The Most Beautiful Wine Regions You Can Visit With Culture Trip

You might not associate travelling through Central Europe by train with vineyards, but our 10-day Rail Trip aims to change that. In between city-hopping through five beautiful capitals, we’ll take a day trip down the Danube from Vienna to the gorgeous medieval town of Krems, in the heart of the Wachau Valley. This Austrian wine region developed around one of Europe’s largest and most important rivers, with grapes growing all over the verdant hills and cliffs that the Danube carves through. The area mostly produces complex dry white wines, including Rieslings and Grüner Veltliners. Our day trip includes a beautiful cycle ride alongside the Danube, followed by a well-earned lunch and wine tasting, before hopping on the train back to Vienna.

You might not guess it, but Georgia is actually the oldest wine producing region on the planet. People have been growing grapes high above sea level here, in the shadow of the Caucasus Mountains, for around 8,000 years. Much of the process historically relied on underground fermentation, storage and ageing in traditional clay vessels called Kvevri. You’ll learn all about this ancient technique on day four of our Georgia trip, when you’ll head to Kakheti, where you’ll watch a master craftsmen who still used the old ways today. You’ll follow that with lunch and wine accompanied by a traditional toastmaster, while on day five you’ll visit another local winery, where you’ll sample some of the country’s finest wines which, in some cases, are made in limited quantities by very small-scale producers. Expect Rkatsiteli and Saperavi grape varieties to feature heavily.