The Flying Grape is a tour and travel business focused on top quality wine education in the great wine regions of the world.
Our leap into the wine travel business began in December of 2015. Now that we had our son safely settled in Chicago for college, it was time to pursue the dream of organizing high quality, small group wine travel to many of the wonderful places we have been lucky enough to visit.
What's different about The Flying Grape? Pretty much everything.
1) Small group travel. Flying Grape trips will be no more than 14 participants. One thing we learned about the travel industry is there are certain 'break points' in terms of discounting and freebies for the organizers. These break points normally hover around 30-45 people (think size of the bus, size of hotels, etc.). But you know what? That doesn't work for The Flying Grape for one simple reason: one great and special bottle of wine can give 14 people (plus us) a decent sized taste. Going to a special winery and popping special bottles will be part of every experience, and that means small groups.
2) Fair compensation to the wineries. Flying Grape trips will never be fishing for deals, comps, freebies, or other such things from the wineries we visit. On the contrary, we are going to happily pay for what we are doing, knowing the money is supporting small family operations, farmers, and winery workers. There will never be a mega-sized Flying Grape bus pulling up to the mega-sized winery because we get a good deal. What you can expect is to visit the small, weird, off the radar, historic, or up and coming wineries and vineyards while tasting with the key people involved in making great wines from that particular place.
3) Independence for those traveling with us. Flying Grape trips will allow you to travel the way you want. As we've discovered through various surveys our tribe doesn't want to be corralled into a particular flight. Our domestic trips will have quite of bit of personal flexibility built in, while our European trips will be a tad more structured in terms of the planning. But in the end, The Flying Grape trips will offer you a level of personalization and independence that others do not.
Will trips with The Flying Grape cost more than others? Yes. But the experience will be unlike any other, guaranteed, including easy shipping of products back home, insider's access to amazing experiences, meeting key winery people, learning about the history and geography of particular regions, and helping support the kinds of wineries that deserve our love.
Learn more and sign up at The Flying Grape website.