“Recommended Wine Tours”, according to the world’s biggest wine tasting association
A few things to think of when evaluating a wine tour operator
Twice yearly there is a special issue of the magazine Munskanken that includes the Wine Tour and Travel supplement. It includes all “by Munskankarna recommended wine tours”. BKWine is prominently featured of course.
Perhaps you have never heard of Munskänkarna. It is actually the world’s largest wine tasting association, or “wine club” if you wish, if wine club means a club for people who love wine (and not a wine merchant parading under the name “club”). “Munskank” is a medieval word for wine waiter. The Munskankarna association has more then 20,000 members, all wine enthusiasts. They have chapters all over Sweden and some internationally. The members meet regularly to taste wines and eat good food. So you can imagine that there are many people interested in travelling to wine country among their members.
All wine tours that BKWine organises are labelled “recommended” by Munskankarna. Many of their members do indeed come on our tours.
It is a good thing that Munskankarna puts their “approval stamp2 on our wine tours. We are very happy about that. Thank you for the trust!
There are of course other wine tour organisers in the travel supplement, and those that are not in the supplement too, so travellers interested in going on a wine tour has many things to choose from.
But there are perhaps a few things to think about when you look at a wine tour be it recommended or not.
Here are some suggestions:
- What’s the tour operator’s reputation?
- What is his experience and knowledge of wine?
- What is his experience and knowledge of travel and wine tours?
- Is it a specialist? Or is it a generalist that organises all sorts of travel and tours?
- How big is the group that you will be travelling with?
- What is included in the tour package? Is, for example, wine with the meals included?
- What kind of financial guarantee does the tour operator give the traveller? (BKWine has a bonded travel guarantee for all tours.)
- How professional a tour operator is it? (Is perhaps one motivation for the organiser that he will get a free trip to a wine region?)
- Most tours include meals. But what kind of meals? Simple picnics or gastronomic feasts? There’s the whole range.
- What type of visits will they do? There are big differences, from visits at “the big and famous” and prestigious wine brands (“wineries”) where you will be greeted by one of half a several employed guides (who have learned the story to the detail), to small and personal vineyards where you will meet the owners and the winemaker.
- What information do you get out of the tour program? Is it clear and informative or short and schematic? Doe it contain all that you want to know about the wine tour?
- How well does the organisers seems to know the destination?
- Etc, etc…
But even if you have looked at the program in detail it is difficult to know exactly how the tour will be, without going on one.
The best way to know more is of course to talk to someone who has been on one before. The second best is perhaps to see what other customers have said about the wine tours, if you can not find someone who has already travelled with the operator.
We have a few more points that you can read on why we think that a wine tour with BKWine is the right choice for you.
But we are certainly very happy that all our wine and food tours are “recommended by Munskänkarna”. As I said, we regularly have many of their members on our tours!
And we hope to have you on a tour one day too!
