The Bordeaux Wine Routes
Land of the greatest Vintages
Between the Atlantic Ocean and the estuary of the Gironde, is located the Médoc region and its perfect terroir, home to the greatest wine in the world.
The properties that you will see are named “châteaux”, a term which designates a vineyard and its wine. We will drive along famous wine roads, where history and mythic chateaux meet.
Margaux, Pauillac, Saint Estèphe, Saint Emilion, Pomerol, such names which makes the amateurs salivate.
Duration: 8 hours
Location: Médoc or Saint Emilion and the Entre-Deux-Mers
Budget: 350 euros for 4 people
for the Médoc tour 450 euros for 4 people for Saint Emilion and Entre-Deux-Mers
Departure/Return: from your accommodation
In 1855, Napoléon III, asks for a classification of the best wines of Bordeaux. For the red ones, 61 châteaux are selected, included 60 in the Médoc. Châteaux Lafite Rothschild, Latour, Margaux, Mouton Rothschild (from 1973) and 56 others are part of the famous list of “Grands Crus Classés in 1855”. The owners for some of them will build sumptuous castles according to their inspiration. In Pichon-Barron or Palmer, we’ll have a Renaissance style, in Cantenac-Brown, the Tudor style, more original, the pagodas of Cos-d’Estournel. And Petrus, for its part, has no castel at all!
Nowadays, tradition flirts with new technology, and this the reason why today, we are drinking very good wine at reasonable price.
See the video
The Road Wine of the Médoc In 3 minutes.
The route of wine
and history
To visit a Grand Cru classified in 1855, is nice, it is impressive and the quality is certainly there, but discover less prestigious châteaux, with a warm welcome, meet the people who grow their own vines and talk about their wine with passion, that makes the difference.
The Route of Médoc
I’m offering you so, to show you these vineyards properties, along the mythic D2 road, which run through the Médoc vineyards. Some of them do not have a castle, maybe a farm, or a house. The Grand Cru, for their parts, have usually beautiful castle. We will visit the public part of a medieval castle of the 11th and 14th century, its vat room, its cellar, to finish with a wine tasting.
The lunch is on the banks of the Gironde river. Then we’ll drive to new discoveries, to conclude our trip in a family wine property, with a more modest dimension, but with the passion and the obstinacy to survive in a world where the competition is more and more strong.
The Wine Route of Saint Emilion
And the Entre-Deux-Mers
The tour takes you in the morning into the vineyards of Pomerol and Saint Emilion. Then we will visit the medieval village of Saint Emilion, listed as a Unesco Heritage site, located on a rocky promontory, with its underground full of galleries due to the extraction of the local stone from which Saint Emilion is built, as well as the surroundings. We have lunch in the village in a restaurant of your choice before to go for a visit and wine tasting in a Grand Cru classified châteaux.
Then, we will drive to the Entre-Deux-Mers vineyard, located between the two main rivers of the Bordeaux region, the Garonne and the Dordogne. Here are produced most of the white wines of the region, dry and sweet mainly. We will visit a family property with wine tasting. Then I will take you back to your accommodation/hotel.
