How To Drink Wine Like A Pro

04/20/08  Print this post Print this post    3 Comments   Popular   Written by Craig Martin
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photo by Roland Peschetz

Drinking your way around the world? If you’ve ever felt like a fish out of water in wine bars or cellar doors around the world this is the podcast for you. Think of it as a wine-drinking cheat sheet.

 
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Make sure you hit the comments and tell us some of your best wine stories.

Check out the traveler’s notebook on iTunes.


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About the Author

Craig Martin

Craig Martin has been living on the road since leaving Auckland, New Zealand in February 2006. In fact, he hasn’t slept in the same bed for more than two weeks all year! He podcasts at the indie travel podcast.

3 Comments... join the discussion!

  • Craig replied on April 22, 2008

    “A wine festival?”

    I had heard stories of dodgy Romanian taxi drivers leading tourists on an unscheduled tour of the city before charging them five times the going rate, but this unheard of event was too good to pass up. It also went some way to explaining why town was so quiet.

    And sure enough the streets outside town were packed: live rock bands, circus rides and stall after stall of vendors offering the best street food and wine in the country. In fact, I’d have to say the mulled wine here was some of the best in Europe.

    I also had the chance to try several Moldovan reds: Moldova relaxes it’s normally strict visa requirements for the weeks surrounding it’s October wine festival and I’m planning on being there!

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  • Sarah Menkedick replied on June 14, 2008

    Hey Craig,

    Great podcast for the uninitiated. I actually worked in a vineyard in Provence (a stone’s throw from Aix-en-Provence) and sadly, still know almost nothing about the nectar of the Gods. Upon completing a year of study abroad in Aix in 2003, I was out of cash and desperate to get back to Corsica to hike the GR20. So I pitched my tent at a local campground for 1 euro a night and biked to work in these endless, gorgeous vineyards at 5 a.m., under the shadow of St. Victoire. That’s where the picturesque part ends–the work was brutal. I worked from 5 a.m. to 2 p.m. pulling leaves off of the wine stems. The heat is intense even in late May, and the pesticides can actually cause rashes and headaches. It is a great way to fund your travels, though. In two weeks I earned enough to hop the ferry to Corsica and keep going for another month.

    So, the point here is that in early and late summer all over France there are jobs either harvesting and stamping grapes I-Love-Lucy style or doing the less glamorous leaf-pulling and weeding work I did. The other point here is–take advantage of it while you’ve got it!! I completely took advantage of the fact that I could score a decent bottle in Aix for 5 euros and just swilled it. Tragedy, now that I’m in China and stuck with beer and baijiu as drink options unless I want to pay a minor fortune.

    Cheers,

    Sarah

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  • Sarah Menkedick replied on June 14, 2008

    Whoops, looks like I forgot to log in with my Matador profile. Voila. Also, the website is http://www.beijingbadabing.blogspot.com.

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