The Grand French Wine tour to Burgundy and the Rhône Valley: exclusive wines, world-class gastronomy, world-famous wine villages
Experience two of France’s most prestigious wine regions on the same tour
— On this 9-day wine tour, you will taste some of France’s most famous wines. We start in Côte d’Or, the heart of Burgundy, a magical place, famous for its exclusive grand cru wines. We continue to Northern Rhône with its renowned syrah wines, Hermitage, Côte Rôtie and others. Then on to the Southern Rhône, with Châteauneuf-du-Pape, steeped in history but very dynamic. Join us and discover the wines, the landscape, and the gastronomy of these three classic French wine regions. A unique BKWine tour that gives you some of the world’s best wines and beautiful landscapes.Tour Highlights
- 8 nights
- Private prestigious tastings
- Magnificent lunches
- Burgundy Grand Cru and Premier Cru
- 4,900 euro
- Beautiful landscapes
- Classics and innovation
- Pinot noir, syrah and more
- Stay in Beaune, Tain l’Hermitage and Avignon
- Small growers & famous houses
This wine tour first takes you to the Côte d’Or, the heart of Burgundy. It is a magic place. It can make anyone dream. Travelling through these famous villages that produce some of the world’s most expensive wines — and some of the most outstanding ones — is a special feeling. Making red wine in Burgundy is not easy. It takes a skilful winemaker to bring out the best in the pinot noir. You will meet some of them on this tour.
Prepare to indulge in outstanding wines, from the ‘simple’ AOC/AOP Bourgogne to the most exclusive grand crus. Our visits will focus on the Côte d’Or, the heart of Burgundy. We will stay in Beaune, France’s most charming wine village with around 20,000 inhabitants; a fascinating mix of small countryside town and metropolitan pulse.
After a few days in Beaune, we continue our tour south. We stop in Tain l’Hermitage in the northern Rhône Valley, which is well-known for its powerful yet elegant wines from the syrah. Hermitage and Côte Rôtie are the two world famous regions but there’s also Condrieu, Cornas and others. We will stay for one night in the small town of Tain l’Hermitage, beautifully located by the river Rhône at the foot of the Hermitage hill.
We continue our tour to our last destination, Avignon, in the southern Rhône Valley. Now we are in the true south of France, in Provence. This is one of France’s most dynamic wine regions today, with a wealth of exciting winemakers and top-quality wineries. Châteauneuf-du-Pape has become a mover and shaker thanks to a new generation of winegrowers. Pair this with the delicious food from Provence.
We will stay three nights in Avignon, a lively city full of historical sites to explore and with a rich cultural life. Here, you will find France’s most famous bridge, Le Pont d’Avignon (do you know the song?), or, as it is actually called, Pont Saint Bénézet, and the very impressive 14th century Papal Palace, a UNESCO World Heritage site. There are many excellent restaurants to explore in the evenings when you want to relax after a day visiting vineyards.
On this tour, you will enjoy superb meals that will be gastronomic highlights. There will be many opportunities to explore how the Burgundy and Rhone wines pair with the various French specialities.
If you arrive in Paris, the TGV high-speed train will take you from Paris (or Charles de Gaulle Airport) to Dijon, where you will change to a local train for a 20-minute ride to Beaune. From Avignon, the TGV train will take you back to Paris/CdG. Arriving in Geneva can be an option.
This is an unforgettable wine tour to three classic French wine regions, with extraordinary wines, gastronomic meals with regional specialities, personal winery visits and beautiful landscapes.
One of BKWine’s wine and travel expert guides — one of the co-owners, co-founders of BKWine — leads the tour.
Also worth noting is that we at BKWine have written an internationally award-winning book about the French wine regions, as well as twelve other award-winning book on wine, including a travel guide to Burgundy.
So you will have a hard time finding a more insightful guide to these exciting wine regions. More on this below.
Programme — Burgundy and Rhône Valley Wine Tour
Preliminary programme.
Contact BKWine for more details.
There may be changes to some details of the programme, e.g. which wineries we visit. We put great effort into making your visits both exceptional and memorable. For this reason we often visit other than the most obvious, big-name producers (where there are often a number of guides employed). Instead we chose to give you a more unique, personal experience at our carefully selected estates, often (but not always) meeting the owner or the winemaker.
Programme overview
- Day 1, Wednesday — Arrival in Beaune
- Day 2, Thursday — Côte de Nuits
- Day 3, Friday — Côte de Nuits
- Day 4, Saturday — Côte de Beaune
- Day 5, Sunday — Continue the tour to Tain l’Hermitage
- Day 6, Monday – Northern Rhône Valley, arrival in Avignon
- Day 7, Tuesday – Châteauneuf-du-Pape
- Day 8, Wednesday – The Montmirail Mountains
- Day 9, Thursday – End of tour
Wednesday, September 17 — Arrival in Beaune
You arrive in Beaune and check in at our four-star hotel. The hotel is located a 5-10-minute walk from the old town and all the sights and restaurants. Our hotel also has a restaurant.
Beaune is a town with a lot of personality. It has a very old town centre. Close to Place Carnot, the main square, you will find the Hôtel Dieu (Hospices de Beaune), one of Burgundy’s and France’s great tourist attractions. It is, or was, a hospital dating back to the 15th century. It was finished in 1451. Now a museum, it functioned as a hospital until the 1960s. In the courtyard, you can see the extraordinary roof with coloured roof tiles, typical for Burgundy.
There are plenty of restaurants and cafés to explore. You can find both traditional French bistros and luxurious gourmet restaurants.
In the evening, we all meet for a welcome dinner.
Thursday, September 18 — Côte de Nuits
After breakfast, our bus will pick us up, and we leave Beaune and head north. We pass the famous Corton hill and continue towards Côte de Nuits.
Our first visit will be up in the northern part of the Côte de Nuits. The entire Côte de Nuits is a narrow strip of land extending 23 kilometres from north to south. Here, some of the world’s most sought-after red wines are made.
We will meet Philippe Bernard, his wife Martine, and his daughter Virginie at Domaine Clos Saint Louis in the village of Fixin. First, we go out and look at the vineyards with Philippe. We continue into the wine cellar where Philippe will tell us everything about the whole wine process. We finish with a wine tasting in one of the ancient cellar rooms.
On our way south, we stop in Vosne-Romanée and make a short visit to view the most expensive and famous grand cru vineyards, La Romanée Conti, La Tâche and Richebourg, mythical wines that cost several thousand euros today. The Romanée-Conti can reach over €20,000. Per bottle.
We stop for lunch in Chambolle-Musigny. It will be a traditional Burgundian lunch but with a modern twist. And with some delicious wines.
We end the day with a visit to a family winery in Prémeaux Prissey near Nuits-Saint-Georges. The family has over 20 hectares (50 acres) of vineyards spread over 20 appellations in the Côte de Beaune and Côte de Nuits. They make wines in a for Burgundy unusually structured style.
The evening is free. Take a walk at your leisure and explore Beaune. Stroll through the narrow streets and discover the old houses. Or relax in the hotel restaurant.
Friday, September 19 — Côte de Nuits
Today, we will go north again and visit a few more of the famous villages in Côte de Nuits.
We will visit an exciting biodynamic estate in Morey-Saint-Denis, Domaine Michel Magnien where we will visit the wine cellar, which is very unusual because many of the wines are fermented and aged in terracotta amphorae. The estate has some excellent vineyard locations, and we will discover them during our magnificent tasting of their highly rated premier and grand cru wines.
Today’s lunch will be at a high-quality estate with 11.5 hectares of excellent vineyards in Gevrey-Chambertin and the neighbouring villages. The owner herself has prepared an authentic Burgundian four-course lunch for us that we will enjoy in their private salon with a view over their garden. We will, of course, drink several of their superb wines to illustrate the span from “plain” burgundy (not so “plain” here) to grand cru.
We then hop on the bus and head south again. We stop to get a good view of the beautiful Château du Clos de Vougeot, located in the middle of the Grand Cru vineyard of Clos de Vougeot.
Late afternoon, we are back in Beaune. Free evening.
Saturday, September 20 — Côte de Beaune
Today, our first visit till be in the town of Beaune. Not surprisingly, Beaune has several magnificent wine cellars as many of the wine merchants (les négociants) since many years have their headquarters here.
We will visit the well-known wine négociant Joseph Drouhin, whose cellar is in the middle of the oldest part of Beaune. Their beautiful cellars are from different centuries and the oldest one is actually the oldest in Beaune, dating back to Roman times. Of course, we get to visit these places, and we will end with a delicious tasting of some of Drouhin’s prestigious wines.
We then head for the Corton Hill where we will have lunch at an estate in Aloxe-Corton. This family-owned estate was founded in 1857 and now has 9 hectares (22 acres), many of which are great locations on the grand cru Corton hill. Corton Grand Cru wines, red and white, will also be the theme of our excellent Burgundian lunch. We will have a quite extraordinary lunch tasting to compare different locations on the Corton hill.
We then continue south of Beaune, to Pommard, known for its full-bodied red wines. But our producer here has vineyards in several villages around the Côte de Beaune, and we will have an extensive tasting of red and white wines. We also visit one of the estate’s premier cru vineyards.
Late afternoon, we are back in Beaune. Free evening. Maybe it is time to find those Burgundian specialities you have not tried yet. Escargots anyone?
Sunday, September 21 — Continue to Tain l’Hermitage
We check-out from the hotel after breakfast. Today, our bus will take us on a three-hour journey south, which ends in Tain l’Hermitage, where we will stay the night.
We pass the southern parts of Burgundy – Côte Chalonnaise, Mâcon, Beaujolais – and see the city of Lyons from a distance. Then, the journey takes us through the dramatic vineyards of the northern Rhône Valley.
We will stop for lunch and a first introduction to the wines of Northern Rhône in the area around Ampuis and Condrieu. The northern Rhône is only 3,500 hectares of the entire valley’s 70,000 hectares but the wines are much sought after
After lunch, we continue south for about 45 minutes, and later in the afternoon, we will check in at Hôtel Fac & Spera in Tain l’Hermitage. The hotel is centrally located in this small but very famous town, situated at the foot of the impressive Hermitage hill, and connected by a beautiful pedestrian chain bridge to its neighbour, Tournon.
We will have dinner together tonight.
Monday, September 22 — Hermitage and Crozes-Hermitage and on to Avignon
This morning, we will visit Domaine Chapoutier, one of the most famous producers in the northern Rhône. It is an old estate that is still family-owned and very dynamic. They have made Rhône Valley wines famous all over the world. Chapoutier was founded in the 19th century and has always been respected for its quality. When Michel Chapoutier took over 30 years ago, he set in motion a series of changes which has made Chapoutier one of France’s most famous, successful and talked about wine producers
We will get to know all the secrets of the syrah grape. Northern Rhône produces mostly red wine, powerful yet elegant wines from vineyards on steep, sunny slopes. But our tastings will also include some of the rare white wines from marsanne and roussanne.
We will stop for lunch in Saint Péray, where they make excellent sparkling wine as well as still white, rare wines, almost only know by the real Rhône connoisseurs.
Late afternoon, we arrive in Avignon and check in at our centrally located hotel just a short walk from the historic city centre. The hotel is just outside the old city walls. It is brand new, elegantly designed and very comfortable.
Avignon is a typical Provençal town. It has wide avenues lined with plane trees and narrow winding streets that give you the impression nothing has changed for hundreds of years. The city is full of life and has a very active nightlife; there are cafés on all the town squares, restaurants ranging from friendly neighbourhood bistros to luxury wine bars, etc. A medieval wall surrounds the whole central part of the city.
The popes lived in Avignon for around 60 years in the 14th century, and their immense and impressive Papal Palace is in the city centre. Not far away is the famous bridge Pont d ’Avignon, which ends abruptly in the middle of the river. For a reason. You will have plenty of time to explore this charming city, a gem in the south of France.
Tuesday, September 23 — Châteauneuf-du-Pape
Today will be spent getting to know Châteauneuf-du-Pape, the most famous wine of the southern Rhône Valley.
You will become intimately familiar with the wonderfully warm and spicy aromas of cinnamon, cloves, and freshly roasted coffee in these wines. We will closely examine the amazing stones in the vineyards, les galets roulés, that are so characteristic of these vineyards.
We start with a visit to Domaine Galevan. The wine estates in Châteauneuf-du-Pape are often large and old. Domaine Galevan is no exception. The current owner, Coralie, has nine generations behind her and the vineyard area is 60 hectares (148 acres). She is the first woman in the family to take over the estate that she now runs together with her son. She works organically and also produces some excellent Côtes-du-Rhône wines.
We will visit Château Maucoil, where Bernard Duseigneur, a wine entrepreneur, makes outstanding Châteauneuf wines since he bought the chateau a few years back. We will then enjoy an excellent lunch hosted by Bernard. It will be a multi-course meal with local gastronomic specialities prepared by a private chef.
During the day we will also have a closer look at what is left (not much) of the papal summer palace, in the Châteauneuf-du-Pape village. It is located at the top of the village and has a beautiful view over the vineyards and the Rhône River. A short walk will take us to the famous ruin.
Late afternoon, we are back in Avignon. The evening is free to enjoy Avignon. If it is a warm evening, we can recommend a walk across the bridge (the new one, not the old one that only goes halfway) to see the spectacular view of the illuminated Papal Palace.
Wednesday, September 24 — The Montmirail Mountains
Today, we go north to the majestic Montmirail Mountains, Les Dentelles de Montmirail. This is where you can find many of the famous Côtes-du-Rhône villages that have become the rage of Rhône wine enthusiasts. They are often high up on the mountain slopes with the vineyards below.
We start with a visit to Domaine de Mourchon in Séguret. The village is at high altitude, so a fresh wind continually cools the vines during hot summers. The views are stunning from the estate. It was founded in 1998 by the British McKinlay family. The family makes an exciting range of wines and olive oil.
After our lunch in one of the famous villages, Gigondas, we will visit another family winery, which will be in the town of Sablet.
Domaine des Pasquiers has belonged to the Lambert family since 1935 and is owned today by the brothers Jean-Claude and Philippe but it is the next generation, the young Matthieu and Perrine who runs the show today. In total, the family has an impressive 87 hectares (215 acres) in several different appellations in the southern Rhône valley.
Late afternoon, we are back in Avignon. We will meet tonight for a farewell dinner.
Thursday, September 25 — Heading back home
The tour ends after breakfast. Departure.
There may be changes to some details of the programme, e.g. which wineries we visit. We put great effort into making your visits both exceptional and memorable. For this reason we often visit other than the most obvious, big-name producers (where there are often a number of guides employed). Instead we chose to give you a more unique, personal experience at our carefully selected estates, often (but not always) meeting the owner or the winemaker.
Go For It!
We’d love to have you with us.
More travel information
Here are some useful pages and guides about this travel destination:
Even more info
We have written a lot about Burgundy and the Rhone Valley and about wine touring in the regions, what to do and what to expect.
Burgundy:
- Read more about travelling in the Burgundian wine regions on our wine travel blog.
- You can also find more information on BKWine Magazine on the wines from Burgundy, our online wine magazine.
- Our YouTube videos on Burgundy
The Rhone Valley:
- Read more about travelling in the Rhone Valley wine region on our wine travel blog.
- You can also find more information on BKWine Magazine on the wines from the Rhone Valley, our online wine magazine.
- Our YouTube videos on the Rhone Valley
The Burgundy Wine Book
One of the many internationally award winning wine books we, the BKWine Tours founders, have written is on Burgundy, but unfortunately it is not currently available in English.
As far as we know, no other wine tour operator has a track record of authoring ten or more wine books, so you can feel confident that you will get the most competent and high-quality wine tour with BKWine.
More wine books
We have written more than ten wine books. They have won both national and international wine writing awards.
No other wine tour organiser has a comparable knowledge, competence and experience.
Tour Details — Champagne and Bordeaux Wine Tour
Dates: September 17-25, 2025
Price per person: 4,900 euro
Single room supplement: 750 euro
Included in the price:
- 8 hotel nights, good quality, mid-range European-style hotel, double occupancy, including breakfast
- 4 nights in 4-star hotel Hotel Mercure Beaune Centre in Beaune
- 1 night in 4-star hotel Hôtel Fac & Spera in Tain l’Hermitage
- 3 nights in 4-star hotel Hôtel Novotel Avignon Centre in Avignon
- Meals as described in the programme above (*):
- 7 gastronomic multi-course lunches including wines
- 3 gastronomic multi-course dinners including wines
- Start point: Beaune
- End point: Avignon
- Bus transport throughout the whole trip
- All vineyard and winery visits
- Private, high-quality tastings at wineries, 2-3 per day
- Interpretation from French as needed (many visits will be in English)
- Wine guiding and wine tutoring by an expert BKWine guide
(*) See below for more important information on our meals.
Not included:
- Travel (flights etc) to the destination and back to your home location.
You are responsible for organising your travel to Beaune and from Avignon yourself.
If you would like assistance organising your flight tickets etc, please contact us.
We warmly recommend that you plan a few extra days here if you have the time. It is a very interesting place and well worth some regular, non-wine related tourism too. We can assist you with booking additional hotel nights as needed.
For this tour to take place we must have a minimum of 8 participants registered by the “book before” date.
Book This Tour
Book before: June 15, 2025
Booking is confirmed by paying the booking fee of 1,100 euro. Full payment should be received at the latest one month before the departure date (see our terms and conditions). Details on how to pay will be sent to you when you register.
It is important that your read our travel booking terms and conditions.
We also invite you to read more on why you should travel with BKWine, about customer protection, and about what you can expect from our wine tours in the section below “More on our wine tours”.
You book by contacting Britt Karlsson, BKWine:
- phone: +33 1 58 88 04 66 or +33 6 80 45 35 70 (+33 is the country code for France)
- Skype: “bkwine”. Call us on skype.
- email: info@bkwine.com, or use the contact form below
“I want to book this tour” or “I want more info”
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More on our wine tours
Why travel with BKWine?
We are Britt and Per Karlsson. We are specialists in wine and food tours and wine tourism, but also experts in wine in general. We are internationally published wine writers and have written ten award-winning wine books.
No other tour operator has a comparable knowledge and experience of wine, wine regions, wine tourism and gourmet travel.
We have organised hundreds of wine and food tours, and this is what we love to do. We take it very seriously – it is not a sideline or a hobby – and what we want more than anything is to share all these wonderful experiences with you.
All our tours are led and managed by guides who have in-depth wine knowledge, and in many cases we lead the tours ourselves.
Read more on why you should choose BKWine for your wine and food tour.
Thousands of happy customers
Over the years, thousands of wine lovers have travelled with us. Many come back to tour again and again with BKWine to new wine regions. Our record-breaking client has been on more than ten BKWine tours. We are happy and proud to have such faithful customers.
Read more on what travellers have said about our tours.
Awards and Mentions
We’re pleased and proud to have received many accolades, including:
- “World’s Top Wine Tours”, Travel+Leisure Magazine, the world’s biggest travel magazine
- “Best wine tasting holidays”, AOL Travel’s list of top wine tours
- “Recommended Wine Tours”, Munskänkarna, the world’s biggest wine appreciation association
- “World’s Best Wine Book for Professionals” as well as “Best Wine Book of the Year”, Gourmand International awards, and many other book prizes
- Three OIV book awards, International Organisation of Vine and Wine
- “Wine Personality of the Year”, an honour bestowed on Britt Karlsson by Munskänkarna in 2011, the world’s biggest wine appreciation association
- Inclusion on the Wine Media Power List, by Wine Business International magazine
About the wine producers and wineries we visit
Our aim is for you to experience some of the very best and most interesting aspects of the wine world, in terms of wine and food.
We put great effort into creating outstanding winery visits, and in this way we are quite different to many wine tour organisers. It is not always the most renowned, internationally known estates that offer the best experiences. Organising a wine tour featuring famous names of the wine world is relatively easy: it is merely a question of making lists and ticking boxes. On those kind of “bucket list” wine tours, you rarely meet the winemaker or the owner. You will simply be one of thousands of visitors they receive each year.
We do things differently. With BKWine Tours, you will meet the people behind the label, often the winemakers and/or the owners. Thanks to them, you will have a unique, truly personal experience and an insight into the wine world that no one else can offer. When you travel with BKWine, you are more like a special guest than a tourist.
We have personal connections and unparalleled knowledge thanks to more than 20 years as wine journalists, with 10 wine books published, and as wine tour organisers with more than 30 years’ experience. You can be sure of getting the best wine travel experiences with BKWine Tours.
Read more on the wine producers and wineries we visit.
A true gourmet experience: food and gastronomy
For us, wine and food are intimately linked, and this is a fundamental part of our wine travel philosophy. For this reason, a wine tour with BKWine is always an outstanding culinary experience both for the wine enthusiast and for the gourmet. A BKWine tour is a gastronomic voyage that explores the deep relationship between food and wine.
Read more On Meals: Food and Gastronomy on Our Tours.
Customer Protection, Financial Travel Guarantee, and Terms and Conditions
You can always feel safe when you book your tour with BKWine. BKWine has a bonded bank guarantee that gives full protection according to EU and Swedish law. BKWine is a Swedish limited company and as such is regulated by strict rules.
Read more on Customer Protection, Financial Travel Guarantee. and our Terms and Conditions.
When you book a tour it is important that you read the terms and conditions. BKWine’s booking terms and conditions follow the guidelines developed by the Consumer Protection Agency.
Health, vaccination and allergies
Our tours have no particular health requirements although inevitably we will be walking a certain amount in wine cellars and vineyards. Sensible footwear is a must.
Most of our travel destinations have no particular health guidelines or requirements for vaccinations or medical certificates, but if in doubt, you should always consult a medical professional, vaccination centre or relevant embassy in your country of origin.
We can always accommodate food allergies. However, in order for us to manage such requests you must let us know about any allergies before the tour starts.
Read more in our FAQ and in our Terms and Conditions.
Travel insurance
BKWine does not sell travel insurance. If you want travel insurance, check if your regular home insurance policy includes some kind of travel insurance, or contact your regular insurance company or a travel insurance specialist.
Custom Tours
We also offer custom wine and food tours if you want to travel on different dates, or if you want something different to what we currently offer on our scheduled tours. This tailor-made service can be offered for individuals, companies, professionals, wine tastings clubs etc.
Important information
Our groups are always small. The number of people in the group may vary. The maximum can range from 8 to around 20; check the details in each programme. But our groups are always modest in size. This is important because it guarantees a quality experience and a personal welcome at the wineries we visit.
Read the BKWine Booking Terms and Conditions here. They are important to you!
You are expected to organise your travel independently to the destination for most of our tours, but once you are at the location, we take care of everything.
For more inspiration
Read our wine travel blog. For more, read our online wine magazine the BKWine Magazine with articles from all over the wine world.
And also:
- Recommend this trip to a friend using the share buttons below
Newsletter on wine
Subscribe to our free wine and travel newsletter, the BKWine Brief. Each month, it gives you news from the world of wine, restaurant recommendations, tips on our favourite wine producers and much more. It will also keep you updated on forthcoming wine and food tours.
