The Story of Avinturo

Our Italian wine adventure...

In 2015, we visited Italy for the first time. In spring, we went to Rome for a long weekend. It turned out to be a fantastic short break. Beautiful weather, delicious food and wine and actually too much to see to take in a few days.

In the same summer, we went to Tuscany with our best friends. We stayed at a campsite near Pistoia, a good starting point for sightseeing, including visits to Florence, Lucca, Pisa, Siena and San Gimignano.

During this wonderful summer holiday, it turned out afterwards that we also experienced our first wine tasting in Italy. On our way back from a day trip with many beautiful attractions and sightseeings, we had stopped in Vinci to taste the wines of Cantina Leonardo da Vinci.

It was the beginning of our remarkable Avinturo wine adventure. Since then, apart from several visits to Tuscany (including Arezzo, Florence, Montepulciano, Siena, San Gimignano), we have been on many other holidays to Italy. To Lazio (including Tarquinia, Lazio), Umbria (including Montefalco), Sardinia (including Alghero), Piedmont (Alba, Barolo, Roero...), Veneto (including. Valpolicella, Soave and the Prosecco-Cartizze wine region), Trentino-Alto Adige/South Tyrol, Lombardia (including Franciacorta), Liguria (including Genoa, Cinque Terre) and Emilia-Romagna.

From cycling among the vineyards in the Franciacorta (Italian champagne - sparkling wine) wine region to a memorable picnic in Arnaldo Caprai's vineyards in Montefalco. And from dining In Lazio with a closing rosé on the rooftop at Etruscaia to enjoy a beautiful sunset over the sea to views from Stefano Accordini's highest winery in Valpolicella. Not to forget our delicious lunch and tasting of sparkling Prosecco bubbles in the almost magical- fairy-tale heart of Valdobbiadene-Conegliano where the Cartizze is located. 

The numerous highlights are actually beyond imagination. Moments of happiness that we thoroughly enjoy together or with our friends and families. The more often we have visited Italy, the more excited we become about our next journey. There is still so much to discover.

Our next plan is to learn so much more about the Sangiovese & Chianti wines next time in both the Chianti wine region and the many other Tuscan wine regions where the Sangiovese grapes are being grown. We'll visit a couple of the Montalcino wineries and we will most certainly experience a wine tasting tour in or near Montepulciano for sure.

And we'll probably stop over in Verone, the Valpoliccela, Soave and the Prosecco area along the way. 

Anyway, some more puzzling for the time being. Lovely to do 😀

The beginning of our wine trips

We started doing wine trips in 2016. We always had the idea of going on a Champagne tasting trip. It became a few days in Epernay and return home via Escolives-Sainte-Camille, Riquewihr and Trier.

We enjoyed the experience so much that we started making plans for the next wine trip right away. First to Couches to explore Burgundy. Then to Luxembourg to taste Moselle wines from Remich. After we began to discover and love Italy in those years too, the combination was quickly made: Italian wine tours. The very best of both worlds.

Since then, we have been travelling almost every year because of our new hobby of 'wine travel'. Or each holiday looking for a place where we could book a fun, eye-catching wine tasting.

The pre-trip excitement is as much enjoyable as the trip itself. Searching for an area and checking out what can be done. Which grapes and wines are there to be found. Which wineries are there with a nice offer to taste and possibly stay overnight. And what other sightseeing attractions are nearby to make it a memorable wine weekend or wine trip.

All of our wine holidays were awesome and were full of pleasant surprises. On returning back home, in addition to a fair number of cases of wine, we have the greatest stories to share.

The mix of Italy, wine, winery tours and wine tastings resulted in the creation of Avinturo. It's too enjoyable not to to share with other enthusiasts of Italy, wine and travel.

The name Avinturo is a 'free' interpretation/translation of the combination of vino and avventura (Italian for wine and adventure). After all, what would be better than discovering which wines you personally love in Italy?

For the rest, the site will not go too deeply into wines and grapes. Other true connoisseurs, experts and websites are much more competent for that.

Apart from that, it is always very personal as to which wines are good and which are not.

Whether a wine is good or not is - in my opinion - not a matter of scores by expert panels or experienced and well-known wine connoisseurs. You mainly decide by yourself what you like about it. Therefore, in my opinion, there are only three gradations for a wine.

1. Great wine, one to be purchased again
2. Nice wine, but I wouldn't buy it again
3. Not a tasty wine, you really want to pour your glass straight away

At least that's how I look at it 😀

But everybody's perspective is fine.

Please let us know what you think and which wine regions we should definitely not forget to name and visit?