A wine tour to the heart of Burgundy: Côte d’Or - the summit of French wine

Example of a previous tour

Over the course of a long weekend we will take a close look at the heart of Burgundy: la Côte d’Or de Bourgogne, the Golden Slope of Burgundy.

Our visits will give you expert insight into the important aspects of Burgundy wines: soil, geology, viticulture, and vinification. They will also illustrate the different philosophies and different approaches that winemakers have. In Burgundy le terroir is fundamental to the art of wine making and it is vital when distinguishing a good winemaker from a poor one. In no other district has the soil been analysed to such an extent and classified in so numerous appellations.

Our tour offers you a thorough understanding as to why wines from Burgundy are among the most expensive in the world.

We will visit some of the established producers and some rising stars, making up to three visits per day.

The tour starts in Beaune, the wine capital of Burgundy with its many beautiful old houses and good restaurants. Beaune is easy to reach by train from Paris.

The Programme

About the wine estates we visit

We want you to experience the best and the most interesting estates. Therefore, we put a lot of effort into finding really good producers to visit. Contrary to what one might think, the most exciting wine producers are not always the "famous names". Often the passionately engaging visits happen when you meet the winemaker or the owner himself (or quite often herself) and his family. Frequently detailed discussions get underway where a true understanding of how things really “work” develops, we may even stay and have lunch at the winery (unlike in the US many of these do not have purpose-built restaurants). This is also why our trips do not have large numbers of visits on the programme. Even so, we regularly run short of time due to conversations lasting a lot longer than intended and where more and more wines are brought out to taste, somehow time flies.

The trip is a mixture of small family producers and larger, well known wine estates - carefully selected to give you the unique wine experience.

A quick look at the preliminary program:

Wednesday September 26

Arrival in Beaune. Free activities in the evening.

Thursday September 27

Côte de Nuits (South)

Our first morning visit is to the Domaine Chantal Lescure in Nuits St Georges, where we will meet the passionate maitre de chai Francois Chaveriat. After that we travel a few kilometres south to visit the Domaine d’Ardhuy where we have lunch in this beautifully situated estate in the middle of the vineyard of Clos des Langres. In the afternoon we discover the world famous vineyards of Vosne-Romanée and Vougeot and visit a quality-conscious small, independent family grower.

We return to Beaune around 6.30 pm. Free activities in the evening

Friday September 28

Côte de Nuits and northern Côte de Beaune

We start the day by going to the very north of Côte de Nuits. Morning visits to Gevrey-Chambertin and Marsannay. Lunch is at Aloxe-Corton and Domaine Comte Senard. In the afternoon we visit the vineyards close to Beaune (Savigny-lès-Beaune/Chorey-lès-Beaune) returning to the hotel at about 6.pm Free activities in the evening.

Saturday September 29

Southern Côte de Beaune

In the morning we visit Pommard, then have lunch in Chassagne-Montrachet. In the afternoon we visit Meursault/Puligny-Montrachet, before returning to Beaune at around 6.00pm for our farewell dinner.

Farewell dinner for everyone in Beaune with Burgundian specialities and some specially chosen wines.

Sunday September 30

After breakfast end of tour. Departure.

About the wine estates we visit

We want you to experience the best and the most interesting the wine regions have to offer so we put a lot of effort into finding really exciting producers to visit. Contrary to what one might think, the most exciting wine producers are not always the "famous names". The most passionately engaging visits often occur when you meet the winemaker or the owner himself (or quite often herself) and start discussing how things really "work”, maybe even taking the time for lunch at the vineyard. We deliberately don’t schedule a large number of visits on our tour as we find that often we run short of time because we tend to get involved in a deep discussions and end up tasting more and more wines then we originally intended.

The trip is a mixture of small family producers and larger, well known wine estates - carefully selected to give you a unique wine experience.

All visits are not finalised at the time of publishing as we are continuously working on ways to improve our tours. Please don't hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or if you want more details.

Facts

Dates: 26-30 September

Included in the price:

You arrange for your own transport to and from Beaune.

Tour organiser: Britt Karlsson, BKWine

Britt is of Swedish origin and based in Paris. She has worked in the wine world for 15 years specialising in wine education, wine journalism and wine tourism. Over this period she has organised over 100 wine tours. She has an extensive network of contacts in the wine regions and an excellent knowledge of recent developments. This unique experience and expertise is your guarantee that a wine tour with BKWine will be an exceptional experience.

To ensure that we receive a truly personal welcome the maximum group size will be about 18 people.

Our wine guides: Our wine guides are enthusiastic wine people with a thorough knowledge of both wine and local culture and gastronomy. Plus, of course, language since some of the visits often are in the local language (those visits are often the most interesting ones actually!) and we will then translate to English.

Our wine cellar tours are usually planned around a long weekend (Wednesday evening to Sunday morning) so that you can plan your holiday to also include other activities, such as visiting cultural sites, play golf – or why not drop in to a few more wineries while in the region (we’ll be glad to give you a few names to our preferred vinyards!).

From a gastronomic standpoint, our tours always include some gourmet highlights with local culinary specialities – we often plan at least one gourmet lunch at a winery or vinyard together with the winemaker.

Plan your wine country vacation with BKWine and we can guarantee you an unforgettable wine experience.

Book this trip

Please register for this trip not later than July 1, 2007, by phone to BKWine, Britt Karlsson, +33 1 58 88 04 66 or +33 6 80 45 35 70 or by email info@bkwine.com

Registration is confirmed by paying the registration fee of 100 euro  (Full payment details following registration by phone or email). Full payment should be received at the latest one month before the departure date.

Important

We always travel in small groups. The maximum group is usually around 18. This is to ensure that our visits are of high quality and that we receive a personal welcome.

For this trip to take place, a minimum of 8 participants must be registered by the book-before-date. Check with us before booking your travel.

You organise your travel independently to the destination but on location we take care of everything.

BKWine is a Swedish registered travel organiser. Travel guarantee to The Legal, Financial and Administrative Services Agency (“Kammarkollegiet”) in Sweden has been made according to Swedish and EU law.

For more inspiration

PS: We also do custom tours if you want to choose different dates or want something different.

BKWine AB
51, rue du Chevalier de la Barre
92130 Issy-les-Moulineaux
France
Phone: +33 (0)6 80 45 35 70
email: info@bkwine.com
www.bkwine.com 

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