Auckland, New Zealand might not be the capital of this tiny country but it’s by far the largest city (population approximately 1.5 million). It’s home to the major international airport, and is therefore the usual first stop on a New Zealand itinerary. Auckland, New Zealand has quite a bit to do, and (with the average […]
Kia ora! This week and next I’m going to talk about New Zealand cities. While most people are familiar with Auckland, Wellington, and Queenstown, there are a few more than that. New Zealand only has a population of 4.69 million, and the majority of them live in the North Island. There are five large cities […]
We have reached the final major world wine region today: South Africa! (Certainly, there are other wine regions, smaller ones, that I’m not going to touch on just because they’re not places we go to for wine. We go there for other reasons.) But, anyway, we are talking today about South African wine! Did you […]
As promised, this week I’ve got two bonus posts because I spent too much time talking about New Zealand wine! Today, we hop the ditch to Australia and pick up where I left off in Friday’s intro paragraph. Every Australian state produces wine, although the more well known wineries are in Victoria, South Australia, and […]
While most people think of Australia and New Zealand wine, they think of them as new destinations. However, a lot of the wineries in both Australia and New Zealand date back to the 19th century. Many of the early European settlers planted grapes, and while a lot of wineries don’t date that far back, the […]
Buenos dias! Today we’ve moved on to the South American wine regions, specifically those in Argentina and Chile. These two countries are the star players in South American wine, and they produce a huge amount of the global wine industry. Mendoza alone produces nearly 60% of South American wine; you could spend years here and […]
Today we’ve hopped the pond from the European wine regions to the North American wine regions. While most people think of North American wine as being from Californian or Washingtonian, I’m here to tell you there are wineries across the whole of the continent! California, Washington, and Oregon do have the most well known wineries, […]
To kick off this week’s series on wine regions around the world, I thought I’d better start with the European wine regions. This part of the world has the world’s oldest winery, despite the oldest evidence of wine in China. European wine regions range from the sunny shores of Portugal all the way into Georgia […]
Wine, the nectar of the gods. Civilisations have been drinking wine for millennia. The Chinese were the first to drink wine (7000 BCE) and it shifted westward through Iran/Mesopotamia, Georgia, Armenia, and Italy. The ancient Greeks drank it, the Romans devoured it, and both Judaism and Christianity incorporate it into rituals. Even Islamic culture, while […]
Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way might draw visitors to the small island, but the myths and legends of Ireland’s Ancient East certainly keep them there. There’s ancient burial tombs, remote stone circles, stories of Robin Hood-style robbers, and crumbling castles with plenty of scandalous history.