Wine tourism isn’t just expanding—it’s getting more creative in every corner of the globe, with more vine estates than ever wooing oenophiles with luxurious digs and experiences to indulge their grape-driven passions.

As always, superb wines and great estates are my first criteria for picking a region to escape to. But I try to look beyond wine cellar tastings and a chance to picnic in the vines; extra-special highlights include stunning and unusual landscapes to explore, delicious, creative, local cuisine to savor, and soothing rooms to sleep in when my taste buds need a break.

My crop of six destinations for 2018 delivers all of that – and more.

For Adventurers
Bodega Colomé, Salta, Argentina

Civilized Mendoza is the Napa Valley of Argentina, but adventure lurks in Salta Province, the high-altitude wine region tucked into the rugged northwest corner of the country—near Bolivia and Chile. It’s the epicenter for fragrant white torrontes, savory, concentrated malbecs, and a spectacular landscape of giant cacti, rust-colored rock formations, and the snow-topped Andes.

Remote Bodega Colomé, a 19th century winery purchased by Swiss multimillionaire and art collector Donald Hess in 2001 (he also owns Hess Collection in Napa), is the ultimate vine escape-from-it-all. A four-and-a-half hour drive from the city of Salta on teeth-rattling dirt roads, it’s a unique Shangri-La of wine, art, and 160,000 acres for hiking, biking, and oohing and aahing.

Besides producing a top malbec from a vineyard at an elevation of 10,207 feet, Hess has created a stunning museum devoted to the light installations of American artist James Turrell.

Starting Nov. 1, the winery is reopening Casa del Fundador, its 9-room luxury hotel (bodegacolome.com; [email protected]; $250) in a typical tile-roofed estancia building. The large, airy rooms in earth tones open on a courtyard with a Zen-like fountain, and yes, there’s a fine restaurant.

For Wine Hipsters
Jackalope Hotel at Willow Creek Vineyard, Mornington Peninsula, Australia

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