Drink 100-pt wines and lunch hosted by Sting

FOOD & WINE TRAILS APPOINTED OFFICIAL TOUR OPERATOR OF DIVINO TUSCANY -
Drink 100 point wines with Italian Wine Royalty including lunch hosted by Sting and Trudie Styler

FOOD & WINE TRAILS of Santa Rosa, California announces their appointment as an official tour operator for Divino Tuscany, a four-day festival of Tuscan wine and culture that restricts participation to only 500 fortunate guests. The next exclusive event will be held May 17-20, 2012 in Florence, Italy.

Guests at Divino Tuscany 2012 will have the rare opportunity to drink 90 to 100 point rated Tuscan wines from such famous wineries as Sassicaia, Ornellaia and Valdicava and to meet and mingle with Italian wine royalty. Some of these producers have noble lineage dating-back hundreds of years, and who planted their family estates with vineyards that now produce some of the world's most sought-after wines.

Says FOOD & WINE TRAILS President, Larry Martin,"This is the only opportunity I know of for wine lovers to taste these highly rated wines and to break bread with Tuscany's wine-royalty in their private homes and some of Florences most historic buildings." Divino Tuscany represents the epitome of Italian wine culture and nothing else like it exists.

Divino Tuscany has been the dream of James Suckling since 1998 when he moved to Tuscany as the European Bureau chief of The Wine Spectator magazine. Each year Suckling selects only the top Tuscan wineries as participating wineries. Divino Tuscany 2012 guests will taste 90 to100 point rated wines with members of Italy's noble families such as the Marchesi de' Frescobaldi (co-owner of Ornellaia) and the Marquesa d'Antinori, Principe Corsini; Barone Ricasoli; and other top wine producers such as Ferruccio Ferragamo of the famed fashion house, and Filippo Mazzei, whose family traces its roots back to the 11th-century. Says Martin, "These guys are the real thing."

As was done last year for the inaugural of Divino Tuscany, the 2012 finale will be a traditional Tuscan barbeque at the Chianti private villa of music superstar Sting and his wife, Trudie Styler. For many, the opportunity to meet and mingle with Sting was the highlight of the 2011 event.

The cost to attend Divino Tuscany 2012 is 1,900 Euros (approximately $2,660 USD), not including taxes or the cost of accommodations or airfare to Florence. The event price includes admission to multiple wine tastings, dinners and parties in some of the most historic buildings of Florence, all overseen by James Suckling. FOOD & WINE TRAILS is also offering various hotel options in Florence, where the event is based. New this year will be the opportunity for guests to extend their trip by staying in the guesthouses and hotels owned by Tuscan vintners, and to enjoy special tastings and dinners at the wineries.

Although the Florence hotel arrangements and the pre- and post-stays won't be available until the end of the year, it is recommended that event tickets be purchased now. "Only 500 or so tickets are available," says Martin, "it's a first-come, first-serve situation so we suggest that any wine or lover of all things Italian, get their foot in the door now."

For more information, visit www.foodandwinetrails.com/divinotuscany, call Larry Martin at 1-800-367-5348, or email him at larry@foodandwinetrails.com.

About Food & Wine Trails: FOOD & WINE TRAILS is America's oldest and largest wine-travel company, hosting its first wine cruise in 1989 and now handling over 3,000 food and wine lovers a year. FOOD & WINE TRAILS is the educational tour division of the HMS TRAVEL GROUP, a 25-year old company based in Santa Rosa, California that has designed travel programs for such culinary icons as Julia Child, Jacques Pepin, and most of America's top food magazines and wineries. Larry Martin, the president of FOOD & WINE TRAILS, is a wine collector, vegetable gardener and the Northern California Regional Governor for Slow Food, an international food advocacy organization. The editors of COND NAST TRAVELER have chosen Martin for the past three consecutive years as The World's Top Wine Travel Specialist 2008, 2009 and 2010.