Wine tasting among castles in the French countryside? Sign me up! This tour was the highlight of…read moreour Bordeaux trip, specially the Saint-Émilion Afternoon Tour with Quentin.
I was able to book easily via their webpage the evening before. Our tour group had 8 people and started at 1:45 PM, lasting 5 hours. The pickup point was in the heart of Bordeaux at the tourist office.
Our tour guide Quentin spoke great English and was super personable. He also drove the mini van and used the hour of commute time each way to get to know us and share his knowledge.
The first stop was a larger scale winery, Château Soutard, which is a Saint-Émilion Grands cru classés winery (in the top 10% of wineries in Right Bank). They had deep pickets and you could tell by the infrastructure. We rode a gigantic silent glass elevator for transporting barrels underground which they affectionately called "James Bond."
Our guide here led us on a thorough tour of the indoor facilities and guided us through a tasting of two reds. Quentin also did a fun smell test with us. We spent 1.5 hours here.
The next stop was the charming old town of Saint-Émilion, and the reason I booked the Right Bank tour over the Left Bank one.
Over the course of an hour, Quentin led us through the highlights of the city including a wine cave (the oldest wine bottles I've seen!) and an old church. It rained on and off, but Quentin was prepared with umbrellas.
Our third and final stop was a relatively smaller winery called Château Côte de Baleau. They had a picturesque castle on property, and the guide here welcomed us with glasses of Bordeaux blanc from another winery. Quentin showed us the grapevines and the traditional concrete aging vats.
Then the female guide led us through a vertical tasting of two Saint-Émilion Grand Crus - 2007 and 2014. Compared to the first winery, I enjoyed the more laid-back vibe here, and the wine was almost as good and at a lower price point. We also had some small bites to pair - comté cheese, sausage, dark chocolate, almonds, and bread.
I liked how both wineries didn't push buying the wine at all - no mention of sales and no price lists shown during the tasting.
The cost of this tour was slightly more than other half day options I found (€94), but I thought it was well worth it for the longer time and included bites. It was also nice to not worry about a rental and driving ourselves an hour out to the wineries from Bordeaux where we stayed. Highly recommend this experience!
