Wine Tourism Pre-requisites

A relatively new weblog called Matt's Texas Tales offers the following handy dandy packing list for your future wine travel adventures. Although not specifically written for travels in Oklahoma Wine Country, most of the advice is still quite good. However, I would suggest nixing his suggestion of taking a convertible and expecting temperate summer conditions. Most Oklahoma wineries require traversing some rather dusty gravel roads and summer is a scorcher.

1. You'll need a car. There is really no other way to see the wine country aside from getting a driver. Convertibles are nice and there are some great roads around like Oakville Grade/Dry Creek Rd which connects, rather circuitously, Napa and Sonoma.

2. You'll need some patience. Traffic in the summer can be pretty bad on the small roads and some of the out of way wineries aren't the easiest to find without a good map.

3. You'll need some money. Though many wineries offer free tastings, every year I visit more and more are charging small tasting fees; especially true when sampling the higher end vintages. Also, tours usually have a small charge.

4. You'll need some sun block. And water. And shades. It's sunny and dry but thankfully, no where near as hot and muggy as Austin.

5. You'll need some preparation. Many of the wineries close on Mondays or Tuesdays completely and on Sunday early. Make sure that you find out when your favorite winery is open and if you need reservations for tours. Most wineries now have websites so check them out.

6. You'll need a camera and something to write with. One for the beautiful scenery, the other to help record the wines that you truly enjoy.

Full article at: Wine Tourism Pre-requisites from Matt's Texas Tales weblog.