shoughton

We will be on honeymoon in France for 2 weeks in May. Flying into and out of Paris. Planning to tour wine regions for first 6 days and then staying in Paris at an apartment for remainder of trip. What's the best route to take for the wine tour? Looking at Champagne, Chablis, Burgundy route or Loire, Bourdeaux route. We are foodies, very well-travelled, but have never been to France. Thanks!

StuDudley

I don't know if you have visited the Calif wine country - but visiting wineries in France is nothing like visiting wineries in Calif. You don't just "drop in" for a tasting & tour in France. Many times, you'll need an appointment. You can often get "tastings" on the fly - but that's about all, and they don't have the gift shops and grounds where you can wander around. If you go to Chateauneuf du Papes, there are many tasting places in town, but it's like going to a jewelry store where you sit with the server, discuss the wine, have a taste, and then (with a little pressure perhaps) purchase some wine.

Also, wineries close for lunch and are often (maybe mostly) closed on weekends.

My favorite winegrowing region is the Cote du Rhone - which is also in my favorite area in France - Provence. Alsace is nice also. I would not go to the Bordeaux region - too may "reservations" required. Burgundy & Beaujolais are nice. Beaujolais has comical road signs directing you to the tasting rooms (we never had a "tour" in Beaujolais - except at the Gite where we stayed which was also a winery).

Stu Dudley

RJD

If your plan is to tour from Burgundy to the Loire and then Bordeaux you will spend a lot of time driving and seriously cut into you time for wine tasting and good food. Your best bet is a tour of Burgundy from Chablis to Beaujolais with the most time in the heart of Burgundy from Dijon to Beaune.
I say that even though I regard Beaujolais as incredibly beautiful.

Michael

It would be easy to combine the Loire valley and Burgundy for the sic days that you have.

FrenchMystiqueTours

I'm assuming you'll have a rental car as my response is based on that.

I'm certainly no wine expert but I was thinking in terms of distances and logistics as well as scenery/landscapes and Champagne and Burgundy are closer to each other than the Loire and Bordeaux and although the Champagne region doesn't have great landscapes (a few areas excepted) much of Burgundy (depending where you are) does have nice landscapes whereas the Loire and the area around Bordeaux have flat terrain. The Champagne region is also very close to Paris and this region is adjacent to the Burgundy region so as you move it keeps distances short between sites and visits.

That being said there are really isn't a right or wrong answer to your question about which would be the best route for a wine tour. That would be a personal choice. If you are real wine lovers and have done a lot of research on which houses you may want to visit I would base my choice on that.

I'll let others chime in on the Loire and Bordeaux but here are a few links about the Burgundy and Champagne regions that you can look over to do some research.

Here are some great websites for the champagne region. This first will outline the champagne trail that you can follow:

http://www.champagne-ardenne-tourism...gne-route.aspx

This one has downloadable maps of the various Champagne routes you can follow, although it is in French. You can also go to the tourist office in Epernay or Reims (and likely other tourist offices) and get the maps in person:

http://www.tourisme-en-champagne.com...es-itineraires

The next link is to a website by someone who is very knowledgeable about champagne and that region and there is excellent advice on here:

http://www.champagnediscovery.com/#

And here are the tourist office websites for Reims and Epernay:

http://www.reims-tourisme.com/

http://www.ot-epernay.fr/


Here are some links about the wine trails you can follow in Burgundy:

http://www.burgundy-wines-tourism.fr/

http://www.bourgogne-wines.com/

http://www.cotedor-tourisme.com/bour...es-grands-crus

And this link has an overview of the major sites and towns/villages in Burgundy including links to the major tourist office websites:

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic...-Burgundy.html

jamikins

Another vote for burgundy,...the villages are lovely and the food is amazing. Lots of castles as well.

Here are my photos of Burgundy http://www.flickr.com/photos/pug_gir...7607493717331/

We also enjoyed several days in champagne
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pug_gir...7637218721336/

We found the villages in burgundy slightly more attractive, but trying all the different champagne made for a great trip as well!

Enjoy!

shoughton

Thanks for all of the links, esp. the wine regional info, this is awesome. We'd better get busy reading through!

StCirq

Well, it does depend on what wines you particularly enjoy drinking. For example, I'm not a fan of Champagne, nor a fan of the region, so I stay clear of that route. I'd much rather be in Côte du Rhone territory or Bergerac or Pécharmant or Bourgogne, both for the wine and the scenery. If you wine tastebuds are impartial, I agree Burgundy would probably be a good choice.

Do keep in mind that French police take driving under the influence very, very seriously and the BAC level is really low. Also, you can be pulled over at any time - doesn't need to be probable cause. So plan your wine days accordingly.

dulciusexasperis

It really does depend on what kind of wines you want to taste. I certainly would say that you need to stick to one area.

It isn't just a question of how much time you have. In 6 days you can in fact do a good deal of tasting. But what you cannot do is taste several different varietals of wine and expect to gain much knowledge. So it really depends on just how serious you are about wine tasting.

For example, I happen to like Gewurtztraminer from the Alsace region as an aperitif before dinner. In the Alsace they produce a half dozen primary varietals. The two main ones being Gewurtztraminer and Reisling. Pinot Gris is also well represented.

But if you spend 6 days tasting all of those three, you will not do as well as if you spent all 6 days tasting just one of them. http://www.wine-searcher.com/regions-alsace

On one trip to the Alsace we bicycle toured from Strasbourg to Colmar for a week, on the 'route des vins' and stopped to taste (degustation) at many producers along the way. https://www.google.ca/search?q=alsac...w=1280&bih=687

On average, perhaps 3 examples per producer x 6 producers per day, plus a bottle with lunch and a bottle with dinner (4 people sharing). So that's 20 tastings per day of Gewurtztraminer only. Multiply that by 6 days and it would be 120 tastings. See where this is going?

At the end of that time, you can have educated your palate beyond the ability to tell a mediocre one from a good one to a great one to actually being able to tell in a blind tasting, what producer and year for an exceptional example.

So if it's Bordeauxs you want to taste or Burgundys or whatever, that's fine but my advice is to stick to one blend. So if it were Bordeaux for example, then only taste Cabernets or only taste Merlots, etc.

FrenchMystiqueTours

I'll also mention that at least in Burgundy there are some bike trails that will take you through the vineyards and wine towns, such as between Beaune and Santenay. This would eliminate the worry about drinking and driving and since you'd be on bike trails you wouldn't share the road with traffic. Beaune would make a good base to do some biking in wine country (between Beaune and Santenay would be great). Check out these links about biking in Burgundy:

http://www.burgundy-by-bike.com/

http://www.burgundyeye.com/activitie...nd-veloroutes/

http://www.beaune-tourism.com/Wine-t...-road-next.asp

If you based in Beaune you could also use the train and/or buses to visit some of the wine villages. Look at this link to see a map of the rail network in Burgundy:

http://www.ter-sncf.com/Regions/bour...rte_Flash.aspx

You could take the train north from Beaune to Nuits-Saint-Georges, Clos de Vougeot and Gevrey-Chambertin. If you don't mind walking a few km you can take the train to Gevrey see the village and château then walk north through the adjacent villages of Brochon (which has a nice château to view) and then Fixin. You'll see the vineyard slopes just to the west along this route and the villages are very quaint. I remember doing this several years ago, perhaps it was during harvest season, and several people had wine cellars open for tasting in their houses and we must have stopped at least 5 or 6 people's houses and just walked into their cellars to do tastings.