
Top wine Vacations "Pinnacle Luxury Tours"
Chile and Argentina
A wine-centric trip to Chile and Argentina grabs the popular vote at California-based Pinnacle Wine Tours. "I went there personally to research it", says Pinnacle owner Shafiq Hasan. He began offering wine-based tours after being approached at a trade show by a wine group member from Florida. Now he's looking at developing golf-and-wine tours, having found success with a regional daylong "Nine and Wine" concept that involves nine holes of golf, a break for wine tasting, another nine holes and then a full wine tasting. Lodging and meals among the vineyards, private winery tours, gourmet meals, a spa treatment, a tango show and a visit to the Eva Peron Museum -it's no wonder the Andes wine & Culinary Tour is one of Pinnacle Wine Tours' most popular trips. Pinnacle owner Shafiq Hasan personally escorts groups on a nine-day, eight-night journey that includes Santiago, Chile, and Mendoza and Buenos Aires, Argentina. Starting at $3,995 (double occupancy), the itinerary includes visits to the horseshoe-shaped Viña Haras de Pirque Winery with its own racetrack and the Alma Viva Winery, a joint venture between Baron Philippe de Rothschild and Viña Concha y Toro, as well as wine tasting in the cellars of Chile's largest winery: Concha y Toro.
Australia and New Zealand
Far-flung wine tours are gaining in popularity. Pinnacle Wine Tours' Down Under Wine & Culinary Tour offers a private wine tasting at the National Wine Center in Adelaide; a backstage tour of the Sydney Opera House; a visit to the Cleland Wildlife Sanctuary a spa treatment, winemaker dinners, an informal wine tutorial at The Hunter Valley Wine School, and a luxury catamaran cruise and visits to the wine regions of Barossa and Clare valleys.
Then it's off to New Zealand, where you'll learn to blend wines in Auckland and visit several more wine regions.
The 16-day, 15-night tour starts at $6,795, double occupancy.
You also can take the Australia tour only (10 days, nine nights), starting at $3,795, or New Zealand tour only (seven days, six nights), starting at $2,995.