington is next and I won't write a novel, but Seattle is a wine destination with no grapes but over a hundred wineries, and Walla Walla is the prototype wine tourism town, about 5 hours to the East, through and in middle of the actual vineyards, another couple hundred there and along the way, but many of those same wines can be tasted in Seattle or Woodinville, it's wine suburb. The highlight of Seattle of course is that CellarTracker founder and owner, Eric LeVine lives there, and I've heard rumors that his home can been seen during the city Duck Boat tours. Into Canada, British Columbia's Okanagan is a fun place with interesting wines. Due to their tariff most of these wines never leave Canada, so it's hidden to most of the rest of the world. Other US States we have toured include Virginia, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, and various others with very spotty results. Virginia has a thriving industry, but is not consistent enough in quality to paint it broadly good. The others I list are novelties. Noted We have never visited Michigan or New York wine countries. We also have had a few Mexican wines, but the best one I ever had came from Eduardo. If he shows up he can talk about Mexico wine tourism, generally his cellar is the place to start.
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