In pursuit of the wine drinker's dollar
Wine tourism is big business. Affluent wine drinkers on vacation are sought after by tourist boards around the world. Because they bring much-needed injections of cash into a region, hotels, upmarket shops and restaurants all welcome their arrival. Naturally, most wineries open their doors wide. Visitors taste the wines 'in situ' and on returning home, become roving ambassadors for the wines.
Tourism marketers label these people 'special interest travellers' and there is fierce competition for their patronage. Fifteen years ago, a UK-based company called Arblaster and Clarke (tel: 44 1730 893 344) realised there was a unique opportunity for upmarket, organised wine tours to wine-producing regions around the world. Travellers are encouraged to join the tour at the nearest airport to each destination. This makes the itineraries perfect for Hong Kong wine lovers who can choose how they want to get to Florence, Bordeaux or Santiago airports for their pilgrimages to Tuscany, the Medoc or Chile.
My pick at the moment is the tour to Bordeaux planned for March 2003. At $21,600 per person for four nights of vinous indulgence, I'll need this long to save. But what a carrot! For this sum, I'll join 12 others as house guests of the stately Chateau Pichon-Longueville Baron, a second-growth chateau in Pauillac. Tours to chateaux in the communes of the Medoc, Sauternes, St Emilion and Pomerol will include private tastings in Pessac-Leognan and at Chateau Lafite-Rothschild. Steven Spurrier, legendary taster and wine critic, will act as chief guide. Rumour has it that every wine expert in Europe is ready to step in if Spurrier were suddenly to become unavailable.
If your palate has a preference for Italian wines, a similar delve into your wallet will see you through four nights of Tuscan bliss. Master of wine Jane Hunt will pick you up at Florence airport early next year and whisk you and 17 others off to wineries at Ornellaia and Sassicaia before dinner with Antinori. Of course, Tignanello will be served. This pace continues for four days through a treasure trove of Tuscan vineyards.
Arblaster and Clarke acknowledges that not every wine lover can spend this amount of money on a long weekend. Join a tour from London, for example, and the entry level weekends in the Champagne region for $3,500 are a mere snip in comparison.
Also for those with more restricted budgets, the Bordeaux wine region has devised an ingenious plan for luring the wine lover. Under the guise of serious education, the Ecole du Vin de Bordeaux (tel: 33 5 56 00 22 66) runs a series of English-language wine courses from May to October each year. Longer 'educational' courses are a combination of classroom lectures, tastings and visits to top chateaux. Whether you opt for a two-hour introductory lecture or an intensive four-day programme, you will leave the region much more knowledgeable about Bordeaux.
The wonderful thing about wine holidays is that, like skiing holidays, there is a purpose. For many high-flying executives, a day lounging by a pool in the Maldives is pure torture. A combination of no activities and no decisions is just too much of an antithesis to normal life. However, give these folk a directive to be at Chateau Margaux for a tasting at 11am and you have provided these ill-practised tourists with sufficient focus for the day.
Wine lovers are not unlike any 'special interest' tourists. They spend 48 weeks a year dreaming of their favourite hobby and a mere four weeks living it. Tourism offices in all the world's major wine regions, however, are busy 52 weeks a year, creating many ways for you to indulge your special interest in their back yard. Take your time and choose wisely: you are a sought-after commodity.
