Ryan Robinson, Director of Education, Brescome Barton and Worldwide Wines.
Part 2 of 2: Turning Wine Travel Into Better Buying, Selling, and Studying
By Ryan Robinson
The value of a wine trip is not measured by how many tasting rooms you visit or how many bottles survive the flight home. The real test begins after the vacation, when you return to your restaurant, retail floor, distributor book, or classroom. If the trip was planned well, something about the way you approach wine should have changed. You should be able to ask better questions, notice details you previously overlooked and speak about producers with more confidence. Otherwise, you may have had a relaxing vacation, but you missed the greatest opportunity wine tourism offers.
For buyers, travel changes the way a portfolio is evaluated. Before visiting a region, it is easy to compare wines through price and scores, or appellation source and margins. Those things still matter, but they are incomplete. After meeting producers and walking vineyards, different questions emerge. Is the wine honest to its place? Does the producer have a clear identity? It is in these conversations, where I find the most value in crafting the story of a wine, which makes it a lot easier to sell to buyers and consumers.
My visit to Garesio gave me a stronger understanding of how those questions work in practice. Barolo can overwhelm buyers because the category carries so many communes, vineyard names, vintages, and price levels. Seeing Garesio’s relationship with Cerretta and Gianetto helped turn that complexity into something practical. Instead of presenting Barolo as one large wall of expensive Nebbiolo, a buyer can begin showing customers how place changes the wine. The conversation becomes less about memorizing every MGA and more about understanding that Serralunga d’Alba has a physical identity that can be seen, walked, and tasted.
The same applies to Argillae and Orvieto. Orvieto as a broad generalization is sometimes treated as a dependable but uncomplicated white wine category. Visiting the area makes that description feel incomplete and untrue. The soils, fossils, elevation, local varieties, and people provide a richer sales story. Back in New England, that story can move Orvieto away from the anonymous housewine position. A server can describe it as a fresh Umbrian white shaped by ancient soils rather than simply saying, “It’s light and dry.” A retailer can connect it to seafood, spring vegetables, poultry, or a customer looking for an alternative to Pinot Grigio.
Wine students benefit in a slightly different way. Certification programs require a huge amount of memorization, and eventually every map starts to look like another group of colored lines. Travel creates mental anchors that are solidified in your memory palace. A road between two villages, the direction of a slope, or the feel of a soil can help organize information that once felt disconnected. You still have to study, but the material becomes less abstract and more real.
For distributors and suppliers, firsthand travel improves the sales conversation. Too many presentations begin with production numbers and oak percentages before anyone explains why the wine deserves space on the list. Those details have value, but they are rarely what a server or retail associate remembers. When a representative has visited the estate, they can explain what the family is trying to preserve and why the wine tastes different from the bottle beside it. Story should never replace facts, but it gives the facts a reason to matter.
This is a subject I return to often on my podcast, “The Art of Wine Storytelling,” on Italian Wine Podcast. The strongest wine stories are discovered by asking better questions and listening to the people behind the bottle. Wine tourism gives professionals direct access to those stories. A buyer who has met a producer can train staff with greater conviction. A representative who has walked the vineyard can communicate beyond the tech sheet. A student who understands the human side of a region is more likely to remember why its wines developed the way they did.
Wineries understand this value, which is why investment keeps growing. Rioja doubled wine-tourism investment to $7.76 million in 2025 while welcoming more than 1.16 million visits. Globally, the 2025 wine-tourism study found that about two-thirds of wineries considered tourism profitable or very profitable, with roughly one-quarter of winery revenue connected to tourism and direct sales on average.
Producers are building kitchens, lodging, private tasting spaces, vineyard trails, and educational programs because visitors who understand a wine are more likely to remember it and ask for it again. These visits have become more about amenities rather than just a tasting room. On this recent trip, there was an “emotion shower” at Gariesio as part of their included spa service.
A useful wine trip does not need to be luxurious. The best trips are often slower and more focused. Visit two wineries in a day instead of six. Choose producers with different wine types or philosophies. Ask about farming, labor, export markets, and which wines actually reach Connecticut, Rhode Island, or Massachusetts. Leave time for local restaurants and markets, because regional wine makes the most sense beside regional food.
A family vacation and a wine trip do not need to be opposites. Many of the world’s great wine regions also offer remarkable food, art, history, and landscapes. The difference is intention. Instead of returning with only a tan, you return with stories that improve your work and deepen your perspective on wine.
That is the real rise of wine tourism. It is not simply more people drinking in prettier places. It is a growing recognition that the best way to understand a wine is to understand where it comes from. For New England buyers and students, that lesson can reshape a shelf, a wine list, a sales presentation, or an entire career. The vineyard may be thousands of miles away, but what you learn there should travel home with you.
Ryan Robinson is the Director of Education for Brescome Barton and Worldwide Wines in Connecticut. He is also an Adjunct Professor at the University of New Haven and holds the credentials of Advanced Sommelier-CMS; WSET Diploma and WSET Educator in Wine, Sake and Beer; Rioja Wine Educator; Wine Scholar Guild Educator and Spanish Wine Specialist; and Certified Scotch Whisky Professional from the Council of Whiskey Masters.
