Austria · Styria NaturalBiodynamic
Sepp and Maria Muster and the Opok above Leutschach
Sepp and Maria Muster, Leutschach, Styria, Austria: Demeter vines on Opok, Gräfin and Erde on skins, and the Schmecke das Leben farms on a private wine tour.
Sommelier · Brno → Yerevan · Tbilisi · Alba · Arbois · Krems
Wine tours to the cellars I return to every year
I am Dante Minutello, a sommelier based in Brno. I take groups of six to ten to Armenia, Georgia, Italy, France, Austria and my own South Moravia: karas and qvevri cellars, Barolo and the Jura, natural and classic wines on one table, and more often than not the winemaker eating with us.
ENRUCSHYIT
Upcoming departures
All tours- from €890 Places available
- from €2,900 Places available
- from €2,400 Places available
- from €2,600 Places available
- from €890 Places available
- from €2,450 Places available
Six countries, one guide
From the 6,000-year-old cave at Areni to the natural-wine cellars of South Moravia, forty minutes from my front door.
How I travel
Natural and classic, side by side
I pour skin-contact amber wines and Grand Cru Burgundy on the same table. The point is to understand the choices a winemaker makes, not to take sides.
Five languages, no interpreter
I speak English, Russian, Czech, Armenian and Italian. The conversation with the winemaker happens directly, and nothing is lost.
A cook's palate
Before wine I worked in kitchens. Every tour is built around tables: village lunches, supra feasts, trattorie, and the dishes each wine was made for.
Two ways to travel with me. The scheduled departures take six to ten guests on routes I know cellar by cellar, each published day by day with dates and prices, so you know which winemaker we visit on Tuesday and where we sleep that night. Private tours run the same routes, or new ones, for two to twelve people on your dates.
Between trips I write: field guides to each region, portraits of the winemakers we visit, and plain answers to the questions I get asked in cellars. Read a little, then write to me. The reply comes from me, not from an office.
Latest winemaker stories
Portraits of the people behind the bottles: who they are, what they do differently, and what to drink when you get there.
Austria · Burgenland Biodynamic
Claus Preisinger and the green roof above Gols
Claus Preisinger in Gols, Burgenland, Austria: a biodynamic winemaker of Blaufränkisch, Zweigelt and St. Laurent in casks and amphorae above the Neusiedlersee.
Austria · Burgenland NaturalBiodynamic
Gut Oggau and the family with faces on the label
Gut Oggau, Burgenland, Austria: Eduard Tscheppe and Stephanie Tscheppe-Eselböck's biodynamic wines with faces on the label, on my Neusiedlersee wine tour.
Wine knowledge, without the snobbery
Plain explanations of the things people ask me in cellars: natural wine, sulfites, clay vessels, how to taste.
palava · welschriesling
South Moravia: the wine region Europe forgot to visit
A sommelier's orientation to South Moravia, Czechia: Pálava limestone, Welschriesling, cellar lanes, pet-nat, and how a Moravian wine tour from Brno works.
history · qvevri
Eight thousand years of wine: Gadachrili Gora and Areni-1
Georgia's Gadachrili Gora jars and Armenia's Areni-1 cave winery: how they were dated, what residue chemistry proves, and where my wine tours visit them.
cellar-visit · food-pairing
How to visit a winemaker: etiquette, questions, buying
Sommelier Dante Minutello on visiting a winemaker: how to book, what to ask in the cellar, supra and sklípek manners, buying wine and getting it home safely.
Tell me where you want to drink
Write in any of my five languages. I answer personally, usually within a day.
Dante replies personally, usually within a day, in English, Russian, Czech, Armenian or Italian.