grape escapes - the bordeaux wine tour specialist
GRAPE ESCAPES – PREMIUM WINE TASTING TOURS
Wine Tasting Tours, Holidays and Trips
Grape Escapes is a specialist European wine tour operator, offering a broad range of wine tasting tours and trips to the vineyards in the main French wine regions: Champagne, Bordeaux, Burgundy, The Rhône and The Loire and selected regions in Spain and Italy.
Since our first tour in 2005, we have created our Premium tours with the same philosophy. Firstly, we carefully select three or four wine / Champagne makers to visit each day. These will be chosen to offer a cross section of winery sizes and wine styles from across the region to best illustrate the characteristics of the specific region. We then select somewhere for a top quality lunch. This may be as the guests of one of the wineries that we are visiting or at a premium restaurant where you can enjoy a gourmet lunch accompanied with a selection of wines. Finally, we arrange for one of our English-speaking local guides to accompany you on the tour. By using locals, we find that they add a personal touch to each tour with their own anecdotes from their home region.
To ensure that the quality of your Grape Escapes Premium tour is of the highest standard, we strictly limit the number of guests on each tour. Unlike other operators who often take in excess of 24 people in a coach, Grape Escapes Premium tours operate with a typical group size of between 10 and 16 guests. Even our most popular tours are capped at a modest 20 people. This has a number of benefits including access to the broadest range of wine makers and restaurants, better service, less time waiting and a more social and intimate atmosphere on the tour.
Arriving in your chosen region on day one at a time of your preference, the remainder of the day and the evening would be free for you to do as you please. Restaurant recommendations are provided to assist you with choosing where to dine.
Day two (and three if you are booked onto one of our three night tours) would begin between 9 and 9.30 am, with collection from your hotel by a luxury chauffeured mini-coach and a Grape Escapes guide followed by a full day of visits and tastings including lunch.
For example, on Grape Escapes’ flagship tour, the Prestige Champagne tour, you would firstly visit a small, family-run producer of Grand Cru Champagnes. Here, you would enjoy a tour of the fascinating Champagne-making process from press to bottle, followed by tastings of three to five of their Champagnes. A gourmet four course lunch would then be served at a highly regarded restaurant, accompanied by a Champagne aperitif and fine wines.
In the afternoon, the tour would continue to a second smaller Champagne House in another of the principle regions in Champagne. The visit here would include a shorter tour followed by tastings of several Champagnes in contrasting style to the Champagnes tasted during the morning.
Ending the tour in style, the final visit of the day would be at one of the large, prestigious Champagne Houses in Reims or Epernay for a tour of their extensive cellars to see the huge stocks of Champagne maturing. The tour would conclude with glasses of at least two of their Champagnes. Typical Champagne Houses include Moët and Chandon, Veuve Clicquot and GH Mumm.
You would generally return to your hotel between 6 and 6.30 pm. The evening of day two would be free for you to relax and to have a light supper if you feel hungry after the gourmet lunch.
You would perhaps feel more inclined to enjoy a few more glasses of Champagne in one of the city’s many bars.
You would select your own travel time on your last day, giving you as much time as you would like to further explore the region before heading home.
With all of our Premium tours we are happy to arrange additional nights in the region (or another region if you would like a longer vacation) and can arrange further winery visits and activities to compliment the tour. We also offer a complimentary booking service for restaurant recommendations etc. for customers booked on one of our Premium tours.
We also arrange many private wine tasting tours for individuals, groups and corporate clients. So, if the Premium tours are not exactly what you are looking for, please give us a ring on 08456 430 860, or email us at info@grapeescapes.net to arrange your perfect Wine Tasting Tour.