Travel
One of the best reasons to take a trip is to see how people in other cultures eat and drink — and to join in the fun. Our travel section includes trip reports from all over the world, with deep dives into the vineyards, breweries, distilleries, and bars you’ll find there.
Top Travel Posts:
A Visit to the Don Julio Tequila Distillery
Where to Drink in Asheville, North Carolina
A Visit to Suntory’s Yamazaki Distillery
Harvest in Chile’s Casablanca Valley – A Dusty Paradise
Revisiting the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, 2018
A Visit to Jack Daniel’s Distillery
Exploring Port Wine: Touring Porto and the Douro Valley
Drinking the Costa del Sol – A Trip from Barcelona, Spain to Lisbon, Portugal
Paso Robles, in central California, is a wine region that has never gotten much respect. Sandwiched between high-profile Napa/Sonoma to the north; the well-regarded Santa Barbara (Sideways) region to the south; and the bulk-wine-producing Central Valley to the east, Paso is close to nothing and, for many, just not worth a very lengthy drive for what…
On the other side of Highway 101, Sonoma’s Dry Creek Valley is a sleepy alternative to the bustle of Napa and even of Sonoma proper. Here, there’s little but narrow roads winding through vineyards. No Michelin-starred restaurants out here or even so much as a gas station. If you need a snack, there’s but one…
Ah, New Orleans… it’s not just the home of some of the best food in the world, it’s also the birthplace — a spiritual birthplace in some cases — of some of the most classic cocktails ever invented. I had the good fortune to travel through Louisiana, particularly New Orleans, on the eve of Mardi…
A recent day trip took me to Napa, where I took the opportunity to visit two of the region’s premier winemakers and see how they’re latest releases were coming along. Darioush and BV were both incredibly welcoming to the Drinkhacker crew. Thoughts on the current releases being poured follow. 2011 Darioush Signature Chardonay / $43…
Recently I took my first wine-centric trip to the more southerly wine regions of California, Paso Robles and the Santa Barbara area (popularized by the movie Sideways). As with everything involving Northern and Southern California, things are done a bit differently down here, including the grapes they’re focusing on (Grenache Blanc is a huge up-and-comer…
A trip to Mendocino is a bit of an annual pilgrimage now, and every time I visit the area I love to check out old favorites and wines that are newer to me. I’d encountered all of the wines below at least once, but this was my first visit to a few, including Esterlina, which…
A recent trip to Portland afforded an overnight to the Willamette Valley, where Oregon’s best wines are made. On this trip I made advance plans to visit the best of the best, Oregon’s blue chip wineries in a long day of driving up and down the valley. This trip took us up and down the…
I’ve spent more time than usual in various wine regions in Northern California, and I figured I’d put all my tasting notes into one post. Page Wine Cellars is a boutique winery in Yountville that also sells under the Revolver label. Miraflores is based in El Dorado — up in the Sierra Nevada foothills —…
Germany may be best known for its beer, but this is Old World wine country just like everywhere else in Europe. True, you won’t find classic reds here, but you will find some of the most vibrant white wines in the world on the western side of the country. This is the home of Riesling…
Discovered this oddball energy drink at the train station in Munich. Turns out you can get away with a lot more here (of course) than you can in the U.S. I bought a can and frankly it’s not that bad. Flavored (strongly) with lychee, the exotic fruit drowns out the (all natural) active ingredients, including…