Welcome to Dirt Cheap Wine Country!
We like to think of ourselves as the counterpoint to your typical luxury-oriented wine site. Those sites are certainly fun to read and we have nothing against them, it’s just not who we are. And since most people don’t necessarily travel in the lap of luxury, we’re guessing that you can identify.
We are, however, hopeless wine nerds. For us, the most important part of any wine trip is of course, the wine! Luxury is great – who doesn’t want to be pampered? But what if we could dismiss the notion that wine travel HAS to be that way? What if there was a way to “do” wine country with a minimum of extra expenses so that you have more dough left for wine?
Our goal is to help you have an amazing wine country experience without the amazing wine country budget. We’ve been frugally traveling America’s wine roads for over a dozen years. We’ve explored most of the major wine regions, gone inside trade events, and visited literally hundreds of tasting rooms across the country.
Along the way we’ve learned a few things. The ideas we share are born from our first-hand experiences, not re-purposed from a book or blog somewhere. We hope you find them helpful and we welcome your comments, feedback and the collective wisdom of our fellow wine travelers. Happy trails!
John Olsen, primary contributor
Raised in the midwest and west coast, I currently live in Kentucky with my beautiful wife and our two cute, but highly food-motivated dogs. I’ve been a travel junkie for as long as I can remember, and even as a child vacations and long weekends were rarely spent within 500 miles of home. I stumbled into the wine business quite by accident about a dozen years ago and totaly fell in love with it. I’ve never looked back.
I have a degree in Business Management from a small liberal arts school in Kentucky, and my work experience is in the retail, aviation and wine industries. I’m a commercial pilot and the co-owner of an upstart wine company.
I can be reached at john@dirtcheapwinecountry.com
