We take wine trade professionals on the ultimate Australian road trip.
Established by Tim Wildman MW in 2010 in response to the need to refresh the image of Australian wine, James Busby Travel is a unique, innovative and commercially focused initiative.
We take wine trade professionals on the ultimate Australian road trip. A red carpet, access all areas, once in a lifetime, money can’t buy sort of road trip. Oh, and we have a lot of fun. We are the only independent wine tour designed in collaboration with, and funded directly by, Australian wine producers themselves and the only one with a Master of Wine as a Tour Guide.
The founding concept back in 2010 was to change attitudes to Australian wine one bottle at a time and this is still our mission today. We take an uncompromising view towards quality and selection both of the guests invited and the quality and curation of wineries and events in the itinerary. And did we mention the bit about fun?
The Wine Tour of a Lifetime
The world’s oldest civilisation
James Busby Travel acknowledges and pays respect to the past, present and future Traditional Custodians and Elders of this nation and the continuation of cultural, spiritual and educational practices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Aboriginal history has been handed down in ways of stories, dances, myths and legends for over 50,000 years. This is the Dreaming, a past, present and future Everywhen.
What goes on tour stays on tour
What has 26 legs, 174 pages, 548 wines, 250 photos and 1 badass wombat? The latest James Busby Tour Report! Read all about what we did on our holidays here.
Been there, got the T-shirt
Wine tour of a lifetime? Best wine trip ever? Don’t take our word for it, hear what our past travellers have to say about their Australian experience
This isn't a tour, it's a movement!
Read about what our Alumni Community have been up to since their trip Down Under in the Busby Bugle, our annual award winning* newsletter
Alumni
Kilometres
Regions visited
Wines tasted
What year did we push the bus?
Have you ever lain awake at night wondering if the inaugural Busby tour went to Coonawarra or Canberra? Fear not, every itinerary since 2010 is here
Pick of the pics
They say if you remember the 1960s then you weren’t really there and the same could be said of a two week Busby tour. Luckily we have the photos to prove it
So where did it all begin?
James Busby Travel was established by Tim Wildman MW in response to the question, how can Australian wine refresh it’s image in its overseas markets?
FOUR FAB FACTS
Who is this James Busby fellow anyway?
James Busby is the founding father of Australian wine. He brought the original vine cuttings from Europe in 1833, which is why Australia has some of the world’s oldest pre-phylloxera vines. These days we bring wine buyers not vines, but we think he would have approved.
Fiercely Independent. Grrr
James Busby Travel is a proudly independent company with no ties or obligations to wineries, distributors or organisations. Wineries from big to boutique are included on our tours based solely on the quality and interest of their wines, stories, personalities and terroir.
It's a wine trade thing
Inclusion on a James Busby Travel trip is by invitation only and open only to full time members of the wine trade from Australia’s key export markets. If you’re an influential retail buyer, restaurant group buyer or sommelier feel free to drop us a line to ask about the criteria for application.
A very sociable network
Those travellers who’ve been on a James Busby trip automatically become members of our Alumni Community. Alumni receive newsletters keeping them up-to-date with winery news as well as invitations to our Reunion parties, often attended by guest winemakers.
Our Newsletter
It’s great to have a group of wine aficionados from the other side of the world come to visit. It’s a fantastic opportunity to show them how great Australian wines can taste and get them excited about the direction of the Australian wine industry.
Tim has managed to capture so many different facets and packed in enough variety in each day to keep a very worldly group engaged for a marathon 14 days.
For fine Australian wine to garner a place of respect internationally it is critically important that knowledgable, influential professionals and communicators see our vines, our wines and people in order to understand, respect and relay the truth and quality of what we do.
There exists a mutual requirement; authenticity of the participants in each James Busby Travel group and authenticity in the itinerary. Both lists comprehensively meet this requirement.
No matter how creative the words, how vivid the photo or how poetic the story teller, nothing compares to actually visiting a winery. We do things in a unique way at d’Arenberg. We can’t expect a sommelier in a London restaurant to understand what that means, why we do it and how it translates to what’s in the glass unless we are willing to bring them here and show them.
The James Busby Travel group are just the sort of people that we need to show because we need dedicated life-long advocates of fine Australian wine with a true belief in what we are all about.
I occupy a very small part of the Australian wine industry in a big country with massive diversity half a world away from where these guys live and work. To be able to sit them down and show them my wines first hand and tell them how/where/why the wine is made is invaluable.
It’s a pretty rare thing to get a room full of people with that level of passion and interest in learning more about Australian wine. To hear about the respective wine markets and trends in those countries while (trying to) change some opinions about Australian wine and the diversity of style in our market makes it a rare opportunity.