Great wine tasting experience. Definitely worth the money. The numbers of people per class are low which means you can get the most out of the experience. Learned how to distinguish different wine tastes as well as tasting wines from all over France.
Fantastic day of wine tasting and exploring vineyards in Saint Emilion
What's not to love about being at a French vineyard? Plus great wine to taste and buy. Organic vines, beautiful chateaux, gorgeous countryside. Ooh, la,la
With our guide Quentin, we started our drive with the basics of wine, the appellations, the winemaking process, the various traditions, and the specificities of Bordeaux. Interaction was much encouraged, which made the trip more tailored to the participants. It was great that our questions were followed up by genuinely asking if we got the picture and otherwise rephrase the answer. Excellent English skills.
The COVID-19 alterations are to wear a mask when visiting the houses during the tours and having a maximum of 4 participants per van.
So glad that I registered for this enjoyable wine tasting class...very much worth it.
Quentin, our host/teacher was extremely engaging and knowledgeable. This was my first wine tour and I learned so many subtle and interesting things about wine.
My partner did also mention how much more informative this session was as compared to others she had been to in the past.
We enjoyed how the atmosphere was light and cheery, yet conducive towards learning and asking questions. Furthermore, the pace of the tour was just right, with sufficient time to apply what was being taught.
A joyous learning experience with hearty laughter and great wine. Thank you!
This was an absolute blast. In hindsight, I'm quite glad we booked our wine experience with a tour group versus going at it alone. I assumed all wineries were like California in that you can just drop by whenever and taste wines. Quite the contrary. Most, if not all, of the chateaus and French winemakers require an advance reservation.
Let me just start with how knowledgeable, friendly and funny our guide was. She was remarkably great and really made us all laugh. Easy going and clearly loves her job.
Prepare for about a 45 minute drive to your first stop with a handful of other people. This tour allowed us to experience two different hillside chateaus and taste some wine. While you may already know quite a bit about wine, you can always learn more. French winemaking differs greatly from that of the American winemakers.
Finally, the tour closed out with a tour of the local city. Cute, quaint and charming with little shops, churches, etc.
Keep room in your bags to bring back a few great bottles with you!
Great tours! My favourite being the bike tour in and around St Emilion. We rode, had a delicious lunch and wine at a fancy chateau, rode some more, saw St Emilion, rode a bit to another chateau, tasted more wine, then back to Bordeaux. Lovely Day from start to finish! We also did the morning foodie your in Bordeaux, which was nice, the highlight being the chocolate shop, also the bakery, that we went back to several times! The Medoc afternoon wine tour was nice, visited 2 chateaus, and tasted their wines. Leary lots on how their wines we made. Don't expect lots of wine however. But still fun.
While there may be a few things I could criticize, overall the experience was very positive and worth the money.
I took the afternoon bike and wine tour. The bikes were sturdy (see my pic) with a basket to carry things and fat "cruiser" tires--a big help with cobblestone. They provide you with a bottle of water and a helmet if you want one. I believe they even have sunhat available.
Bordeaux is a great place to do a bike tour. It's nearly completely flat. And it's spread out enough to make biking more preferable to walking. The tour didn't cover every main site listed in the tour books, but quite a few. We even crossed the river to spend a bit of time at the very funky Darwin place--a kind of resurrected neo-beatnik hangout. Groovy.
We stopped half-way through the ride for a refreshing glass of white wine with a canele. At the end of the tour we had a full glass of delicious red wine and plenty of good cheese, sausage, almonds and chocolate. Finally we all got a bottle of that same red wine to take home. Very nice.
Matilde was an excellent guide. She was very warm and welcoming to everyone on the tour.
She quite thoroughly explained the different wine regions and the different things that factor in to wine making in Bordeaux.
The chateaux tours were very well structured. The first chateau was a large corporate run operation that mass produced wine and it was very educational. It culminates in a wine tasting.
The second chateau was a much smaller privately run operation. It was also a chateau that had been functioning through centuries. It was incredibly interesting to understand the history of wine making and how it leads to today. This also culminates in a wine tasting and food platter.
All up this was excellent. Very well structured and would definitely recommend it.
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