“Scenic Road” in Hebrew, “Scenic Road” in English, “Route Touristique” in French…. Of course, there are also equivalents for this name in German, Greek, Spanish and several other languages. The online encyclopedia “Wikipedia” explains (from the Hebrew-Hebrew dictionary “Milog”): “A scenic road is a road on which travelers are exposed to natural landscapes. In some places, roads are paved specifically for this purpose, as opposed to other roads, which are intended to carry passengers and freight from one place to another.”
“Vineyard” is probably a natural landscape (even if it is under human care), but “wine cellar”, “barrel” and “glass of wine” – these are definitely not natural landscapes…. But don’t be petty. In the somewhat inclusive name of “landscape routes” there is a type of thematic routes – routes dedicated to a particular theme: “The Ponds Trail”, “Independence Trail”, “The Valleys Route”, and so on and so forth. We will focus on “The Wine Route”, with an additional nod at the end to a few special routes.
wine Road
Human history is accompanied by glasses of wine, a drink that has flowed with man in all his ways. It is no wonder, therefore, that over the years, roads dedicated to this red – or white – liquid have been created in various places. You will be surprised to discover later that the term “wine road” is quite new – not even a century old – but that has not stopped anyone from creating a multitude of such roads all over the world. In fact, in almost every country that produces wine. Here is a very small, very partial and very random list:
- Austria – Streirische Weinstrasse, the wine road in the Styria region in southeastern Austria.
- Canada – Routes des Vins du Quebec, the wine route in the province of Quebec, in eastern Canada.
- Chile – Rutas del Vino Chileno, a cluster of several scenic roads that pass by a large number of vineyards and wineries in the center of the country.
- France – Route des Grands Crus, Routes des Vins d'Alsace, Routed des Vins du Cotes-du-Rhone, Routes des Vins
- de Bordeaux – Alsace, Rhone River Valley, Bordeaux And more (in France there are 11 wine routes, in different regions).
- Germany – Moselweinstrasse (Mosel River), Saar-Riesling Strasse, Wurttemberger Weinstrasse.
- Italy – Strada del Vino Costa d'Amalfi, Strada del Barolo, Appia dei Vini, Strada del Vino di Montelpulciano.
- Spain - Ruta del Vino de Somontano.
- USA – Wine Road Sonoma County.
- South Africa – Route 62 (the longest wine route in the world – 850 km).
- New Zealand – New Zealand Wine Trail which runs through Hawke's Bay and the Marlborough region.
And it doesn’t end there. Almost every wine region has its own “wine road” – short or long, winding or straight, with restaurants, hotels and other tourist sites along the way.
Where is the beginning?
We have already broken one myth – the average tourist in the world knows the “Wine Route” of a region Alsace (Maybe also that of Sonoma Valley, in California – but we are dealing with France) and we saw that there is not just one wine route. And here is another myth broken – the famous, well-known wine route of the Alsace region – is not the first, founding “wine route.”
A severe economic crisis hit the entire world in the early 30s (after the Great Stock Market Crash of 1928), and to try to weather it, the winemakers of the region established Burgundy (Burgundy for English speakers), the wine order – probably the first in the world – La Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin, a name that loosely translates to “Order of the Knights of Wine Tasting” (Tastevin is a small special tasting saucer for wine – see the saucer hanging from the knights’ ribbon on their lapels in the photo).
The order, founded in 1934, still exists today and has about 12,000 “knights” worldwide. Over the years, its activities have also expanded into the field of food, with its stated goal being to support, preserve, promote and publicize the region’s wine and gastronomic traditions worldwide.
In June 1936, under France’s first Jewish Prime Minister, Leon Blum (1872-1950), a new law was enacted in France – following other European countries – “paid vacation” (Congé Payé). For the first time, salaried employees could take paid annual vacation without losing their salary, which revolutionized habits and created the custom so sacred to the French – the annual summer vacation.
Provinces, cities and local councils all over the country planned steps and moves on how to attract a crowd of tourists and holidaymakers from France and abroad. One of the ideas that came up in the discussions of the Bourgogne regional council was revolutionary for the time – to attract tourists to visit the wineries and vineyards of the province that until then had been “temples” closed to the public. The world’s first wine tourism was on its way. Wine tourism was initially successful in…. a small way. There were tourists and visitors, but most summer holidaymakers were looking for sun, sand and sea.
In the following articles you can read about each and every one of the most famous wine routes in France, to which I have also added the Cognac Route and the Cider Route in the region. Normandy.
The Wine Routes of France – All Articles
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A few more things you might not know about wine
The amount of production has nothing to do with the amount of drinking.
The French are known as the world's biggest wine drinkers (a French person drinks an average of 45 liters of wine each year. Followed, surprisingly, by Slovenia with 43 liters per year and Croatia with 42.5. Italy is in 7th place with 37.5 liters and Spain is in 17th place with 22 liters (data for 2017). There is no relationship between the amount of drinking and the amount of production.
The French Paradox
We saw above that the French are the world's biggest wine drinkers, and alcohol is rich in... alcohol, and also in calories.... seemingly an opening to trouble. But surprisingly, doctors around the world have discovered that the French, and especially French women, generally maintain a completely normal figure, not to mention slim (thin) and toned (toned). And if that's not enough, France has a very low percentage of various types of heart disease compared to the world average.
In-depth studies that have investigated the mystery have suggested that the reason for the absence of heart disease is precisely… drinking wine. The process of fermenting wine in barrels extracts two natural substances from the grape skins and seeds – polyphenol and resveratrol.
The first greatly assists in antioxidant processes, an important stage in the body's digestion of food, while the second, from the phytoalexin family of substances, contributes greatly to the body's fight against viruses, bacteria, and other germs that are harmful to the proper functioning of the human body. It should be noted that these beliefs have received quite a few confirmations in various studies, but no unequivocal conclusions have yet been found for this.
And with us?
An Israeli drinks an average of 5 liters of wine a year. Not much… but enough to create a “wine road” in our tiny country, capture headlines and even win quite a few international awards in prestigious competitions.
The Israeli wine route begins in the wineries of the Golan Heights (including the Har Odem, Ortal, Assaf, Chateau Golan, and others), continues through the Galilee Mountains (such as the Dalton, Tavor, Luria, Kishor, Stern, and others) to Judea and the Shephelah (Safira, Moni, Clos de Gat, Tzora, Agur, Sosun Yam wineries, etc.), and all the way to the northern Negev. The irrigation methods developed in the country have led to unique grape cultivation in the sandy soils of the Negev with wines of surprising quality from desert wineries (including the Nana Winery in Mitzpe Ramon, Yatir Winery, Avdat Vineyards, and Midbar Winery).
To the living, (Caution on the “Wine Road” – if you drink, don’t drive)!