Day 1

· Arrive Bordeaux airport or train station where you will be met and escorted to our hotel, Château Cordeillan-Bages.
· Time to relax before dinner at the château, with sumptuous local cuisine and the best of Bordeaux wines.

Day 2 (Wines of the Médoc)

· After breakfast, there will be a presentation of the wine-making methods of Bordeaux.
· We then visit a château to see these methods in action, and of course to taste the results.
· Lunch at our château.
· In the afternoon you can choose between some free time, or a tasting of the Bordeaux grape varieties in their ‘pure’, unmixed form - a fascinating opportunity to trace the making of a great Bordeaux back to its basic constituent parts.
· We dine at the château.

Day 3 (Wines of the Médoc 2)

· After breakfast, we focus on how wine is classified and how to read and understand a wine label.
· Our morning tasting is of wines of several years from the same small Médoc area (a so-called ‘vertical tasting’).
· Lunch at the château with examples of how to harmonise food and wine.
· Visits and tastings at two classified châteaux.
· Tasting of several Médoc wines from the same year (a so-called ‘horizontal tasting’) which will round out our understanding of both the influence of locality and year-on-year weather conditions.
· Dinner at the château - a specially chosen menu illustrating the marriage of Médoc wines and Bordeaux cuisine.

Day 4 (Wines of Sauternes and Barsac)

· After breakfast we visit a classified château in the Sauternes region for a presentation of how these great wines are made and, of course, to taste the results.
· We go on to another classified château to taste their Sauternes, in the spirit of comparing and contrasting.
· We lunch in a typical Sauternais restaurant.
· Afternoon tasting at yet another classified château.
· Dinner at our château, with an emphasis on the mixing of Sauternes and Barsac with the food of the region.

Day 5 (Wines of the Graves region)

· After breakfast we visit a château in the Graves region for a presentation of their reds and whites, followed by a tasting. A particular focus will be on traditional versus modern wine-making techniques.
· We lunch at a typical restaurant with Graves cuisine and wines.
· We visit another classified château for tastings, where the emphasis will be on new techniques for making white wine.
· Dinner at our château, featuring, of course, wines from Graves.

Day 6 (Wines of Pomerol, and St. Emilion)

· After breakfast, we head to the right bank of the Gironde estuary to visit a typical St. Emilion vineyard to learn what makes their wine so different and so important. Tastings.
· Lunch at a local restaurant with a perfect match of wine and food.
· Our afternoon tastings are at two châteaux in the Pomerol region.
· Grand finale dinner at our château, featuring the best of the cuisine and wines you have tasted throughout the week. A night to remember!

Day 7

· After a leisurely breakfast, we will escort you to Bordeaux airport or train station for your onward journey.

If you are interested in our Bordeaux tour, please visit our time table.