2-3 days to spend in each of the two, what would be your pick, given:
- Beauty of countryside/region.
- Ease at cellar door / wine tasting
- Accommodation / restaurants
Cheers,
Monghead
Burgundy, Bordeaux, Rhone
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Billy Bolonski
- Posts: 79
- Joined: Sun Jun 06, 2004 10:39 pm
- Location: Sydney
Burgundy can be very problematic.
Tastings 'can' be difficult, book well in advance. BE ON TIME!!!!
Burgundy is actually quite industrial looking and not nearly as beautiful as I once thought. Good food can be pricey and a little hard to find.
Well worth a visit though.
The Rhone is AWESOME. The countryside is striking. The tastings are much easier. Food and accommodation are also very good and plentiful. The Rhone is much more visitor friendly.
These two are close to each other so perhaps that would leave you more time for wine and less time traveling?
Tastings 'can' be difficult, book well in advance. BE ON TIME!!!!
Burgundy is actually quite industrial looking and not nearly as beautiful as I once thought. Good food can be pricey and a little hard to find.
Well worth a visit though.
The Rhone is AWESOME. The countryside is striking. The tastings are much easier. Food and accommodation are also very good and plentiful. The Rhone is much more visitor friendly.
These two are close to each other so perhaps that would leave you more time for wine and less time traveling?
Philosophy, I'm in it for the money.
JamieH wrote:i've only toured Bordeaux, so i would love to do Burgundy and Rhone. Loved Bordeaux though, if you book ahead far enough you can get into anywhere!!! Even Petrus!
Jamie
Wow, and do you get to taste the wine???
If so, then I reckon Bordeaux just shop up to the top of the short list...
Monghead.
Craig(NZ) wrote:the number of people here who have toured all 3 regions and are qualified to answer would be how many???
Well, me at least
although to be fair when I was in those areas I was much more interested in the topography, villages and chateaux than tastings per se.
As Billy says the Rhone is the prettiest and most interesting region, but I loved Burgundy - if you're off the main roads it's a beautiful place. We parked beside Romanee-Conti and walked up the hill amongst the vines - magic!
Bordeaux is striking and the bigger Chateau are pretty awsome but I didn't find as much to do there away from wine, especially with wife and kids. YMMV.
How far ahead would we have to book?
We are planning to go in October/November.
How do you propose we book- email?
Thanx.
Monghead.
Monghead,
We (my wife, myself and my 3 yr old girl) got into Haut Brion, La Mission Haut Brion, Latour and Petrus. i did nothing special, just emailed them explaining why i was visiting Bordeaux and that i wished to make an appointment for a tour and tasting, giving them specific days. The only knock backs i got were from Margaux and Lafite who explained they were very busy the week i was to visit. We were able to taste at every visit, Petrus were very generous and opened a half bottle of 2006. i'll dig out some email addresses for you (on an old computer) and post them here.
cheers
Jamie
Lets just say I have never had a wine I've hated, but there are some I would rather not taste again....
monghead, some links for arranging visits to Bordeaux chateaux's
http://www.haut-brion.com/home/en/search/visit.php
Haut brion also own La Mission across the road so make sure you inform them you are interested in visiting La Mission as well.
http://www.chateau-latour.com/index.html
latour, you taste 1st and second wine, great tour, beautiful winery.
info@jpmoueix.com
this is the email address for Petrus and Latour a Pomerol, plus many others mainly in Pomerol. i actually emailed them for appointments for La fluer petrus and latour a pomerol, they emailed me back saying they don't do appointment a these two vineyards, but they would happily take me around Petrus and Chateau Belair in St Emillion. fell off my chair.
basically i found if you emailed them more than four weeks in advance (i started sending emails 2months in advance just to be sure) almost all the chateaus were happy to recieve you. we also visited chat Vieux Certan, Lynch Bages, Cos d'estornel, Leoville barton, Hennessy, Rieussec and La Tour Blanche. we spent two weeks in Bordeaux, in a country gite on the right bank directly across from Margaux, in the AC of Blaye. if you decide to go send me a message, we spent 4 weeks in france too, just six months ago and loved it, got lots of info on Champagne and paris too.
jamie
http://www.haut-brion.com/home/en/search/visit.php
Haut brion also own La Mission across the road so make sure you inform them you are interested in visiting La Mission as well.
http://www.chateau-latour.com/index.html
latour, you taste 1st and second wine, great tour, beautiful winery.
info@jpmoueix.com
this is the email address for Petrus and Latour a Pomerol, plus many others mainly in Pomerol. i actually emailed them for appointments for La fluer petrus and latour a pomerol, they emailed me back saying they don't do appointment a these two vineyards, but they would happily take me around Petrus and Chateau Belair in St Emillion. fell off my chair.
basically i found if you emailed them more than four weeks in advance (i started sending emails 2months in advance just to be sure) almost all the chateaus were happy to recieve you. we also visited chat Vieux Certan, Lynch Bages, Cos d'estornel, Leoville barton, Hennessy, Rieussec and La Tour Blanche. we spent two weeks in Bordeaux, in a country gite on the right bank directly across from Margaux, in the AC of Blaye. if you decide to go send me a message, we spent 4 weeks in france too, just six months ago and loved it, got lots of info on Champagne and paris too.
jamie
Lets just say I have never had a wine I've hated, but there are some I would rather not taste again....
JamieH wrote:monghead, some links for arranging visits to Bordeaux chateaux's
http://www.haut-brion.com/home/en/search/visit.php
Haut brion also own La Mission across the road so make sure you inform them you are interested in visiting La Mission as well.
http://www.chateau-latour.com/index.html
latour, you taste 1st and second wine, great tour, beautiful winery.
info@jpmoueix.com
this is the email address for Petrus and Latour a Pomerol, plus many others mainly in Pomerol. i actually emailed them for appointments for La fluer petrus and latour a pomerol, they emailed me back saying they don't do appointment a these two vineyards, but they would happily take me around Petrus and Chateau Belair in St Emillion. fell off my chair.
basically i found if you emailed them more than four weeks in advance (i started sending emails 2months in advance just to be sure) almost all the chateaus were happy to recieve you. we also visited chat Vieux Certan, Lynch Bages, Cos d'estornel, Leoville barton, Hennessy, Rieussec and La Tour Blanche. we spent two weeks in Bordeaux, in a country gite on the right bank directly across from Margaux, in the AC of Blaye. if you decide to go send me a message, we spent 4 weeks in france too, just six months ago and loved it, got lots of info on Champagne and paris too.
jamie
Jamie,
Thanx for the email links.
We are getting more and more excited about this trip, and it is still 7 months off!
I will let you know what the outcome of the emails I send to these chateaux once I confirm our flights and itinerary.
Cheers,
Monghead.
Thats stunning, nicely done. One of the people I know who couldn't get in to Petrus is a recognised (in Australia) wine writer. He got into Latour and D'Yquem though.
i tried D'yquem through my rep, no luck, so i found them anyway (very hard to find the entrance, you can see the chateaux easy enough, but they've taken down the sign at the gate, probably to stop people like me), went to office and asked if they mind if i take a.few pictures, just to prove i've stood there. great views...
Lets just say I have never had a wine I've hated, but there are some I would rather not taste again....
we got into Palmer, Cos d'Estournel and Lynch Bages amongst others last summer. All of them put on their first and second wines for us but you had to do the tour first - all the tours were more or less the same and nothing you wouldn't here from any Australian winery.
Cos were undergoing serious renovations and weren't doing tours. Even though it was only the two of us, they opened two vintages (half bottles) of their first wine for us to try. The quality was exceptionally high (as you would expect given the prices) but Cos still stood out for mine.
Make sure you take the time to head down to Sauternes and Barsac - there are some great small producers that charge a fifth of d'Yquem for very similar quality.
Cos were undergoing serious renovations and weren't doing tours. Even though it was only the two of us, they opened two vintages (half bottles) of their first wine for us to try. The quality was exceptionally high (as you would expect given the prices) but Cos still stood out for mine.
Make sure you take the time to head down to Sauternes and Barsac - there are some great small producers that charge a fifth of d'Yquem for very similar quality.
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Anonymous
Apologies for the long winded reply .....
I'll have to fence sit on your 'two out of three' vote. Entirely depends on what you're after. To give some more info, I'll borrow some excerpts from a wine travel article I wrote some years ago...excuse the flowery style - it suited the magazine at the time...
Bordeaux - the centre of the wine world - just ask them - but still a good city to visit. Be aware that the individual sub-areas of Bordeaux are well spread - as an example, Sauternes to Pauillac is at least 100kms and hence the area may not be well suited to a 2-day visit.
St Emillon and Sauternes/Barsac are surely the village highlights. The former is one of the great villages of France. The latter has a good little shop in the centre of town - La Maison de Barsac - which also tastes and sells some of the smaller wines of the region. A booked visit to Ch. Filhot resulted in a wonderful history lesson of the region, from the proprietor, as well as a tasting of several vintages of the great wine.
There is also a very good Tourism office at Pauillac where you can taste some good Médoc wines for a modest cost.
Burgundy - unlike other respondents, I have found many tasting opportunities, and wonderful road tripping opportunities through the area south of Beaune. Travel the A6 road south from Beaune towards Santenay. It must surely be one of the great wine drives on the planet. Glorious vine-filled hills steep both sides of the road. Here, you drive through some of the most the world's most prestigious vineyard properties. You can sniff the wealth and affluence from the famed terroir.
Take a day to meander thru the small but welcoming wine villages - Pommard, Volnay, Meursault, Pulugny-Montrachet and Chassagne-Montrachet all with their own character. While individual wine houses are everywhere, the local co-operatives often represent the best tasting opportunity - the friendly co-op at Chassagne-Montrachet is one such example.
Apart from the Co-Ops, pre-bookings are often needed. Beaune provides a number of 'paid for' tasting opportunities which showcase a range of Burgundy. These are your best bet if time is limited - which it sounds as though it may be for you. Marche aux Vins near the Hospices de Beaune is one such example.
Rhone - for a Shiraz nut like myself, the area around Tain is like living a dream. Visiting the magnificent Hermitage Hill at Tain is nothing less than a religious pilgrimage. Walk up the historic hill to the Chapel at the top and take lunch - its one of the idyllic spots of any French wine visit, and an important spot in the Roman history of the majestic Rhone. The wines of Guigal and Jaboulet are readily available for tasting along the Rhone - better to book ahead if possible. One visit to Jaboulet some years ago resulted in one of the brothers producing a bottle of the great 'La Chappelle' for tasting, but it would only be opened if I could promise to lobby 'Monsieur Penfold' to remove the word 'Hermitage' from the then 'Grange Hermitage' label! Of course I promised to do everything in my powers (which was nothing) to undertake this important diplomatic task - just to get the cap off the famous bottle!
Tain also has a great Co-Op with high quality and great value Crozes-Hermitage wines available.
Solution - Take an extra few days off and visit all three!
Hope this helps.
Tony
I'll have to fence sit on your 'two out of three' vote. Entirely depends on what you're after. To give some more info, I'll borrow some excerpts from a wine travel article I wrote some years ago...excuse the flowery style - it suited the magazine at the time...
Bordeaux - the centre of the wine world - just ask them - but still a good city to visit. Be aware that the individual sub-areas of Bordeaux are well spread - as an example, Sauternes to Pauillac is at least 100kms and hence the area may not be well suited to a 2-day visit.
St Emillon and Sauternes/Barsac are surely the village highlights. The former is one of the great villages of France. The latter has a good little shop in the centre of town - La Maison de Barsac - which also tastes and sells some of the smaller wines of the region. A booked visit to Ch. Filhot resulted in a wonderful history lesson of the region, from the proprietor, as well as a tasting of several vintages of the great wine.
There is also a very good Tourism office at Pauillac where you can taste some good Médoc wines for a modest cost.
Burgundy - unlike other respondents, I have found many tasting opportunities, and wonderful road tripping opportunities through the area south of Beaune. Travel the A6 road south from Beaune towards Santenay. It must surely be one of the great wine drives on the planet. Glorious vine-filled hills steep both sides of the road. Here, you drive through some of the most the world's most prestigious vineyard properties. You can sniff the wealth and affluence from the famed terroir.
Take a day to meander thru the small but welcoming wine villages - Pommard, Volnay, Meursault, Pulugny-Montrachet and Chassagne-Montrachet all with their own character. While individual wine houses are everywhere, the local co-operatives often represent the best tasting opportunity - the friendly co-op at Chassagne-Montrachet is one such example.
Apart from the Co-Ops, pre-bookings are often needed. Beaune provides a number of 'paid for' tasting opportunities which showcase a range of Burgundy. These are your best bet if time is limited - which it sounds as though it may be for you. Marche aux Vins near the Hospices de Beaune is one such example.
Rhone - for a Shiraz nut like myself, the area around Tain is like living a dream. Visiting the magnificent Hermitage Hill at Tain is nothing less than a religious pilgrimage. Walk up the historic hill to the Chapel at the top and take lunch - its one of the idyllic spots of any French wine visit, and an important spot in the Roman history of the majestic Rhone. The wines of Guigal and Jaboulet are readily available for tasting along the Rhone - better to book ahead if possible. One visit to Jaboulet some years ago resulted in one of the brothers producing a bottle of the great 'La Chappelle' for tasting, but it would only be opened if I could promise to lobby 'Monsieur Penfold' to remove the word 'Hermitage' from the then 'Grange Hermitage' label! Of course I promised to do everything in my powers (which was nothing) to undertake this important diplomatic task - just to get the cap off the famous bottle!
Tain also has a great Co-Op with high quality and great value Crozes-Hermitage wines available.
Solution - Take an extra few days off and visit all three!
Hope this helps.
Tony
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Eurocentric
- Posts: 97
- Joined: Wed Jun 24, 2009 10:35 am
- Location: Sydney
- Contact:
I would do six days in Burgundy before 2-3 in any pair. I could organise some tastings for you if you like. Not sure about this guy taking the A6 through the vineyards though 
It doesn't come within 10km of Le Montrachet... the RN74 is a bit more like it, running down the east side of Pommard, Volnay, Meursault etc, and there are little roads you can toodle along past the gates of famous vineyards. Pick your spot to pull over and take the obligatory trainspotting pictures of the great vineyards and producers' gates and walls.
I haven't been to Bordeaux ... no desire to ... but the Rhone was quite nice to see. Didn't think about walking up to the chapel ... I drove to within about 50m of it
Anyway, get emailing, and if you don't get a reply try a fax ... or even write a letter. And write a letter of thanks afterwards to make it that much easier for your return, or for the next person. I imagine the Bordeaux factories can afford tasting samples a lot more easily than Burgundians given the difference in the scale of production, but I have found many Burg producers very generous. Some of the bigger houses, such as Bouchard, are started to charge for tours and tastings though (15E).
Oh, and I'll be in Burgundy from Oct 4-10 or thereabouts, so if that coincides, you could come along to my tastings.
It doesn't come within 10km of Le Montrachet... the RN74 is a bit more like it, running down the east side of Pommard, Volnay, Meursault etc, and there are little roads you can toodle along past the gates of famous vineyards. Pick your spot to pull over and take the obligatory trainspotting pictures of the great vineyards and producers' gates and walls.
I haven't been to Bordeaux ... no desire to ... but the Rhone was quite nice to see. Didn't think about walking up to the chapel ... I drove to within about 50m of it
Anyway, get emailing, and if you don't get a reply try a fax ... or even write a letter. And write a letter of thanks afterwards to make it that much easier for your return, or for the next person. I imagine the Bordeaux factories can afford tasting samples a lot more easily than Burgundians given the difference in the scale of production, but I have found many Burg producers very generous. Some of the bigger houses, such as Bouchard, are started to charge for tours and tastings though (15E).
Oh, and I'll be in Burgundy from Oct 4-10 or thereabouts, so if that coincides, you could come along to my tastings.
Eurocentric wrote:I would do six days in Burgundy before 2-3 in any pair. I could organise some tastings for you if you like. Not sure about this guy taking the A6 through the vineyards though
I haven't been to Bordeaux ... no desire to ... but the Rhone was quite nice to see. Didn't think about walking up to the chapel ... I drove to within about 50m of it
Anyway, get emailing, and if you don't get a reply try a fax ... or even write a letter. And write a letter of thanks afterwards to make it that much easier for your return, or for the next person. I imagine the Bordeaux factories can afford tasting samples a lot more easily than Burgundians given the difference in the scale of production, but I have found many Burg producers very generous. Some of the bigger houses, such as Bouchard, are started to charge for tours and tastings though (15E).
Oh, and I'll be in Burgundy from Oct 4-10 or thereabouts, so if that coincides, you could come along to my tastings.
Thank you for the kind offer Eurocentric. Unfortunately, wifey and I will be there from end of Oct to End of Nov. I think in Burgundy early Nov.
Yeah, we better start emailing them...
Cheers, and I hope your tastings are fruitful...
Monghead.
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Eurocentric
- Posts: 97
- Joined: Wed Jun 24, 2009 10:35 am
- Location: Sydney
- Contact:
Eurocentric wrote:I can still set up appointments at some of the 20 producers I bring in if you like. Probably better timing when you will be there cos harvest will start around Sept 5 (at this stage) so they could have their feet up by the time you arrive.
This is good to hear. Feet up sipping wine I hope...
I will let you know how we go with our enquiries, and may then trouble you if necessary to set up visits.
Once again, Thank You.