europedoor
Search My Europe

17 across Europe

Cellar & vineyard

  1. A heuriger on the city edge

    Wine taverns in Vienna's own vineyards, open only when the grower has wine to sell — a pine branch over the door means open.

    Vienna, Austria · moderate

  2. A lambic brewery, spontaneously fermented

    Beer left open to the air of one valley, aged three years in barrel — the last place in the world doing this at scale.

    Brussels, Belgium · moderate

  3. A Moravian cellar at harvest

    Burčák — half-fermented, cloudy and briefly available each September — is drunk cold from the barrel and does not travel.

    Mikulov, Czechia · low

  4. Châteauneuf-du-Pape, in the village

    Thirteen permitted grape varieties and stones the size of fists that hold the day's heat into the night; the growers pour in their own cellars.

    Avignon, France · moderate

  5. A small Saint-Émilion cellar

    Skip the classified growths and visit a family making 20,000 bottles; you will taste from the barrel and be told the truth about the vintage.

    Bordeaux, France · moderate

  6. Down into the crayères

    Chalk quarried by Romans, thirty metres down, holding millions of bottles at a constant temperature nobody has to pay for.

    Reims, France · moderate

  7. A qvevri cellar and a supra

    Wine fermented in clay buried to the neck, then a table that goes on for hours with a tamada running it.

    Sighnaghi & Kakheti, Georgia · low

  8. Vines grown in baskets

    No trellises: the vines are woven into circles on the ground to shelter the fruit from wind and catch night moisture.

    Santorini, Greece · moderate

  9. A mouldy cellar in Tokaj

    The black fungus on the walls regulates humidity and is left alone deliberately; taste dry furmint first and six-puttonyos last.

    Tokaj, Hungary · low

  10. Vermouth where it was invented

    Carpano started here in 1786. The historic cafés still serve it the way it was drunk: cold, alone, with a small plate.

    Turin, Italy · low

  11. Driving through a wine cellar

    200 km of limestone galleries with street names, and two million bottles. Visitors go in by vehicle because walking would take days.

    Chișinău, Moldova · low

  12. Treading grapes at harvest

    Knee-deep in a granite tank for two hours, in a line, to a rhythm — the least romantic and most enjoyable part of winemaking.

    Pinhão & the Douro valley, Portugal · moderate

  13. Port, tasted in the right order

    White, then tawny by age, then vintage — the tawnies are where the interest is and where the guides usually rush.

    Porto, Portugal · moderate

  14. Cork oaks and Alentejo reds

    The trees are stripped every nine years and the date is painted on the trunk; the wine estates between them charge a fraction of the Douro.

    Évora, Portugal · low

  15. The Small Carpathian wine road

    Twenty minutes from the capital: family cellars in Pezinok and Modra that sell almost nothing beyond the region.

    Bratislava, Slovakia · low

  16. Heroic viticulture, from the river

    The growers call it viticultura heroica without irony: everything is carried up and down by hand or cable, and the boat is the only way to see why.

    Ribeira Sacra, Spain · moderate

  17. Three distilleries on foot

    Ardbeg, Lagavulin and Laphroaig sit within five kilometres of each other along one coastal path — walk it, for obvious reasons.

    Islay, United Kingdom · moderate