Wine Cities

Bordeaux

Short wine weekend breaks

These short wine breaks are great value and mean spending only a little time away from work if this is important for you. They are likely to suit those who are short on time but keen to have an enjoyable, informative wine tasting break, led by one of our personally selected local or UK based wine experts team. Private chateaux visits, wine tastings and even private lunches at wine estates are all included. These short wine trips are all personally fully arranged by Arblaster & Clarke’s team of UK based wine experts exclusively for our clients so you travel as a privileged Arblaster & Clarke Wine Tours client on an exclusive A&C tour, not just part of a general public group booked onto a locally available “ daily excursion” with a “tour” guide for “half a day” as happens with lesser wine touring firms.

You meet up on location with our own Wine Guide who will escort the wine events and who is on hand to answer all the wine related questions you may have. The wine visits and meals at wine estates are carefully selected so you will taste a wide range of excellent wines, representing a good introduction to the region to be visited, in a way that is not possible if you are travelling independently. For instance, in Lyon on our Rhone wine weekend we visit Château Thivin where owner Claude-Vincent Geoffray welcomes the party to taste his typically spicy “Côte de Brouilly’s”, which rank amongst the best from the appellation.

They work out considerably less expensive than trying to organise all these details on your own ( if indeed it were possible to organise all of this on your own), and all in just one phone call or email to a fully bonded, reputable wine tours professional offering you all the back up and security that booking with a fully bonded tour operator offers.

During these long weekends each city has a good variety of non wine related things to do such as museums, galleries, shops, restaurants and bars. The hotels are centrally located so getting around in the evening is easy and we provide a list of recommended restaurants for you, but unlike on our fully escorted tours the evenings are free for you to make your own choice of dining venue, from simple wine bar to gastronomic Michelin star. We can easily book the hotel for an extra few nights to tie in with your travel schedule or if you simply want to explore the city that you are staying in some more.

Flights or travel to the destination are not included in the tour cost so that you can book these yourselves on-line (or we are happy to do it for you at the published rate plus a small administration fee – we are fully bonded with ATOL 2543, so you can book your flights through us with total financial confidence). Our chosen wine cities are easy to reach from many UK local airports by scheduled or low cost airlines. If you do not want to fly then consider joining our Bordeaux trip by train. (Bordeaux takes about 5 hours by TGV from Ashford in Kent). Alternatively you could self-drive via the Loire. This has the big advantage that you can bring back some wine or make the trip part of a longer holiday. In the past these breaks have included destinations such as Bordeaux, Florence, Rhone, Oporto, Burgundy, Champagne and Barcelona.

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Other Ideas and Past Tours

Lyons Wine & City

17 - 20 June 2010

Our innovative programme of Wine & City trips is aimed at the more independent traveller who would also like to spend a couple of days in a party being taken to wine visits in the company of a wine expert (invaluable of course …

The Port Harvest

25 - 27 September 2009

This tour is a great Arblaster & Clarke original. Witness and take part in the Port harvest with the unique opportunity to experience treading the grapes! (Treading the Port grapes is not a thing that is done for tourists, it i…

Mosel, Saar, Ruwer & Ahr

1 - 5 October 2008

One of the fastest growing sectors of the wine trade is quality German wine so it is fitting that we should have a new tour that takes you to the heartland of the Mosel and its tributory rivers the Saar and Ruwer. For the first…

Florence Wine & City

6 - 9 November 2007

This unusual long weekend is based in the wonderful city of Florence, in an ideally situated hotel close to the banks of the River Arno and to the Boboli Gardens and Ponte Vecchio. Close to the city are the beautiful rolling…

Port & Barco Rabelos

22 - 25 June 2007

On the eve of Sao Joao (St John, the patron Saint of Porto) this normally subdued and hard working city goes wild. From the magnificent iron bridge built by Eiffel’s pupil, a breathtaking display of fireworks cascade at midni…

Wine Tasting Weekend in Lille & Champagne

This innovative wine weekend from Arblaster & Clarke Wine Tours, is in response to demand from clients who have asked to have more opportunity to learn about wine tasting, but still in a convivial venue and in the company of an…

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Client Comments

"'What did you enjoy most about the tour?' Tasting wines with good company."

— EB, Lyons Wine & City, 2009

"I most enjoyed the visits to family owned properties. The location was excellent too."

— AM, Lyons Wine & City, 2008

"We wanted to say thank you to all for a splendid wine tour of Bordeaux. We thought the selection of chateaux was excellent, enabling us to sample a variety of wines and to see some contrasting producers. Wendy was a superb guide, teaching us a great deal about wine and making sure everyone was comfortable. We can't think of any way the trip could have been improved!"

— AR, Bordeaux Wine & City, 2008

"I wanted to write and let you know how much my friends and I enjoyed the recent tour. Everything was immensely well organised and we thought that the choice of chateaux was excellent with a most interesting range."

— GD, Bordeaux Wine & City, 2008

What did you enjoy most about the tour?"Exploring Bordeaux (Apart from the wine!)"

— S&B W, Bordeaux Wine & City 2009

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