Tuscany has been named as Europe’s best wine destination for travellers by TripAdvisor.

The world’s largest travel site unveiled the European winners of its 2012 Travellers’ Choice Wine Destinations awards with Italy taking top spot ahead of Aquitaine in France. 

Christopher Carson has spent many years promoting and selling some of the best Italian wines on the UK market and Sicily remains one of his favourite spots. Here CellarVie Wines’ Managing Director gives an insight into some of the best places to visit on this beautifully iconic Italian island...  

While Southern Italy had until recently endured a malaise within the winemaking world before its welcome revival, the region has remained a perpetual hotspot for visitors - albeit perhaps less busy than the more saturated north - boasting an array of enviable destinations and places of interest on the tourism trail. 

Home to the opulent and stunningly beautiful Tuscany, Central Italy is responsible for the production of perhaps the most famous Italian red wine - Chianti. The remarkable beauty of places such as Rome, Pisa and Florence make it Italy’s most travelled wine region, and while Tuscany is considered central to the region’s viticultural excellence, Marche, Umbria, Lazio, Abruzzo and Molise all have their winemaking merits. 

The mountainous North East of Italy is largely saturated with some of the country’s most renowned and largest appellations despite the widely inhospitable terrain (only 15 per cent of the land in the valley of the River Adige can be cultivated). The vineyards of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, on the hillsides of the eastern corner and near the border of Slovenia, benefit from the contrasting airflows from the Alps and the Adriatic from the south. Veneto is Italy’s largest wine-producing region and home to Valpolicella DOC which is the second most important red DOC in Italy behind Chianti. 

Due to its close proximity to the French border, the North West of Italy has a long and rich history of superb wine production from the famed reds of Piemonte made from the Nebbiolo grape that makes the widely championed Barolo, to the varied and emerging white wines in Lombardia and Liguria. Italian viticulture is strongly defined by the country’s heterogeneous altitude and this is particularly prevalent in the Alps embraced north.  

Embraced by the Vosges Mountains and the remainder of France to the west and the Rhine River and Germany to the east, the geological complexities of Alsace have been a major factor behind the wide range of wines fashioned in this relatively small region. 

The South of France boasts a rich and varied history of winemaking from the country’s oldest wine-producing region of Provence - south of the Alps and stretching from the east of the river delta to Nice - to perhaps the slightly neglected but increasingly alluring Languedoc-Roussillon region - lying to the west and mainly in the plains that stretch between the southern limits of the Massif Central and the Mediterranean.

Encompassing the Muscadet region on the Atlantic coast and the area of Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé just southeast of Orléans in north central France, the Loire Valley situated near to Nantes in the west, remains one of the most picturesque and enchanting winemaking regions in Europe.  

A winemaking legacy to rival any region in the world, Bordeaux, lying near the Atlantic coast in the Gironde department of Aquitaine, is a beautifully picturesque city steeped in history and boasting a plethora of interesting places of note. 1810 hectares of the historical part of the city has been acknowledged by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site and although the region’s winemaking traditions are at the epicentre, there remains a wonderfully eclectic array of exquisite attractions outside their winemaking customs.  

The most northern Appellations d'Origine Contrôlée area in France, Champagne lies 90 miles east of Paris and is a historic province best known for the production of sparkling white wine, that bears the region’s name exclusively and by EU law. The viticultural boundaries of Champagne are legally defined and split into five wine producing districts: Aube, Côte des Blancs, Côte de Sézanne, Montagne de Reims, and Vallée de la Marne. The towns of Reims and Épernay are the commercial centres of Champagne. 

Lying in the eastern region of France in the valleys west of the Saône River, south-east of Paris, Burgundy has a greater saturation of Appellations d'Origine Contrôlée (AOCs)than any other region in France. Famed for their belief in terroir, wines from Burgundy tend to be a homage to the region’s geography, geology and climate, embodying the unique qualities that are specific to the environment in which Burgundian wine is produced. Having said all that, there is plenty to see aside from the region’s rich winemaking traditions.  

The four days over Easter are a perfect opportunity to escape the ‘Big Smoke’ and go a little further afield. In light of the upcoming bank holiday weekend this Easter, why not plan a short trip to Scotland and embark on a crash course in the delights of Malt Whisky. 

In light of CellarVie Wines’ focus on Rhône and following our interview with renowned winemaker Jean-Luc Colombo, we thought we would take a closer look at the region and its places of interest. The first cultivated vines in the iconic Rhône wine region in Southern France, was planted around 600 BC and subsequently now produces numerous wines under various Appellation d'origine contrôlée (AOC) designations, the most famous being the Côtes du Rhône AOC.  

Ahead of CellarVie Wines' focus on Rioja, we thought we would take a closer look at the region and its places of interest. Situated in the north, La Rioja is the smallest but arguably the most diverse region of mainland Spain and is located between Navarra and Pais Vasco to the north, Aragon to the east, Castilla La Mancha to the south and Castilla Leon to the west.