The French call it a “Route Touristique,” the English a “Scenic Road.” I’m sure there are equivalents in German, Greek, Spanish and plenty of other languages too. The online encyclopedia Wikipedia explains it well: a scenic road is a road where travelers are exposed to natural scenery. In some places, roads are built specifically for that purpose, as opposed to roads meant simply to move people and goods from one place to another.
A vineyard is arguably a natural landscape (even if it’s tended by human hands), but a winery, a barrel and a glass of wine are definitely not natural scenery… but let’s not split hairs. Under the broad umbrella of “scenic roads” there’s a whole category of theme roads, roads dedicated to a specific subject: “the Pools Route,” “the Independence Trail,” “the Valleys Road,” and so on. I’ll focus on “the Wine Route,” with a wink at a few special routes at the end.
The Wine Route
Human history has always come with a glass of wine in hand, a drink that has flowed alongside us wherever we’ve gone. So it’s no surprise that, over the years, people in different places created routes dedicated to that red, or white, liquid. You might be surprised to learn that the term “wine route” is actually fairly new, not even a century old, but that hasn’t stopped anyone from creating plenty of them all over the world. In fact, you’ll find one in nearly every wine-producing country. Here’s a very small, very partial and very random list:
- Austria: Steirische Weinstrasse, the wine route in Styria, in southeastern Austria.
- Canada: Route des Vins du Québec, the wine route in Quebec, eastern Canada.
- Chile: Rutas del Vino Chileno, a cluster of scenic roads passing through a large number of vineyards and wineries in the center of the country.
- France: Route des Grands Crus, Routes des Vins d’Alsace, Routes des Vins du Côtes-du-Rhône, Routes des Vins
- de Bordeaux: Alsace, the Rhône Valley, Bordeaux and more (France has 11 wine routes, across different regions).
- Germany: Moselweinstrasse (along the Mosel River), Saar-Riesling Strasse, Württemberger Weinstrasse.
- Italy: Strada del Vino Costa d’Amalfi, Strada del Barolo, Appia dei Vini, Strada del Vino di Montepulciano.
- Spain: Ruta del Vino de Somontano.
- United States: Wine Road Sonoma County.
- South Africa: Route 62 (the longest wine route in the world, 850 km).
- New Zealand: New Zealand Wine Trail, running through Hawke’s Bay and the Marlborough region.
And it doesn’t stop there. Almost every wine region has its own “wine route,” short or long, winding or straight, lined with restaurants, hotels and other tourist attractions along the way.
Where did it all start?
I’ve already busted one myth: the average traveler knows the “wine route” of Alsace (maybe also the one through Sonoma Valley in California, but we’re talking about France here), and we’ve seen that there’s more than just one wine route in the world. Now here’s another myth to bust: the famous, well-known wine route of Alsace isn’t actually the first one. It wasn’t the one that started it all.
A severe economic crisis hit the entire world in the early 1930s (following the great stock market crash of 1928), and in an effort to weather it, the winemakers of Burgundy founded what was likely the world’s first wine order: La Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin, which translates loosely as “the Brotherhood of the Knights of the Tastevin” (a tastevin is a small, special tasting cup for wine; you can see it in the photo, hanging from a ribbon around the knights’ necks).
The order, founded in 1934, still exists today and counts about 12,000 “knights” worldwide. Over the years its activities expanded into food as well, with its stated mission: to support, preserve, promote and publicize the wine and gastronomic traditions of the region.
In June 1936, under France’s first Jewish prime minister, Léon Blum (1872-1950), a new law was passed in France, following the lead of other European countries: “paid leave” (Congé Payé). For the first time, salaried workers could take an annual paid vacation without losing their wages, a change that revolutionized people’s habits and created what would become a sacred French institution: the annual summer vacation.
Regions, cities and local councils across the country started planning ways to attract tourists and vacationers, both French and foreign. One idea that came up in discussions at the Burgundy regional council was revolutionary for its time: to draw tourists to visit the region’s wineries and vineyards, which until then had been closed “temples,” off limits to the public. The world’s first wine tourism was born. At first, wine tourism caught on only in a small way. There were tourists and visitors, but most summer vacationers were still after sun, sand and sea.
In the articles that follow, you can read about each of the most famous wine routes in France. I’ve also added the Cognac Route and the Cider Route in Normandy.
France’s Wine Routes: All the Articles
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A Few More Things You Might Not Know About Wine
Drinking Amounts Have Nothing to Do with Production
The French are known as the biggest wine drinkers in the world (the average French person drinks about 45 liters of wine a year). Next, somewhat surprisingly, come Slovenia with 43 liters a year and Croatia with 42.5. Italy ranks 7th with 37.5 liters, and Spain ranks 17th with 22 liters (figures from 2017). There’s no connection between how much a country drinks and how much it produces.
The French Paradox
As we’ve seen, the French are the world’s biggest wine drinkers, and alcohol is rich in… alcohol, and in calories too… which would seem like a recipe for trouble. But remarkably, doctors around the world have found that the French, and French women in particular, tend to stay quite slim, not to say downright lean and toned. And if that’s not enough, France also has one of the lowest rates of heart disease in the world.
In-depth studies investigating this puzzle have suggested that the reason behind the low rate of heart disease is, of all things… wine drinking. The fermentation process that happens in the barrels draws two natural substances out of the grape skin and seeds: polyphenols and resveratrol.
The first helps a great deal with antioxidant processes, an important step in the body’s digestion, while the second, from the phytoalexin family of compounds, contributes greatly to the body’s fight against viruses, bacteria and other troublemakers that can interfere with the body’s normal functioning. It’s worth noting that these theories have been backed up by quite a few studies, but no definitive conclusions have been reached yet.
Cheers! (And a word of caution on any wine route: if you’re drinking, don’t drive.)
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