My Favorite Wine Maps part 2
Domaine Wiliam Fevre mailed me this Chablis map
Maps of vineyard regions are hanging up in my lab and decorating my apartment. Here are more of my favorite maps.
I picked this up at the little Chateauneuf du Pape wine museum I dragged my friends to in 2014. I mean they like wine and everything but they wanted to walk around the beautiful grounds at Chateau la Nerthe instead of this nerdy museum. Hard to blame them. This map’s got a lot of extra information on it but I like the listing of the 13 varietals allowed for a red wine in the AOC to be labelled Chateauneuf. This one is hanging above my autotitrator in the lab, I look at it while calibrating the pH meter.
This Alsace map was hanging in my lab above my centrifuge so I would look at it while spinning samples down. To make room for more lab equipment, I had to move it to a spot over by my tasting glasses. This doesn’t have any English words on it, I feel like I must have bought this in France probably on that cuckoo bike trip through the Vosges /epic wine tasting adventure at Trimbach, Zind Humbrecht, Ostertag and Boxler I took with Jeremy and Diana in 2006.
Alsace is one of the most beautiful wine regions I’ve ever visited - I would love to go back.
My buddy Joel gave me this map - he knows how much I love the Nerello Mascalese red wines from Sicily. Great values and super delicious wines from this area around volcanic Mt. Etna.
There’s a map of Etna that is hanging at North Berkeley Wines that I have always envied. It seems complicated to buy it from the US, maybe next time I’m in Sicily I can get it?
I was given this Condrieu map when I was on a road trip with my friend Cameron in 2002. When we stopped in at Domaine Georges Vernay, the folks leading our tasting gave me this map. It is hanging up in my apartment. I think the colors are pretty and it reminds me of that drive through the Rhone Valley. We had a lot of epic wines from the 1998 vintage on that trip including Chapoutier, Jaboulet, Clos des Papes, Vieux Telegraphe and Beaucastel and we visited the Valrhona chocolate factory in Tain l’Hermitage.
This wine map of Italy is really useful, but the orientation has thrown me off. In general, I’m a top of the map is north sort of person.
Somehow my other maps that have taken some liberties with orientation so that it fits better in a rectangular frame (Burgundy, Mosel) don’t bug me as bad?
Anyhow it has been handy in planning my Valtellina tasting.
I bought this Spanish map from vinmaps. This one is over my bookcase in the lab. I haven’t had the chance to visit wineries in Spain (or Portugal), I’ve got a lot to learn about these regions. Maybe time for a trip?
I’ve had a Russian River map since I worked at Gary Farrell back in 2001. The exact map I have I can’t find online anymore. I remember this map was hanging in the house I shared in Napa with my old classmate Chris. I love the wines from this region even though I don’t drink them as much as I would like.
Do you have any cool wine maps to tell me about? Let me know!!
Check out these other map resources
Peter Liem’s Champagne book with Larmat maps
The Chablis map at the top of this email I first saw on the wall in the lab at DeLille here in Woodinville. I emailed the hospitality department at Domaine William Fevre and was sent a free folded map which I then had mounted onto foamcore and my dad made the frame. Such a great map.