Tasting Wine When Traveling

On July 19, 2023July 19, 2023 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn Travel Tips7 Comments

Regardless of where we travel to, we always taste local wines during our time in the country. Sometimes we go on an actual wine tasting tour where we visit several vineyards and taste several of the varieties that they offer. Other times we seek out wine bars that specialize in serving local wines and then try a couple of different wines. Even if we don’t go to anyplace that specializes in wine, we’ll still ask the local restaurants about any wines that they would recommend from the region. We often find that the people that live there are extremely proud of their country’s wine traditions.

Wine Purchased from a Wine Tasting in Strasbourg, France

There are certain obvious places like France, Italy, Spain, and California in the US that not only offer wine tastings and tours, but often target tourists specifically to visit for their wine. However, we have been to many other countries that are not necessarily known for their wine and found that they have a wonderful wine tradition. Places like Peru, Panama, Egypt, Romania, Turkey, Vietnam, Bulgaria, and the Czech Republic all had wonderful selections. Obviously, Germany has many wonderful wines as well.

Grape Vines at Lorimar Vineyard in California

Another place where we did a wine tasting was in Budapest where we enjoyed a wonderful charcuterie board as well as sampling a variety of wines. The region that we heard the most about for producing excellent wine was Eger, which grows both red and white varieties of wine. As far as red wine from Eger, the Bull’s Blood or Egri Bikaver was really good and came with an interesting back-story. Legend has it that in 1552 a small group of soldiers were drinking wine in preparation for the upcoming siege of Eger and bull’s blood was added to the wine to give them extra strength and stamina. The group was able to successfully beat the larger group of Turks and the legend was born.

Many Varieties of Local Wine in Budapest

What was your favorite location to enjoy a wine tasting?

Visiting Vineyards After the Harvest

On January 31, 2020 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn Photo Challenge3 Comments

We have done several vineyard tours with wine tastings and, in almost every case, our visit happened shortly after the harvesting of the grapes. Just because the vines are empty, it doesn’t detract from the experience of visiting the vineyard. Most of our visits have occurred between late October and early December and even though the grapes may have been harvested, the vineyards had started to change colors for autumn. We have done our vineyard tours in California, Spain, Germany, and France, but the images are not surprisingly similar.

Grape Vines Across the Valley in California

Although After Harvest, We Saw a Few Grapes Next to a Winery in California

The Wine and Beer of Hungary

On May 29, 2019 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn Hungary4 Comments

We had heard in advance of going to Hungary that it was known for the wine that it produced and we certainly weren’t disappointed. In addition to having several wine regions that produce very interesting wines, we also discovered that Hungary has a craft beer scene, at least in Budapest, that is very similar to what we have in the United States. We also went to a specific wine tasting with a charcuterie board where we learned about the various wines as well as the history of Hungary.

The region that we heard the most about for producing excellent wine was Eger, which grows both red and white varieties of wine. As far as red wine from Eger, the Bull’s Blood or Egri Bikaver was really good and came with an interesting back-story. Legend has it that in 1552 a small group of soldiers were drinking wine in preparation for the upcoming seige of Eger and bull’s blood was added to the wine to give them extra strength and stamina. The group was able to successfully beat the larger group of Turks and the legend was born. In addition to the Bikaver wine, we also had an “old” Chardonnay wine from Eger that had been aged for 4 years, which was delicious.

We also tried wines from other regions including a sweet dessert wine from Tokaj, which is in the northeast corner of country. We also tasted an interesting wine from the Sopron region, which is in the mountainous area in the farthest western part of Hungary. In addition to the wine tasting, we tried many different wines during our time in Budapest. We also tried a couple of the fruit brandies called Palinka, which is an aperitif and is quite popular. We tried both the plum and apricot versions of Palinka and enjoyed both.

Many of the restaurants that we went to had at least a dozen different craft beers on draught. The national beer seemed to be Dreher, which is a lager and was available at almost every place that we ate. We prefer darker beers, so we had several of those as well. We didn’t make it out to the countryside, so we don’t know if it is similar to Germany where every city has their own beer, but Budapest seemed to have a lot of choices to offer.

White Wine and Bull’s Blood Wine from Eger

For anyone who likes wine, a trip to Hungary will certainly provide the opportunity to try a lot of different wines. We would certainly recommend a wine tasting, whether by visiting some vineyards or doing one within Budapest. For those that prefer beer, plenty of options abound and all of the ones that we tried were certainly very good.