Wine as a Passport: Following the Glass from Santa Barbara to Germany, Spain, Sonoma, and San Sebastián
A wine travel writer explores how these experiences bring people together through unique destinations and culture.
By Jamie Knee, Wine Travel Writer, Global Wine Presenter, and Founder of Petite Wine Traveler
Jamie Knee, Wine Travel Writer
There is a moment in late summer when wine travel begins to shift. As a wine travel writer, I find these transitions provide fascinating stories and insights into wine regions around the world.
The easy pleasure of long afternoons, spritzes, coastal lunches, and sunlit glasses gives way to something deeper: harvest, serious tastings, cooler evenings, regional discovery, and the kind of travel that asks for attention. For me, this is one of the most exciting times of year. The season begins to open into a new map. Now it is one drawn not only by destinations. Instead, it is mapped by vineyards, tables, conversations, and the stories behind the glass.
As the founder of Petite Wine Traveler, my work has always lived at the intersection of wine, travel, hospitality, food, and destination storytelling. I believe wine is one of the most powerful ways to understand a place. Additionally, the coming months feel like a beautiful expression of that idea.
From Santa Barbara to Germany, from Spain to Sonoma, from the Basque coast back to California wine country, wine is once again carrying me into the next chapter. Because sharing these journeys is part of what makes being a travel writer in wine so rewarding.
Jamie Knee, Wine Travel Writer in Baden Germany
Wiesbaden for the Vorpremiere VDP.GROSSES GEWÄCHS
Next week, I will be in Wiesbaden for the Vorpremiere VDP.GROSSES GEWÄCHS, one of Germany’s most important tastings of top dry wines before release. For a wine lover, and especially for someone who believes deeply in wine as a passport to place, this feels incredibly meaningful. German wine has a way of reminding us that precision can be emotional. Riesling, in particular, can carry landscape with almost impossible clarity: slate, river valleys, citrus, stone, light, tension, and time. These are wines that do not simply refresh. Instead, they reveal. On this journey, my perspective as a travel writer immersed in the wine world will offer new stories to share.
Wine will take me to Valladolid, Spain
In September, wine will take me to Valladolid, Spain, a city surrounded by some of the country’s most compelling wine regions and culinary traditions. I think of Spain as a place where wine belongs naturally to the table, to movement, to conversation, to old stones warmed by afternoon sun, to tapas, to late dinners, and to glasses poured without fuss but with deep cultural confidence. Also, Spain reminds me that wine does not need to perform luxury to be luxurious. Sometimes it only needs to belong completely to life. As a writer, the stories of wine and travel here are always intertwined.
Jamie Knee, Wine Travel Writer in Spain
In October, I will be in Sonoma
In October, I will be in Sonoma, speaking during one of the most meaningful times of year in wine country: harvest. There is something elemental about harvest: the picking, the sorting, the smell of fermenting fruit, the long days, the urgency, and the hope. Wine travel during harvest carries a different kind of energy. Visitors are not only seeing a region. Instead, they are witnessing its work in motion. In many ways, that’s what makes being a wine travel writer so special in Sonoma during harvest.
Jamie Knee, Wine Writer on Sonoma Wine Tour
In November, San Sebastián is calling.
The Basque coast has long lived in my imagination as one of the great places where food, wine, sea, and culture meet with uncommon ease. There you will find Txakoli, pintxos, grilled fish, salt air, old town streets, and the pleasure of standing at a crowded bar with something bright in the glass and something perfect in one bite. Furthermore, San Sebastián understands that eating and drinking can be both simple and profound, and that is the kind of wisdom I am always trying to follow. With experiences like these, a travel writer passionate about wine finds endless inspiration.
Jamie Knee, Wine Travel Writer in San Sebastián Spain
Through all of this, I keep returning to Santa Barbara wine country.
Santa Barbara is my home region, my foundation, and one of the places that continues to shape the way I understand wine travel everywhere else. The more I travel, the more clearly I see what we have here: the transverse mountains, the marine air, the Sta. Rita Hills, the Santa Ynez Valley, the winemakers, the farms, the restaurants, the ocean, the light, and the rare feeling that luxury can still be relaxed, personal, and deeply connected to place. This deep connection to location is at the heart of what a wine travel writer seeks to convey.
That is what I love most about wine travel. It teaches us to look both outward and inward. Germany may help me think more deeply about precision and origin. Spain may remind me of the generosity of the table. Sonoma may bring me back to the urgency and beauty of harvest. San Sebastián may teach me again about simplicity, salt, and joy. However, Santa Barbara is the place I carry with me. It is the lens through which I understand so much of the world. Thus, being a wine travel writer gives me the gift of perspective and discovery.
Jamie Knee, Wine Travel Writer in Santa Barbara Wine Country
This is also the work I feel most called to do now.
To write about wine not only as a beverage, but as a way into culture. To speak about wine travel not only as tourism, but as connection. My goal is to help wine regions, hotels, restaurants, cruise lines, and hospitality brands understand that wine can be one of the most powerful ways to create memory, meaning, and desire. Naturally, these are the stories that a passionate writer, dedicated to travel and wine, strives to tell.
Travelers are not only looking for beautiful places. They are looking for experiences that make them feel something. They want to understand where they are, what they are tasting, who made it, what belongs on the table beside it, and why it matters. Importantly, wine can answer those questions in a way few things can. This is why having the insight of a wine travel writer opens up new levels of understanding for many readers.
From Santa Barbara to Germany, from Valladolid to Sonoma, from San Sebastián back home again, wine continues to draw the map. This is not a map of places to check off. Instead, it is a map of feeling: tables, landscapes, people, stories, and moments that stay with us long after the glass is empty.
That, to me, is the beauty of Wine as a Passport. This is the true joy of being a writer whose focus is travel and wine.
It is never only about the destination. It is about learning how to arrive.
