Photo by Kolforn from Wikipedia article on Denbies.
Approach to the Visitor Centre of Denbies Winery in the UK. Picture from Wikipedia.
Problem
What can you do off-season? The wineries are too busy to see you during harvest. Many tourist attractions are open for the summer season. So what can you do and where can you go autumn Americans say Fall), winter, and springtime?
Answers
Surprise, surprise, some wineries want visitors to come along and sign up for events all year.
UK
Denbies in Surrey, England, has entertainment for everyone, offers both indoor and outdoor tours (pay for a combined ticket), a large supermarket and a cafeteria downstairs beside the supermarket and a fine dining restaurant on the top floor. We drove down from London for a tour followed by lunch. We took an overseas visitor from Asia for a day's entertainment previously in October.
What can you do off-season? The wineries are too busy to see you during harvest. Many tourist attractions are open for the summer season. So what can you do and where can you go autumn Americans say Fall), winter, and springtime?
Answers
Surprise, surprise, some wineries want visitors to come along and sign up for events all year.
UK
Denbies in Surrey, England, has entertainment for everyone, offers both indoor and outdoor tours (pay for a combined ticket), a large supermarket and a cafeteria downstairs beside the supermarket and a fine dining restaurant on the top floor. We drove down from London for a tour followed by lunch. We took an overseas visitor from Asia for a day's entertainment previously in October.
USA
California - drive north from San Francisco until you reach the winery region, several wineries have supermarket size shops, and assorted tours. Calculate driving times and book a tour. We drove along winery-hopping. However, we were just going with the flow and arrived too late for tours or the tours were fully booked. If you are not driving, you can book a tour to the Napa Valley from San Francisco.
I was impressed by the number of souvenirs on offer, everything from corkscrews and aprons to books about wine, and wine diaries, label removers.
Plan now, or for next summer. The northern and summer hemispheres are different so somebody is running or booking tours somewhere. Denbies in Surrey, England, has events all year including wine and cheese making days, autumn marathon, Christmas. Sign up for their newsletter.
If you want to make friends with other wine enthusiasts, look for the wine tastings and dinners in restaurants and homes, on Meetup. If you don't see any near enough to your area, you can start your own.
Souvenirs
Wine
Olive Oil
Furniture made from barrels
Tee-shirts
Shirts and blouses and ties with vine themes
Paper napkins and tableware with wine themes
Posters about wine and wine region maps
Grape bunch theme clothes, jewellery, metal tableware (From Israeli souvenir shops and Amazon and Ebay)
Bottle holders for the table at diner parties
Bottle and Wine glass table rack (From Germany and Austria)
Denbies, Surrey, England, UK summer 2018 shop stocked grape and bottle theme gifts and sold candles, jewellery, cushions, handbags, all kinds of souvenirs.
Useful Websites
USA
UK
ASIA
Under cabinet wine glass racks
Decorative tableware wine glass racks
See my other posts on wineries and tours.
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
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