Originally Published: May 13, 2026.
Updated: May 27, 2026
For Joy Foster and Brian Muerle, wine has never been just about what is in the glass.
It has been about where the wine comes from, who made it, what food is served with it, what stories are shared around the table, and how travel can turn a beautiful bottle into a lasting memory.
From their home in Concord, Joy and Brian have spent years exploring wine, food, and culture with the curiosity of lifelong learners and the warmth of natural hosts. Their travels have taken them across countries, continents, vineyards, tasting rooms, restaurants, and family-run estates. Along the way, wine became more than a shared interest. It became a way of connecting with people, places, history, and hospitality.
That passion is now the foundation of JB Wine Adventures, a Bay Area-based wine travel company created for people who want something more personal than a standard group tour.
Their first featured journey, The Tuscany Experience, is an intimate, personally hosted wine, food, and cultural trip through one of Italy’s most beloved regions. Limited to just 10 guests, the experience is designed for travelers who appreciate exceptional wine, beautiful meals, thoughtful planning, and meaningful connection..
A Wine Journey Rooted in the Bay Area
Joy and Brian are not anonymous tour operators or distant travel planners. They are Bay Area locals who understand the kind of wine culture that many Northern California residents already know and love.
Living near some of the world’s most celebrated wine regions, they have long appreciated the difference between simply tasting wine and truly experiencing it. A great wine experience is not rushed. It is not generic. It is not just a stop on an itinerary.
It is a conversation with a winemaker.
A meal that makes the wine come alive.
A vineyard view that helps you understand the land.
A story that stays with you long after the bottle is finished.
That belief helped shape JB Wine Adventures.
Joy and Brian wanted to create travel experiences for people who enjoy wine but also care about the full setting around it: the food, the culture, the history, the pace, and the people. Their goal is not to move guests from place to place as quickly as possible. Their goal is to host them with care.
Why Tuscany?
Tuscany was a natural place to begin.
For wine lovers, the region offers a rare combination of beauty, depth, and tradition. It is home to rolling vineyard landscapes, medieval hill towns, historic estates, celebrated wines, and a food culture built around simplicity, seasonality, and shared meals.
The Tuscany Experience includes time in and around Florence, Chianti, Siena, Montalcino, San Gimignano, and the surrounding countryside. Guests can expect a journey shaped by estate visits, curated tastings, regional cuisine, cultural landmarks, truffle hunting, private transportation, and unhurried time around the table.
But for Joy and Brian, Tuscany is not just a destination to be checked off a list. It is a place to be savored.
They designed the trip for travelers who want to experience Tuscany in a more personal way — not from the window of a crowded bus, but through intimate tastings, thoughtful meals, guided exploration, and the ease of having the details handled for them.
More Than a Standard Tour
The phrase “wine tour” can mean many things. Sometimes it means a large group, a fixed schedule, crowded tasting rooms, and very little personal connection.
JB Wine Adventures is built around a different idea.
The Tuscany Experience is small by design. With only 10 guests, the group size allows for more conversation, more flexibility, and a more personal atmosphere. Joy and Brian are not simply sending guests overseas. They are personally hosting the journey.
That distinction matters.
For travelers considering an international wine experience, especially one that involves a significant investment of time and money, trust is essential. Guests want to know who is behind the trip. They want to feel confident that the hosts care about the details. They want to know the experience will be organized, comfortable, and worth the journey.
Joy and Brian bring that personal reassurance to the trip. Their background combines travel experience, wine education, hospitality, and a genuine desire to help others enjoy the kind of experiences they have come to love themselves.
Wine, Food, Culture — and Connection
The Tuscany Experience is not built around wine alone.
Wine is the thread, but the journey includes much more: regional food, local traditions, historic towns, scenic countryside, and the joy of gathering around the table. For many travelers, those are the moments that become the most memorable.
A glass of Chianti tastes different when you are standing in the landscape that shaped it. Brunello becomes more meaningful when tasted near Montalcino, where the wine’s history and identity are part of the place itself. A long dinner becomes more than a meal when it is shared with people who are experiencing the same discoveries together.
That is the kind of travel Joy and Brian want to create.
Their approach is especially well suited for Bay Area wine lovers who already appreciate good wine, good food, and good company, but who want to experience those things in a new setting. Tuscany offers the romance and history of Italy, while Joy and Brian provide the comfort of traveling with hosts who feel familiar, approachable, and personally invested.
A Boutique Beginning
The Tuscany Experience is the first featured journey from JB Wine Adventures, but the vision is broader than one trip.
Joy and Brian are building a boutique wine travel brand centered on intimate, hosted experiences in remarkable wine regions. Tuscany is the beginning because it represents so much of what they value: beauty, hospitality, tradition, food, wine, and a slower, more meaningful way of traveling.
For guests, the experience is designed to feel elevated but not impersonal. It is premium without being stiff. Organized without feeling rigid. Social without being overwhelming. Curated without losing the warmth of discovery.
That balance is central to the JB Wine Adventures philosophy.
An Invitation to Travel Differently
For Joy and Brian, creating JB Wine Adventures is both a business and a personal invitation.
It is an invitation to travel with intention.
To slow down.
To taste with curiosity.
To enjoy the beauty of a place through its food, wine, people, and traditions.
To experience Tuscany not as a tourist checklist, but as a shared journey.
For Bay Area wine lovers who have visited Napa, Sonoma, Livermore, Paso Robles, or other favorite wine destinations close to home, Tuscany offers something both familiar and completely different. The love of wine may be the starting point, but the experience expands into culture, history, cuisine, and connection.
That is what Joy and Brian hope to share through JB Wine Adventures.
Not just a tour.
Not just a trip.
A personally hosted wine adventure — from the Bay Area to Tuscany.
Learn more about The Tuscany Experience>
