GRAPE ESCAPES – FLEXIBLE 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.
The Flexible Breaks
For our customers who are not able to travel at weekends when our Premium tours take place, we have introduced Flexible tours in Champagne, Burgundy, the Southern Rhône and Bordeaux. These tours generally offer a far wider range of available dates than our Premium tours with trips offered throughout the year and with departures on mid week and weekend days.
In general, we work with a carefully selected local partner for some or all of the tour elements. This will usually mean that the parts of the tour that are transported may well have a central departure point (as opposed to our Premium tours, where all guests are met at and returned to their hotels). In addition, seasoned Grape Escapes clients may find that the number of wines tasted at each winery / Champagne House with our partner agencies will often be less than the extensive tastings / best wines that are included on all of our Premium tours.
The Itinerary
In Champagne, you could choose to stay in the historical Reims or the prestigious town of Epernay, home of the famous Avenue de Champagne, where some of the grandest Houses can be found. If you chose to stay in one of the four 2-3* hotels in Reims for example, your Standard Flexible tour would allow you to have free time on your day of arrival to explore the city and visit popular attractions such as the majestic Cathedral, the Palais de Tau or the Museum of Surrender.
On day two, you would meet your English-speaking guide in the morning, who would accompany you on a half day transported tour in the Montagne de Reims. This tour would include a look at several vineyards and a visit to a small, family-run Champagne House for a tour of the fascinating Champagne-making process and tastings of two Champagnes.
A three course lunch would then be served in a restaurant on the main square in Reims, where each course is accompanied by a different single varietal Champagne (one glass of Champagne made from just Pinot Meunier, one glass of Champagne made from just Pinot Noir and one glass of Champagne made from just Chardonnay). You may prefer to have dinner here rather than lunch.
After lunch, you would visit another Champagne House, this time in the city itself for a tour of the cellars and museum followed by tastings of three Champagnes.
Finally, ending the day in style, you would walk across the city to your favourite Champagne House, where you would enjoy a full tour of the estates and tastings of two of the Maison’s Champagnes. Subject to your preference and their availabilities, options include Ruinart, Veuve Clicquot, GH Mumm, Pommery and Taittinger.
In your travel pack would be a list of Grape Escapes recommended restaurants if you wanted to enjoy a light supper.
After a leisurely breakfast at the hotel, you would then check out and make your way back home. The Standard plus Champagne Break would allow you to spend an extra night in the region and take the TER train through the beautiful vineyards to Epernay, where you would enjoy a VIP private Dom Perignon tour as the guests of Moët and Chandon. You would be visiting some of the oldest areas of the cellars which are seldom visited by the public. A tasting of Dom Perignon would conclude the visit in a private reception room at the Moët mansion.
The various elements of these tours do not necessarily need to take place over one day. You can spread your tour out over a few days to give yourself a more relaxed holiday. For guests wishing to stay longer in their chosen region, we are happy to arrange additional nights and to customise the itinerary by adding further visits / tours as required.
Details, Dates and Prices
Please visit our Standard and Standard Plus Champagne pages for further information about our flexible tours and for prices, please see our Dates and Prices page.
Other Champagne Tasting 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.