The future of wine tourism

By: Olly Wehring - 11 April 2006 12:09

One final point from me, before I disappear into the Argentinean sunset for a couple of weeks...

Naturally, I’ve been spoilt rotten over here, with flagons of wine, enough steak to floor the most vociferous of carnivores, and overnights in hotels that I wouldn’t normally be able to afford in a month of Sundays.

One of these hotels got me thinking, though. This one located in the north-west of Argentina, is part of the El Esteco winery, whom I was a guest of last week.

Now, don’t get me wrong, this is not an advert – it’s just that, with so many winemakers in stunning parts of the world struggling a little (yes, Monsieur France and Matey Australia, I mean you), what better way of opening another revenue stream by opening a hotel? My esteemed peer and travelling partner, wine writer Simon Woods, noted on the trip that New Zealand has some pretty good hostelries attached to wineries, and I can attest to the superb set-up at the Fetzer winery in Hopland, California.

The arrangement at El Esteco, however, is that the winemaker has rented a chunk of its buildings to Starwood Hotels & Resorts, to run and maintain.

Although our hosts wouldn’t go into figures, this feels to me like the ideal path for wine tourism to take in what, for some, are troubled times.

Comments on this blog post

El Esteco is the Michel Torino winery up in Cafayate and I was lucky enough to stay up there last November with two Majestic wine buyers as our guests. Great place to stay , the health spa is 'awesome' and the wine is a bonus. Well worth a visit if you're passing through Argentina!!

Mark Denison, United Kingdom