Vineyard Walking Holidays

Arblaster and Clarke, the leading wine tour specialists, offer the ultimate in vineyard walking wine holidays to Burgundy, the Mosel, the Douro, Rioja, Alsace and Champagne. Our routes are planned to take in the great vineyards, to give the best views of the châteaux and to take you to wine tastings at great cellars. The routes have been walked out extensively by our team (It takes us about one man/month to set up a vineyard walk, we are not just following arduous French hiking trails, or putative paths shown on maps - all too often these go somewhere neither beautiful nor useful and sometimes nowhere at all!) The vineyard walks are designed to be educational and on one of our vineyard walks you will begin to see all those differences in soil and aspect which the French call “terroir”.

Arblaster and Clarke have experienced leaders who are enthusiastic walkers with a good knowledge of wine, the trails, the vineyards, food and the region.

On many Arblaster and Clarke walking wine tours a small local mini-bus is on hand throughout the tour to transfer your bags and wine after tastings and to take you into the local towns. We use characterful accommodation from comfortable family-run 2*/3* to 4* châteaux. (All with en-suite bathrooms, and many have a swimming pool).

On a typical day on one of our Vineyard Walks you will stroll for an hour through the vineyards to our first tasting, then onto a picnic lunch, then more walking and tastings! You will cover an easy five to eight miles a day although this varies with each tour so please read the descriptions carefully. If at any stage you want to "opt out" the coach can be called easily. The ground covered on our Vineyard Walks varies according to the tour, Burgundy is the lightest of the walks, Loire, Champagne and Bordeaux are also easy walking, but the trails in Rioja, Alsace and certainly in Douro are more strenuous, but would still not really be considered hiking. The party size for all these tours is limited to just 16 people.

Tours

Burgundy Vineyard Walk

24 - 30 May 2009, 6 - 12 September 2009

This is our original walk, the Burgundy Walk was first offered 16 years ago and it has continued to prove one of our most enjoyable and relaxing vineyard walks. You will hear much about the importance of ‘terroir’, and ...

Douro Vineyard Walk

6 - 12 September 2009

This is probably our most spectacular walk. The walking is way off the beaten track and you’ll experience genuine rural Portugal seeing truly spectacular countryside. We are based in the peacefully located Quinta do Passad...

Rioja Vineyard Walk

13 - 19 September 2009

At Arblaster & Clarke we are huge enthusiasts for this stunning part of Spain and the wines that emanate from it. Rioja Vineyard Walk is one of our favourite walks, the views are dramatic and being on foot, you will see thi...

Alsace Vineyard Walk

5 - 11 October 2009

Alsace must rank as one of the most beautiful and charming of all fine wine regions, it must also be the single most misunderstood ! With its location on the German border and Germanic sounding grape varieties, it is easy to s...

Mosel Vineyard Walk

10 - 16 September 2007

The first part of the walk explores the Saar, which is just to the south of the city of Trier. The River Saar is a navigable waterway, the vineyards above it are some of the steepest in the world and are famous for their sweet ...

Bordeaux Vineyard Walk

Discover some of the enchanting out of way parts of Bordeaux on this lovely seven day walk through the Aquitaine vineyards. We have a fascinating insight into the broad spectrum of Bordeaux life from small family owned chateau...

Walking in the Vineyards of Central Loire

Walk through the vineyards of the Loire with wonderful tastings and pic-nic lunches along the way. The walk starts in Saumur, staying for two nights, then following the Loire River upstream throught the Saumur Champigny vineya...

Champagne Harvest Vineyard Walk

“Champagne” of course means countryside and this short walking holiday takes us into the vines of the Grand Cru village of Aÿ and on two circular walks out of the village to the surrounding hillsides and Champagne Villages...

Northern Rhone & Beaujolais Crus Walk

There is something iconic about walking whole Beaujolais Crus, Brouilly, Côte de Brouilly, Régnié, Morgon, Chiroubles, Fleurie, Moulin-à-Vent, Chénas, Juliénas and St Amour, and tasting each in turn! The walk starts in...

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