The Top Ten Wine Drives in Provence

Bravo to Sheila Johnston and her website Marseille-Provence for yesterday’s post: The Top Ten Wine Drives in Provence. Sheila tells me it took the better part of a week for she and her husband, Robert, to produce…and I can see why. 

“Although there's a ton of info about wine on the net, it tends, I feel, to be very fragmented and confusing," she says. "We've tried here to consolidate and simplify all these bits of information and turn them into itineraries that made sense for a day's driving." 

The ten routes fall either into Southern or Northern Provence. Each section includes a bit about the history, terroir and main appellations...and then the suggested routes (in miles and kilometers), with very easy-to-read maps and complete winery info (address, email, phone). Sheila included only those wineries and cooperatives that welcome visitors. She also avoided areas such as Châteauneuf du Pape and Bandol, where a high concentration of vineyards are found relatively close to each other. It's really a wonderfully useful tool and I, for one, hope Sheila decides to make a mobile version of it for smartphones and iPads.

An English journalist originally from London, Sheila has been “part-based” in Provence for about 14 years.  She started her site, she says, because she wanted more information about the Marseille area and assumed that others did too.  

“I've long been astonished by the dearth of reliable, up-to-date tourist information in English,” she says, “as well as the poor design and maintenance of local websites. So I decided to build my own.” 

The homepage of Sheila’s site is HERE. The Top Ten Wine Drives section is HERE. To contact Sheila directly: sheila@marseille-provence.info.

Photo courtesy of Vins de Provence.