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GRAPE ESCAPES – BESPOKE GROUP 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.
Bespoke Group Breaks
If you want to have an unforgettable trip for your group but don’t want the hassle of organising it, then why not let us help? At Grape Escapes, we specialise in creating the ideal tour to match your group’s requirements and budget.
We have organised birthday trips, hen and stag weekends and trips for many other groups. From wine clubs to rotary clubs, from sports and social clubs to car clubs, we can create a bespoke programme to suit your requirements. Anything from a classic car rally in Champagne to a week touring the best wineries in several wine regions in France, we have the contacts to ensure that the whole of your group have an enjoyable break.
We recently arranged a Hen trip to Champagne for Abby and her 16 friends, who wanted to celebrate in style whilst spending some time tasting Champagne.
Example Itinerary - Hen Trip to Champagne
The group took the Eurostar from London to Paris Gare du Nord, where they walked across to the Gare de l’Est and took the French TGV train to Reims. After checking into twin rooms at the centrally-located Hotel de la Paix and spending the remainder of the day relaxing at the hotel and doing a spot of shopping, the girls enjoyed a full tour of Champagne Veuve Clicquot. The Grande Dame visit includes a walk through the museum dedicated to the History of the House and the work of Madame Clicquot, a full tour of the House, which was built over the historic chalk crayeres extracted by the Romans, and of the cellars. The visit concluded with a flute of the Maison’s Prestige Cuvée, La Grande Dame. We had previously recommended a nearby restaurant and reserved them a table for dinner.
After breakfast, an English-speaking guide met the group at the hotel and accompanied them on a tour of the region in a luxury chauffeured mini-coach.
Abby and her friends were firstly taken to a medium sized Champagne house, where they started by abseiling 100ft into their cellars (stairs available at no extra cost). Then they had a tour of the cellars and house, which concluded with tastings of two of their Champagnes.
They were then taken out into the vineyards where they started a second tour as the guests of a family-run Champagne maker. As well as having a tour of the property and discovering the fascinating Champagne making process from vine to bottle, everyone the Napoleonic art of Sabrage (the art of opening the Champagne bottle with a sword). Since they each open a bottle, they then need to drink at least some of the Champagnes that had been opened! A four course meal accompanied the Champagne.
Finally, in preparation for an evening of Champagne-filled festivities, the girls then enjoyed a spa session in a premium spa in Reims. Here, they had extensive use of the large Jacuzzi, hammam room which bathed them in soothing eucalyptus oils and everyone had a face or body treatment of 30 minutes.
After a light supper in one of the city centre’s many brasseries, we reserved them their own table in a Reims night club, where they were given a VIP welcome with complimentary entry and use of the cloak room.
After a leisurely breakfast, the girls travelled back to the UK on the French TGV and the Eurostar.
Grape Escapes Groups Brochure
Further information about the types of tours that we arrange for groups can be found on our Group Trips page.
For a quotation for your group or a copy of our group trips or Hen Weekend brochure, please call us on 08456 430860 or e-mail us at info@grapeescapes.net.