Right: Wine map of Washington
The 1960s saw the flowering of a new winemaking region in a very unexpected locale: Washington State, USA. Though near latitudes (46-47 degrees) that encompass two of the great French wine regions, Bordeaux (44.5 degrees) and Burgundy (47 degrees), Washington’s vineyards also experience cold and sometimes rainy falls and winters. Less [...]

Midway between Milan and Rome, Tuscany is bordered on the west by the Tyrrhenian Sea and the Apennines mountain range on the east.
First inhabited by the Etruscans, in the Middle Ages and continuing through the Renaissance, Tuscany developed into a center of the Arts and Learning under the control of the Medici clan. And no [...]

Right: Wine map of the U.S.
In a state that produces 90% of all US wine, the vineyards of Sonoma and Napa in Northern California are justly famous. But they have no monopoly on quality, the wines from the newer Southern California wineries are an equal match for any of their northern sisters.
Most Southern California wine [...]

Right: Wine map of France
In the triangle formed near the Mediterranean coast by Nice in the east, Marseille in the west and Avignon to the northwest, lies the region of Provence.
Provence was the first region in France to turn to winemaking some 2,600 years ago. Today some 500 wineries tend vineyards on 68,000 acres — [...]

Right: Wine map of Italy
One of three main Italian winemaking regions, Piedmont lies at the confluence of the Tanaro and Borbera rivers, 45km (28 mi) southeast of Turin in northwest Italy. Moderately remote in this crowded modern world, it’s braced by the Alps to the north and the Apennines to the south.
Bordered by the French [...]

Right: Wine map of France
The Loire Valley, near Nantes in western France, is one of the most beautiful winemaking areas in Europe. A narrow, but wide region following the Loire river, it meanders from Auvergne and the Massif Central mountains to the Atlantic coast.
Vines producing wine grapes existed here as far back as the Roman [...]

Right: Wine map of France
Languedoc-Roussillon, the largest wine producing region in the world, lies on the border of the Mediterranean sea, between the Rhone delta and Spain.
Fifty thousand vine growers (out of a population of 2.4 million) spread over an area of 27,400 square kilometers (10,500 square miles) swelter in the intense summers for the [...]

Right: Wine map of France
The Rhone Valley, looks very much like a miniature Italy as it stretches 200km (125 mi) from south of Lyon to just south of Avignon. Along this course the climate varies from the Rhone’s cold winters and warm summers to the classic Mediterranean where winters are mild and summers hot.
The relatively [...]

Right: Wine map of Italy
Chianti — the name says ‘wine’.  A mere 300 square km (115 square mi), in the center of Tuscany between Siena and Florence, Chianti overlooks the Elsa Valley. Hilly, the terrain varies from green forests to stony meadowland. The rows of wine grape vines share the land with olive groves and [...]

Right: Wine map of France
Champagne is not just a sparkling wine, but the region from which the famous drink derives its name. The climate of the area is cooler than that of the southern French vineyards, making for a shorter growing season.
Almost a hundred miles (144km) northeast of Paris near the Belgian border, it’s usually [...]

Right: Wine map of Canada
Most of Canada’s winemaking is associated with British Columbia, and justly so. In the last 20 years the wines of British Columbia have become world-class competitors. But wine is almost made in all of Canada’s provinces, often under much more difficult conditions. And many of these small family businesses are beginning [...]

Right: Wine map of France
Nowhere in France is the terroir concept —a group of vineyards (or vines) from the same region that share similar soil and climate— more dearly held than Burgundy.
Located in central east France, the region’s 1.6 million inhabitants endure cold Continental winters, but enjoy warm summers.
A region covering 31,500 square kilometers (over [...]

Right: Wine map of France
Bordeaux. The word itself says ‘wine’ to millions around the world. Many historians of the subject assure us that wine has been produced in Bordeaux since the first century AD. And given the known ability for the great Bordeaux to age gracefully, one can believe it.
Located in the south west of [...]

Right: Wine map of Italy
The winemaking tradition in sunny Sicily dates back as far as four thousand years. Over those millennia the Sicilians, named for the settlers who introduced agriculture there, have raised wine grape growing to the level of the Italian Renaissance artist.
In the far west, nestled among the rugged Gibellina Mountains is their [...]

Right: Wine map of the U.S.
Among the AVA (American Viticultural Areas) in Oregon we count the Willamette Valley, Umpqua, Rogue and Illinois Valleys and parts of Walla Walla and the Columbia Gorge shared with Washington.
Making wine in Oregon continues to be a challenge, owing to it’s largely rainy climate, limited hours of sunshine, cooler temperatures [...]

Right: Wine map of the U.S.
The terrain and climate of the wine areas of Northern California remind the visitor of nothing so much as rural France. But the scale is vastly smaller — Napa Valley is only 35 miles long and 5 miles wide, while Sonoma County covers 1,600 square miles along 60 miles of [...]

Right: Wine map of the U.S.
In the US, California is justly famous for its wines. So famous, in fact, that it comes as a surprise to some to find out that New York has long been a serious competitor in terms of quality.
Winemaking in the New York region goes back centuries. Ten thousand years ago [...]

Right: Wine map of France
Winemakers in Alsace have been active since the Roman conquest.
The Alsatians themselves are a mixed French-Germanic lot, with many of the older inhabitants still speaking Alsatian, a Germanic dialect, at home. Despite living in the smallest winemaking region in France, these proud people rightfully boast of their centuries old winemaking traditions.
Six [...]

Right: Wine map of Italy
Stretching from the hills of the Apennines to the banks of the Po River to the shores of the Adriatic Sea is a distinctive Italian winemaking region called: Emilia-Romagna. Famed for its cooking, the area boasts some of the most fertile plains for grape growing in Italy.
The regional capital of Bologna [...]

Right: Wine map of Canada
Long considered a producer of inferior wines, British Columbia is now being recognized as a winemaking powerhouse.
British Columbia wine dates back only 140 years when Father Pandosy set up the first vineyards at the Obelate Mission near Kelowna. Nineteen twenty-six saw the first commercial vineyards and a winery that sold to [...]