Wine Tour FAQ: 25 Questions Answered

Rent a car only if the person at the wheel will taste nothing and the cellars are too far apart for a bus or a train. In every other case a tour, a train or a driver is easier. A sober driver with two or three booked cellars in one valley is the honest exception: a tour sells that person very little. Where the town center is closed to traffic or the road keeps to the left, the car gets harder still. Wine tour or rental car goes region by region.

In several regions, yes, with limits. The Douro line runs from Porto to Pocinho, more than 170 kilometers, but a cellar visit is a separate arrangement. Chianti has local buses, bike rental and cars with a driver, though the local tourism site says Greve has no public taxis. Franschhoek has a wine tram, and Epernay works from its station. We give no timetables, so check each operator. See tour or rental car.

In Napa, assume yes: Visit Napa Valley says a reservation is most likely required. Sonoma County Tourism says many wineries require one and asks parties of five or more to book ahead. Franschhoek's tram operator advises booking tickets ahead in busy periods and pre-booking estate tastings you do not want to miss. For most other regions we found no official rule, so this has no universal answer, and we do not stretch the Napa rule over Italy or Portugal. Our own lead times, in weeks, are on do you need reservations.

Nothing fixed. We found no official definition, and each listing sets its own cap, so two operators can use the words for very different numbers of people. Ask for the maximum, in people, on your date. The same care applies to 'private', which can be priced per person or for the whole vehicle. How to read a tour listing decodes 41 phrases and gives the question to send for each.

Neither, until you know your party size and how much say you want. A private tour lets you change the order of stops if the cellars can take you. A group tour keeps the decisions off your plate, but the slowest lunch sets the afternoon. Check the pricing unit first: a private tour priced per vehicle can win or lose once you are four, five or six people. How to choose a wine tour has the four questions.

Three is a full day, with a sit-down lunch between the second and third, and four is the ceiling unless the stops are short. The Franschhoek Wine Tram's own guide recommends 3 to 4 estates in a day. Count pours as well as stops: our arithmetic puts twenty one-ounce pours at 4 standard drinks if you swallow all of them, and twice that at two ounces. Five is a list, not a day. See how many wineries you can visit in a day.

We found no official source that calls it rude, and none on tasting etiquette, so this is our advice. Spit when a later stop, a drive or a dinner is still ahead, and ask the person pouring where to empty the glass; if there is no bucket, ask for a cup. Spitting lowers what you take in but does not remove it. Zero is the safest number for drivers; check the official source. More on a day of tasting.

A real breakfast and a proper lunch. A cheese board is a snack, so give lunch an hour and a half and book the table: the Franschhoek Wine Tram notes that estate restaurants and picnic spots fill up fast. Drink water too, because it resets your mouth between wines. Food makes the day more comfortable but does not make driving safe, since the CDC says any alcohol impairs the ability to drive safely. Zero is the safest number; check the official source. See a day of tasting.

Clothes for the weather and the floor. Visit Napa Valley says jeans are fine and nobody will mind sandals, and that a more upscale winery may call for a little more; we found no official dress code elsewhere. Bring a layer for cellars: the Comité Champagne says its cellars stay around 12 °C. Closed, flat shoes cope with gravel, steps and cobbles, and a hat does the work between vine rows. What to wear and pack sorts it by condition.

There is no universal answer, and we give no amounts. The Napa tourism board says tipping isn't required but is a nice touch for your wine educator after a great experience. It is the only official source we opened, so outside Napa check the local tourism site before you go. On a tour, tips are usually outside the price, so read the exclusions line on the listing. See a day of tasting and reading a listing.

Zero is the safest number; check the official source for where you will drive. The limits are measured in blood or breath, not in pours, and Spain's traffic authority says the level a person reaches varies with food, drink and time. Transport for New South Wales calls counting standard drinks to guess it difficult and often inaccurate. This is not legal advice. If anyone will drive, book a driver, a tour or a train, as set out on tour or rental car.

They differ by country, by state and by licence, so there is no single number. Italy, France, Spain and Portugal use 0.5 g/L of blood as the general figure, with lower limits for some drivers, and Argentina sits at zero. Drink-driving limits gives each row with its official source and the date we checked it, and rows we could not confirm carry no number. Limits change and this is not legal advice. Zero is the safest number; check the official source.

Yes, if the day is built around the place and not the pour. Count the stops that are not tasting bars, and look for a meal and outdoor time. We would not book a five-cellar day for a non-drinker. One catch: the Franschhoek Wine Tram's FAQ says no discounts are available for non-drinking guests, though we read only that operator. A train, a bike or a hike shows the land without a glass. See tours for non-drinkers.

It depends on the winery, and we found no universal rule. We could not confirm an official rule on children in tasting rooms for the regions we cover; it is set by the winery and, in many places, by local licensing law, so check the official source. Ask in writing before you book and say who is coming. Children do not taste. For the rest of the day, one cellar with grounds beats four tasting bars. See non-drinkers, drivers and kids.

No official source we opened rates wine tours as safe or unsafe, so we will not invent an answer. Government advice is about transport: the UK Foreign Office's South Africa page reports violent incidents involving tourists at popular locations and armed violence between taxi drivers. Our habits are our own. Choose a small group, book the way back before the way out, tell someone the route and keep your own water. Read the current advice for your destination. See the non-drinkers page.

This site prints no prices, because they change with the date and the party size. What we can tell you is what a price is made of: the vehicle and driver, a guide if there is one, access to the cellars and the seller's share. Lunch, taxes, tips and bottles sit on top or inside, depending on the listing, so the inclusions and exclusions lines decide. What a wine tour costs builds a comparison with invented numbers.

Either, and sometimes per group. Viator's partner documentation describes pricing per individual or per group unit, and says a vehicle price follows the number of vehicles needed, not the number of guests. So 'up to 6 guests' is a seat limit, and a seventh guest means a second vehicle. In our invented example a private vehicle only beat a group tour at six guests once the cellar fees were counted. See what a wine tour costs.

It is the lowest figure. Viator's documentation defines its from price as the lowest per-person price for a group of at least two, over a period not exceeding 384 days ahead. Your date, your party size and any charges paid at the destination can all move it. Enter your real date and group in the booking box before you compare two tours. We checked this on one platform only. The cost page and the listing guide go further.

Transport and a number of tastings, most of the time, and a guide on some listings. Lunch, tasting fees, tips and bottles vary, and the 'not included' line matters more than the 'included' one. 'Light lunch' is usually a plate of bites, and 'lunch included' can still leave wine with the meal extra. This is our reading of listings, since no regulator defines these phrases. Ask what is on the plate and whether drinks are covered. See how to read a tour listing.

Count the hours at cellars and the wines poured, then read the title for what comes before the wine. If the place is named first and the wine last, such as an island tour with one tasting, the day is probably sightseeing with a stop. Hours at cellars, wines poured and the price unit are the three answers that decide whether we keep reading. If a listing gives none and the operator will not reply in a day, we move on. See reading a tour listing.

It depends on the hemisphere and the year. Where we could confirm it, northern picking falls between August and October and southern picking between January and May, and the windows move by weeks. Visit Napa Valley says harvest typically starts in August, and South African Tourism says harvesting happens between January and April. For many regions we found no official window and left them blank. Do not book a non-refundable flight for one week of picking. See harvest season.

We never say best time, because it depends on the region. Our matrix marks a month mild and dry when the average high is 15 to 29 C and rain is under 80 mm: that held in April for 25 of 28 regions and in July for only nine. It measures climate, not harvest, crowds or closures, and a weather station is not a vineyard. Use it to remove months, not to pick one. See when to visit and weather and climate.

It depends on the country. The text of US federal labeling rules, 27 CFR part 4, does not contain the word, so there it is the producer's choice; we looked at federal rules only. In Rioja, Cava, Portugal and Chianti Classico it is tied to regulator rules with different numbers, so a Rioja Reserva and a Chianti Classico Riserva are not the same. An AVA, by contrast, is a US area from which at least 85 percent of the wine must come. See the glossary.

Pick one place per day in all four. From Florence, book Chianti Classico first and give Montalcino its own day (Chianti from Florence). From Paris you get one Champagne town, not two (Reims or Epernay). Napa is the shorter drive, Sonoma publishes a walk-in list (Napa or Sonoma). Franschhoek has a tram, Stellenbosch has estates in five directions (Stellenbosch or Franschhoek).

Fewer than the brochures suggest. We found seven World Heritage listings about vineyards and wine in the 13 countries we cover, among them Champagne, the Climats of Burgundy, Saint-Emilion and the Alto Douro, plus two practices on the intangible list: Georgian qvevri winemaking, inscribed in 2013, and the bush vines of Pantelleria. Chianti, Napa, Rioja and Mendoza are not listed. A listing protects a place and does not open it. See UNESCO wine regions and qvevri wine explained.