About us

Intimate groups, one microbus, ten years of doing this

Our mission

A new window on ancient lands

Vinotours' goal is to introduce you to new, unique experiences, food and wines that will enhance and challenge your perceptions of our world. We take you behind the scenes to discover the history and living essence of various cultures in order to appreciate them more fully.

Organised, professionally led, small-group immersive tours
Locally sourced cuisine, wines, art and guides
Pre-defined, scheduled tours
Custom tours for any need or occasion
Travel plans for those intrepid spirits who want to go it alone

VinoTours LLC offers wine, food and cultural tours of Portugal, Spain and Italy. We are constantly in touch with leading professionals in these countries to keep up to date with what is happening in their areas, so we can offer the most informed tours available.

Founded in 2014 by Richard Hewitt, a certified sommelier, translator and builder. We keep groups intimate so a winery can host us properly, a restaurant can seat us in one room, and nobody is counted onto a bus. We use a private microbus with a driver throughout, local guides in the cities, and hotels chosen for character rather than star ratings alone — though they are four-star and above.

Richard Hewitt

Director & guide

Certified sommelier, translator and builder, and adjunct professor in the enology program at Piedmont Virginia Community College in Charlottesville. He is the author of two travel books, A Cottage in Portugal (Simon & Schuster) and Return to A Cottage in Portugal (Gradiva), and spends half the year in Portugal and Spain and the remainder in Virginia. He speaks Spanish, French, Italian, German, Portuguese, English and Greek, leads every departure and pours at every tasting.

Vinotours guests toasting together at a vineyard table

How we travel

Escorted, self-guided, tailor-made

Alongside our escorted departures we plan curated self-guided journeys and fully tailor-made private tours across Portugal, Spain and Italy — same hotels, same cellars, same tables, arranged around your own party.

Our vision

The lands we know best

Alentejo

Miles of vineyards and cork oak trees, historic hilltop cities and deserted beaches. Portugal's largest region covers a third of the country, stretching north and east of Lisbon toward the Algarve and east to Spain.

Douro & Porto

The steep, precipitous terraces of the oldest demarcated wine region in the world — and Porto below it, a riverside city of bridges and a photographer's paradise.

Spain

Several cultural milieus in one country, from the enigmatic Basque north to the fiery Catalan east, each with its own history, traditions — and table.

Italy & beyond

Piedmont and Tuscany at harvest, and further afield Georgia, which enchants with unspeakable beauty and is the birthplace of wine.

We visit cities and villages, wineries and historical sites, and we will always offer the best of customized wine and cultural tours. Join us on our next departure, or let us help you create a dream tour of your own.

From our journeys

Places, tables and moments along the way

The walled hill town of Monsaraz in the Alentejo — Monsaraz — a hill town above the Alentejo plain

Terraced vineyards above Pinhão in the Douro Valley — Pinhão — the Douro's terraced valley

Tiled gardens at Quinta da Bacalhôa — Quinta da Bacalhôa — tiles, gardens and wine near Azeitão

Vines at Cortes de Cima under an Alentejo sky — Cortes de Cima — vines under the wide Alentejo sky

The bay at San Sebastián on the Basque coast — San Sebastián — the bay at the edge of the Basque country

The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao — Bilbao — the Guggenheim on the Nervión river