Burgundy & Beaujolais By Coach or Train

24 - 28 October 2010

This popular tour is a great introduction to Burgundy and Beaujolais. The tour includes visits to good Burgundy domaines and negociants who also offer good value, not always easy to find as well as a day spent out in the beautiful countryside of the Beaujolais Crus and a lunch with a leading Champagne Grower.

We stay for four nights in Beaune in our favourite 4* hotel or for a more economic option, there is a 3* choice. Burgundy's wine capital, has a wonderful medieval centre with near complete battlements. You can walk round the battlements or simply enjoy a glass of wine at one of the cafés. The most stunning building is the Hotel Dieu, with its multi-coloured glazed roof tiles, built in 1451 for the sick and poor. There is a wealth of wine shops to explore and numerous restaurants from simple auberges to Michelin starred cuisine for you to choose from in the evenings.

The tastings in Burgundy will include wines from the Côte des Nuits where we taste a range of serious wines including Gevrey-Chambertin, Volnay and Pommard Premier Crus at Lucien Boillot as well as a couple of other of Tim Clarke's affordable wine favourites from the region.

A little to the south, in Santenay we visit Domaine Prieur-Brunet for a tasting of Premier cru wines from the villages of the Côte de Beaune from Beaune to Santenay itself, where the red wines seem to echo those of the northern Côte de Nuits. The whites we taste generally include superb premier crus including Meursault Les Charmes, Chassagne-Montrachet Les Embrazees and the rare Santenay Clos Rousseau. As for superb white Burgundy, we'll have a simple lunch at Olivier Leflaive in Puligny-Montrachet with an extensive tasting of their wines including Chassagne-Montrachet, Meursault and Puligny-Montrachet's.

We spend a day to the south visiting Beaujolais with a stop in Pouilly-Fuissé to visit our long-time friends at Château Fuissé whose ‘Vieilles Vignes’ and vineyard selections are rated among the best chardonnay wines worldwide. You'll also have have an enjoyable picnic lunch at a beautiful Domaine in Fleurie, where we taste their excellent Fleurie (one of the best in the village) and their serious heavy weight Moulin à Vent. A&C have been visiting this domaine since 1989, when a happy accident introduced us to the family!

On our way back to Calais, we will drop into a small Champagne House on the Côtes des Blancs where Chardonnay grapes are grown and taste their Blanc de Blanc Champagnes over a buffet lunch.

As on all our coach based tours, you have plenty of space to spread out as we will not take more than 32 participants on a 48 seater coach. One of the great advantages of travelling by coach is that this also means that you can bring back up to 36 bottles of wine per person you can bring back wonderful wines bought at cellar door prices. If space and weight restrictions allow, the Tour Manager may increase this number on the spot. (It is possible for you to travel out to Beaune by Train and then take the coach back with all your wine purchases or of course take the train in both directions).

This is one of Arblaster & Clarke's longest running wine tours and is always very popular, don't miss it!

Extend your stay with our Autumn Champagne wine tour!

It is possible to join our Autumn Champagne tour immediately after this trip on the journey home. You will just need to catch a taxi from the last lunch in the Côtes des Blancs to the centre of Reims. You then have the rest of the evening and the next day to explore wonderful Reims and you will be meet with the Champagne tour on the evening of the 29th October ready for the first comparative tasting.

Along with the one night B&B in the centre of Reims, and the Champagne tour, the price is:The tour price for Burgundy & Beaujolais according to your chosen hotel, plus the tour price for the Champagne Tour, plus an extra night at the 3* hotel in Reims at £60 per person in twin/double.