Bordeaux Chateau St Georges

Chateau Franc-Mayne

St Emilion, Bordeaux

Chateau Pichon-Longueville

Bordeaux Jubilee Wine & City Weekend

2 - 4 June 2012

Over the Jubilee weekend, Monday 4th June is a Bank Holiday and Tuesday 5th June is the Diamond Jubilee, so this short wine tour gives you the flexibility to either arrive home in time for the celebrations or extend your stay and make the most of the holiday! Our innovative programme of Wine & City trips is aimed at the more independent traveller who would like to spend a couple of days in a party visiting wine producers in the company of an Arblaster & Clarke Wine Tours wine expert. There is the added advantage that someone else does the driving and navigating for you! You book your own travel arrangements, or we will be happy to do this for you (being fully bonded with the CAA we can of course book your flights for you), and meet up at the hotel on the first evening. This gives you the freedom to decide how you wish to travel and the length of your trip.

Bordeaux, the seventh largest city in France, is situated in the South West in the Aquitaine region on the banks of the Gironde river is the centre of the most renowned wine regions in the world. Wine growing around Bordeaux dates from around 37BC with the arrival of the Romans who planted the first vineyards on the gentle slopes to the south of the town. The English too discovered the sea route to Bordeaux early on and the medieval trade in Bordeaux wine was considerable. It was in the 19th century that most of the wine estates and châteaux were established and the first official wine classification, which stands almost unchanged today, came about in 1855.

The city is extremely attractive, with its mainly 19th century buildings and river-front setting. The wine merchants’ old depots line its banks. The mostly pedestrianised old quarter is filled with cafés, brasseries, chic shops, a superb theatre (renowned for its magnificent staircase), a grand cathedral and a tempting indoor market. During recent years, the city has undergone a major face-lift. A wonderful new tram system has been installed and the warehouses along the river have been converted into a parade of outlet shops.

We will stay in a central, small, family run, simple 3* hotel in the heart of the main shopping district and opposite the Marché des Grands Hommes. You can choose to upgrade to a magnificent 5*, which is nearby if you prefer a luxury hotel, but still benefit from A&C’s excellent wine and city weekend arrangements.

There is a wealth of wine shops nearby and many good restaurants to choose from and, as on all the Arblaster & Clarke Wine Tours, we will give you our personal list of our tried and tested suggestions based on over 20 years of visiting this wonderful wine town, which just gets better every time we visit! Using our extensive, well researched list, you’ll have some assistance on hand to make your selection from the superb choice of dining that Bordeaux offers – from wine bar, to bistro to chic Michelin star – all within easy reach of our chosen accommodation. The evenings are unescorted giving you the freedom to make your own choice of restaurant or bistro.

On the first evening, the Arblaster & Clarke Wine Guide will meet you to host an informative introductory tasting, just as we do on our superb champagne weekends. Not only is this an enjoyable way to set the scene wine-wise for the weekend so that you get the very best out of the next few days, it also, of course, gives you a chance to meet both the wine guide and the other tour participants.

Next day, you’ll spend a full day wine touring in the Medoc, or what is known as the “Left Bank”, where we will arrange a total of three chateaux visits and tastings, and a private invitation to lunch at one of them. This will typically include visits to a selection of chateaux in the famous Medoc communes of St Estephe, Margaux, Pauillac and Listrac such as Lynch-Bages, Beychevelle, Pichon-Longueville, Rauzan-Segla, Rauzan-Gassies, Talbot, Palmer, Angludet and a range of others – we have been visiting since 1989 – so we know who to go to and have many good connections (this is not a new region or a new tour for A&C!). We may also select other slightly lesser known chateaux offering great value wines and the opportunity to buy direct which is often not the case at the more famous chateaux due to the negociant system.

On your second full day of wine touring, our wine guide will take you to several other important Bordeaux wine regions.
Our chateaux visits and tastings today may include a visit in the Graves or to Sauternes then we’ll travel across to the “Right Bank” to the St Emilion region or one of its “satelites” or to Pomerol. Lunchtime here is usually spent with good friends of ours from Champagne, who we have been visiting since 1995, who own an excellent property in the Cotes de Castillon, where you’ll start with a glass of Champagne and then taste great value reds over a kind invitation to a private home-cooked lunch. Our final visit of the day is to be another personal welcome from a leading St-Emilion, St-Georges-St-Emilion or Pomerol chateau.

The opportunity to have lunch in beautiful wine chateaux in Bordeaux is not only an extremely enjoyable experience, but it is, to our mind, the best way to really appreciate these magnificent wines – with the local food in the place that it was made. Arranging such invitations as an independent traveller is simply not possible, the wine chateaux do not have restaurants like in the new world, so lunching with them is a private experience only.

There will also be time for you to stroll around St Emilion too as it would be a shame to miss out on seeing the loveliest wine town of the region, with its medieval cobbled streets, its magnificent monolithic church, wine bars, wine shops and cake shops – where you can try the other local specialities – macaroons!

So the original Arblaster & Clarke Bordeaux Wine & City Tour really gives you a superb overview of the region in a very short space of time.

The excellent value of these trips means that combined with taking advantage of any special travel deals you might find – you still have peace of mind that the actual tour part is put together by a fully bonded, specialist tour operator.