The drink is the reason you went. Book the tasting first.
How many glasses a cellar ticket actually pours. Whether lunch is included or sold at the door. Who drives back from the vineyard. Reviews of drinks tastings worldwide, from port lodges in Gaia to agave fields in Jalisco.
Douro, Edinburgh, Chianti, the Cape: five tastings worth a whole day.
The days out where the drink, not the view, is the reason you booked. What each one pours and what it costs to join.
01The Douro dayComplete Douro Valley Wine Tour with Lunch, Wine Tastings and River CruiseTwo quintas above the river, lunch on a terrace and the boat leg back down. Portugal’s wine country in one long day.
02The whisky primerThe Scotch Whisky Experience Tour and TastingA barrel ride, the regional map and a dram chosen for you. Do this before you commit to anything on Speyside.
03The Chianti afternoonChianti Wine Tour from FlorenceAn hour south of Florence into Classico country, three estates, and somebody else on the hairpins home.
04Three Cape estatesWine Tour: Paarl, Franschhoek & Stellenbosch incl 3 wineriesPaarl, Franschhoek and Stellenbosch in a day, with the mountains standing behind every pour.
05When Bordeaux rainsCité du Vin Entry Ticket and Wine TastingThe wine museum on the river bend, ending on the top floor with a glass and the whole city underneath it.
Six cities you would fly to for a glass.
Port lodges across a bridge, Chianti an hour by minibus, claret country with a museum built for it, a whisky primer, a pot still in the Liberties and jenever on a canal.
In Italy the tasting comes with lunch, and the lunch takes four hours.
Tuscany runs the Chianti circuit, the hills above Venice pour Prosecco by the case, and every cellar door ends at a table. Four kinds of Italian tasting day and what it costs to join each one.
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · Chianti Wineries Tour with Wine Tasting
Tuscan tasting daysThree estates, a long lunch, somebody else driving.
The Chianti circuitClassico country on the road south from Florence.
Cellar visitsBarrel rooms, the family who own them, bottles at the door.
Prosecco in the hillsValdobbiadene ridges and the ridge road that runs them.
All 143 Italian tastings →
Copper stills, bonded warehouses and the agave behind mezcal.
Not all of this is grapes. Irish pot stills, Scottish warehouses, a gin school with a bathtub still, roasted agave in Jalisco and a rum bench in the Caribbean.
The drinks tastings travellers turn up for in the biggest numbers.
Every tasting we have reviewed →Cellar tours, boats with the drinks included and distillery visits, in the order people actually book them.
1
Unlimited Prosecco, Beer and Aperol Spritz Cruise
Spend 75 minutes on a modern Danube boat with unlimited Prosecco, beer, Aperol Spritz, spritzer, or lemonade. Enjoy Parliament, Liberty Bridge, and Budapest’s nighttime skyline from indoor seats or the open-air terrace, with music and an English audio guide along the way.
From · $29
Read our review →
2
Evening Cruise with Optional Wine and Snacks
from $23
3
Douro Valley w/ Boat Tour, Wine Tasting & Lunch
from $82
4
Chichen Itza, Cenote & Valladolid Tour with Tequila and Lunch
from $34
5
Complete Douro Valley Wine Tour with Lunch, Wine Tastings and River Cruise
from $101
6
Chianti Wineries Tour with Wine Tasting
from $41
7
Small-Group Wine Tasting Experience in the Tuscan Countryside
from $107
8
Douro Valley with Winery Lunch, Tastings & Cruise
from $99
A wine tasting is four different afternoons. Know which one you booked.
A walk through the rows, a cellar with barrels in it, a classroom with a spit bucket, or lunch with a different bottle for every course. They cost different money and take different halves of a day.
What a tasting actually costs, from a cellar ticket to a private vineyard day.
Every priced tasting sorted by what one person pays. The cheap end is not the poor end: a lodge in Gaia pours three glasses for less than a sandwich.
Cellar tickets, brewery tours, a canal boat with the drinks thrown in, and most city tasting rooms.
The full day out: two or three estates, transport from town and lunch somewhere with a view of the rows.
Private drivers, houses that only take appointments, and the vintages nobody opens by the glass.
Porto pours port for the price of a coffee. The valley wants the whole day.
Every lodge is on the Gaia side of the bridge and most tours run under an hour, tasting included. The Douro is three hours upriver: terraced quintas, a boat leg and lunch above the water.
Every Porto tasting →
Three drinks you have to travel to taste properly.
Anywhere can pour a glass of red. A lodge that has aged the same barrels since 1890, a chalk cellar thirty metres down, and agave roasted in a stone pit are not portable.
The Port Lodges
Port is made up the Douro and aged down in Gaia, in long low buildings on the south bank where the river air keeps the temperature steady. A visit is short, cool and dim: rows of pipes stacked to the roof, a word about tawny against ruby, and three glasses at the end. Most lodges run tours every half hour and charge less than lunch.
- 1Live Fado Show with Glass of Port Wine★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 6,498 reviews
- 2Live Fado Show with Port Wine at Lisboa em Fado★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 5,097 reviews
- 3Bridges Cruise & Sunset & Port Wine Cellar Option★★★★★★★★★★ 4.2 · 4,180 reviews
Champagne at the Source
The chalk under Reims was quarried by the Romans and the houses have been storing bottles in it ever since, thirty metres down where it stays at ten degrees all year. The tour is a lift, a long gallery and a tasting at the top. Most of the grandes marques take bookings only, and the small growers on the Avenue de Champagne are worth the walk between them.
- 1Paris 3-Courses Gourmet Dinner Seine River Cruise with Champagne★★★★★★★★★★ 4.0 · 1,659 reviews
- 2Top Private Cruises in Paris with French Champagne and surprises★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,553 reviews
- 3Day Trip to Champagne with 8 Tastings & Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 1,501 reviews
Agave, Roasted and Crushed
A blue agave takes six to eight years before the jimador cuts the leaves away and the heart goes to the oven. Tequila steams it; mezcal roasts it in a stone pit under wood and earth, which is where the smoke comes from. Tastings run through blanco, reposado and añejo in that order, and the distilleries sit among the fields, so most visits are half a day out of town.
- 1Chichen Itza, Cenote & Valladolid Tour with Tequila and Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 15,789 reviews
- 2ATV Tour, Camel Ride, Tequila Tasting and Mexican Buffet Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 3,380 reviews
- 3Cabo Migrino Beach and Desert ATV Tour plus Tequila Tasting★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 2,367 reviews
Four tastings that will not take a walk-in.
Most of a drinking day can be arranged the night before. These run on appointments, fixed group sizes and departure times that fill up weeks out.
- 01Jameson Whiskey Distillery Tour with TastingsBow Street runs fixed-size groups on a timetable, and the blending and cocktail sessions fill long before the standard tour does.
- 02The Scotch Whisky Experience Tour and TastingThe barrel ride and the tasting rooms take small groups on timed slots, so the good afternoon times go first.
- 03Douro Valley w/ Boat Tour, Wine Tasting & LunchThe valley is three hours out of Porto, so the minibuses leave early and once one is full there is no later departure that day.
- 04Cálem Cellar Tour, Interactive Museum & Wine TastingThe lodge runs to a schedule and the fado pairing sits in a separate, much smaller room.
Nobody wants to drive back from a vineyard.
The good wine country is an hour out of town and a tasting does not stop at one glass. Two ways round it: book the day that includes the minibus, or stay in the city and taste somewhere you can walk home from.
Six drinks, six completely different tasting days.
Wine
Port
Champagne
Beer
Whisky
Tequila
The newest drinks tasting reviews.
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Antwerp: City Brewery De Koninck Interactive Tour
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Jerez de la Frontera: Sherry Winery Tour with Tasting
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Ludwig’s Red Light Pub Crawl with VIP Club Entry
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