AbstractThis study examines the relationship between the motivation of wine tourists to visit cellar doors and destination image perception. A survey of tourists resulted in 676 useable questionnaires. Using a novel segmentation method, self‐organizing maps, and bagged clustering, the study identified 5 distinct motivation clusters. These clusters were different on only gender and previous visit to the wine region. Three clusters of destination image were identified using the same segmentation method. Significant relationships were found between the motivation and destination image clusters. Implications for destination marketing and managing the tourist experience at the winery cellar door are discussed.