Our custom tailored private tour itineraries include immersive vineyard experiences, which include, barrel tastings, walks in the vines, vertical tastings, gastronomic pairing lunches and picnics.
We will pick you up at your hotel or the train station if coming from Paris. The TGV fast train takes 2 hours. Within the Bordeaux wine region, there are numerous appellations so you can select the route according to your taste and interest and we'll plan a personalised tour around that. If staying overnight, we recommend staying at vineyard hotels to get the most out of your wine adventure and not in the city. Our itineraries will include visits to wineries:
1. Situated in the areas classified with the finest growths.
2. Produce highly ranked and reviewed cuvees.
3. Offer a warm welcome in English.
4. Built with interesting architecture.
Route 1. Médoc - (St-Estephe, Pauillac, St-Julien, Margaux)
Route 2. Sauternes + Barsac
Route 3. Pessac Leognan + Médoc or Sauternes
Route 4: Saint Emilion + Pomerol.
Visit 1. Depart Bordeaux St Jean train station or airport
Visit 2. Visit the oldest Medieval Chateau estate built by a Pope in Pessac Leognan
Visit 3. Immersive visit and pairing lunch at a great estate in Margaux
Visit 4. Walk in the vines and vertical tasting in Pauillac
Bordeaux, France is is home to magnificent medieval, renaissance, and Chartreuse Chateaux estates with traditional cellar and state of the art processing, as well a smaller artisanal family domaines which produce some of the best wines in the world. Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Cabernet Franc are the main red grapes varieties in Bordeaux. They produce fruity, full bodied, round, powerful, and elegant wines. Sauvignon Blanc and Sémillon predominate among the fine sweet dessert whites. Chateau Yquem Sauternes are among the most famous.
Wines made in these AOCs tend to be Merlot and Cabernet Franc dominant. Merlot originally from Aquitaine, is the most common grape variety in the Bordelaise vineyards. It is blended most of the time with Cabernet Sauvignon, and Cabernet Franc, the oldest grape variety, for freshness and finesse with notes of raspberry and violet. Merlot brings color intensity, suppleness, and fleshy red fruit aromas such as plum, blackcurrant, cherry, fig, violet and sometimes toasted scents from wines that have been aged in oak. These wines that can be enjoyed young without a long ageing process.
Most of the 15 Premiere Cru Classé St. Emilion wines comes from the estates located on the Cotes. The Cotes is the limestone, rich, hillsides that surround the little village of St. Emilion. The 2012 classification names 82 estates: 64 Grands Crus classés and 18 Premiers Grands Crus classés.
The Médoc lies between the Atlantic Ocean and the left bank of the Gironde estuary. It is made up of 3 kinds of terroirs: Garonne gravel, Pyrenean gravel, and clay and limestone soils. Situate at the 45th parallel, the temperate oceanic climate here encourages vine growth in small domaines and vast wine estates.
Cabernet Sauvignon is known for its structure, tannins as well as intense aromas of blackcurrant, liquorice, and after some ageing the finesse of underwood. Thanks to its low alcohol content, this grape has a great capacity to age. Cabernet Sauvignon was a formerly a cross between Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc.
Bordeaux introduced the concept of Wine Classification in 1855 under Napoleon III, and still serves as the benchmark for the top quality grapes. The principle of the Crus Classés (“classified growths”) illustrates the typical characteristics of the terroir combined with generations of winemakers know how to produce top quality wines. There are several classifications in Gironde, listed in order of quality they are:
The 1855 classification
The Graves classification
The Saint-Émilion classification
The Crus Bourgeois du Médoc classification
The Crus Artisans classification
