3+1 of the most popular wine producing regions in the world - with their most popular wines

What are the most popular wine regions on earth, where are they located, what are the most exciting facts about them, and what are their famous wines?

If we should collect all the world’s important wine regions, it would be a book with thousands of pages. Right now we’ve chosen the 3+1 from the most important ones and summarized the most exciting things to know about them, collected some wine specialties as well. 

 

1. Tuscany - Italy

Perhaps it’s not an exaggeration to say that Tuscany’s hilly land is the world’s TOP wine producing-region. Just ask some of your wine lover friends about their „wine fields to visit bucket list”, two out of three answers will be central Italy’s beautiful place along the Tyrrhenian coast.

Maybe the best idea in Tuscany is to rent a car make a trip around the region. Especially because just up the coast you can find the five villages of Cinque Terre. It’s difficult to find the words how beautiful they are.

The land abounds with popular wines, but the number one is Chianti, wine is a red blend from a small region in Tuscany, made with a minimum of 70% Sangiovese grapes.

 

2. Bordeaux – France

When you hear or read about the Bordeaux wine region, probably you immediately think of red wines. This is not an accidental, as 89% of the planted grapes around the province are blue grapes.

With an area of 112 thousand hectares, Bordeaux is the largest wine region in all of France. The 5 most important grape varieties, the so-called traditonal ones in the vicinity of Bordeaux are Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Petit Verdot, and Malbec.

Bordeaux is famous for its expensive wines. One bottle of Liber Pater, for example, could cost about 4.000 Euros.

 

3. La Rioja - Spain

Spain’s most famous wine region, which got its name from one of the tributaries of the Ebro. Just about 2.75 million hectoliters of wine are produced around here annually, furthermore, in 1991 it was the first Spanish wine region to receive the DOCa classification, which means “TOP wine region”.

Around the La Rioja wine region the blue grapes were widespread in 90%, especially the old varieties. The most popular type is Tempranillo, you can find it on 61% of the plantations. Garnacha has the second place of the imaginary podium with 18%, while Graciano and Mazueo are also typical in the region.

Interestingly, people around La Rioja don’t tolerate experimentation with Cabernet sauvignon, and the proportion of white grape varieties is negligible.

 

+1. Mendoza – Argentina

If you ever got the possibility to visit Argentina, the country’s most important wine region is a „must-see” category. Nearly two-thirds of the country's entire wine production is coming from this part of the eastern foothills of the Andes, in the shadow of Mount Aconcagua.

Mendoza is a unique region because vineyards are planted with the average site located 600–1,100 meters above sea level, so one of the highest altitudes worldwide. The ideal growing conditions are coming from highness and dryness attitudes, combined with snowmelt irrigation tapped from the nearby Andes.

Mendoza’s nr. 1 wine is Achaval Ferrer, an exceptional terroir, with super-concentrated yet elegant attitude.