If you’re looking for amazing wine tours and wine-related experiences, Bordeaux is your city! This shouldn’t come as a surprise in a region that is considered by many as the world wine capital.
If you’re confused and don’t know what are the best wine tours to take in the Bordeaux wine region, I’m here to help. After years of traveling and trying different tours, guides, and winery visits I gathered a list of the best experiences the Bordeaux region has to offer.
If you’re a wine lover or just interested in visiting several wineries on your trip to Bordeaux, keep reading as there’s a lot of important information here for you.
Self-guided tours in the wineries of Bordeaux
In the last few years, I wrote many articles about visiting wineries in the Bordeaux wine region. So if you want to go on a self-organized tour, you can find all the info on this site.
Here are a few wineries that I recommend for English speakers: Château de Pressac in Saint Emilion, Château Pape Clément in Pessac Leognan, and Château du Taillan in Medoc.
And this is a full list of all Bordeaux wine-related articles with more winery recommendations, that will help you plan your Bordeaux self-guided wine tour:
Best wineries to visit in Saint Emilion
A guide to the Bordeaux wine region
A day trip to Saint Emilion
How to visit wineries in the Bordeaux wine region without a car
A weekend in the Medoc wine region
Best wineries to visit in Sauternes
Best wineries in Bordeaux to visit with kids
If you’re planning on a wine road trip with several winery visits, I highly recommend renting a car. You can find good prices for rental cars in Bordeaux here.
If you’ve already decided what chateaux you’re planning to visit and you just want a driver to take you there, you can find one here.
In this article, however, I want to help those who don’t want the hassle of organizing a wine tour. Even though self-organized tours are fun, there are a few big advantages to taking a guide.
First, you get a lot of knowledge about the history of the Bordeaux wine region and about winemaking in Bordeaux. But also, it enables you to drink a lot of wine without worrying about driving back to Bordeaux.
How to take a wine tour in Bordeaux
Wine tours are probably the main attraction Bordeaux has to offer. So as you can imagine, there’s no shortage of guides and tour operators offering wine tours in the region. Some of them are very professional and knowledgeable and others less so. That’s why it’s important to know what you’re booking.
There are several types of wine tours you can find in Bordeaux.
A private wine tour with a guide who takes you straight from the doorsteps of your hotel to visit several wineries in one day. A more popular option is the semi-private wine you, where a small group is going to visit 2-4 wineries in one or two wine regions in Bordeaux.
Then you have the big group tours with 10 to 50 participants. These are less recommended in my opinion but they are very well-priced. And lastly, you have more unique experiences that include food tasting, cycling, and more.
In this article, I summarized the best wine tours and experiences in each of these categories. All the tours on my list leave from Bordeaux which is great for anyone staying in a hotel in the city center.
Wine tours with kids
Most of these companies do not welcome kids on the tour, but that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the Bordeaux wine region with your kids. All you have to do is choose a château from my article about the most kids-friendly wineries in Bordeaux.
I also added a few recommendations for guides that offer kids-friendly tours – continue reading.
A semi-private wine tour to Saint Emilion or Medoc
Semi-private tours are small group tours of 6-8 people. These tours feel quite intimate even though they are not private. They’re usually not too expensive, considering the fact that it saves you transportation costs. So all in all, that’s the tour I recommend taking if you’re not into self-guided tours.
There are quite a few companies offering private and semi-private tours from Bordeaux to Saint Emilion or Medoc. Here are a few I recommend.
A Saint Emilion wine tour
One of the best travel companies to offer wine tours to Saint Emilion is Ophorus. Their tours include guided visits to some of the best wineries from different classifications of Saint Emilion. They also take you on a tour of the village of Saint Emilion where you get to visit some of the main landmarks.
The first option is a full-day trip to Saint Emilion and its wineries. I you have time, I highly recommend taking that tour so you can properly explore this world-renowned wine region, which has so much to offer. This tour includes a visit to three wineries from 1ᵉʳ, 2ᵉʳ, and 3ᵉʳ Saint Emilion wine estates (different growth classifications). You can book the full-day tour here.
If you don’t have the time for a full-day trip, there is also the half-day wine tour option with a visit to a one-classified growth winery and the village itself. The company offers daily tours in the morning and the afternoon. You can book the tour here.
*See recommended wineries to visit in Saint Emilion.
Medoc Full Day Wine Tour, from Bordeaux
One of the tours I highly enjoyed was the one offered by Ophorus, a reputable company in wine tourism in this region.
The full-day wine tour to Medoc includes a visit to three different wineries, all carefully chosen by their team. The tour allows you to visit wineries from different appellations in Medoc and observe the differences between the more prestigious chateaux and smaller family-owned properties. All the chateaux on the tours are either Grand Cru classé or Cru Bourgeois, so good wine is guaranteed.
There are two great options for guided tours to the Medoc – A full-day tour and a half-day tour. I really enjoyed the full day, but I think that half a day is enough to get a taste of the Medoc.
Saint-Émilion Food and Wine Tour
If you want a full-day trip to Saint Emilion I recommend taking the one offered by Olala Bordeaux. Their tour lasts about six hours and includes a visit to three châteaux in Saint Emilion as well as a fun picnic. Book it here.
*See recommended wineries to visit in Medoc.
From Bordeaux: Afternoon Saint-Emilion Wine Tasting Trip
If you want to start the morning in Bordeaux and get to Saint Emilion later in the day, this tour might be perfect for you. The afternoon wine tour offered by Bordovino includes a visit to two wineries and a tasting of four Saint Emilion wines.
As you get to visit one small family estate and a big Grand Cru winery, you have the chance to compare their wines and see the differences in their wine-making techniques. You’ll finish the day with an early evening tour of the medieval town.
You can book the tour here.
Discovering wineries by bike – biking wine tours in Bordeaux
There are a few companies offering biking tours in Saint Emilion.
Cycling from one winery to another while enjoying the landscape of Saint Emilion’s lush vineyards is a beautiful experience you don’t want to miss.
Both companies I mention here offer only electric bike tours and that’s because Saint Emilion is a very hilly wine region which makes cycling hard.
Bordeaux: St-Emilion Vineyards e-Bike Tour with Wine & Lunch
This Saint Emilion full-day bike trip is offered by Bordovino. You start the day in Bordeaux and the company takes you to Saint Emilion where you’ll get the e-bikes.
You then get a bit of time to tour the beautiful medieval town before you head on your cycling journey.
The unique part of the tour starts once you get out of the center of Saint Emilion. You’ll cycle on the beautiful chateaux route, passing by famous estates like Petrus or Château Cheval Blanc.
On this tour, you get to visit two Saint Emilion wineries and taste their wines. The visit to the first château also includes a light lunch in their garden.
Their bike tours are offered only during the tourist season, starting in April.
Book your bike wine tour here.
Rustic vines – e-bikes tours
This is another recommended wine e-bike tour, offered by Rustic vines, a company that specializes in biking tours.
In this small tour, you get to visit two wineries and taste delicious local specialties during your lunch. You get a short walking tour of Saint Emilion at the end of the day and even have an extra wine tasting at a wine boutique.
Like in the previous tour I described, here too you start your tour in Bordeaux and the company takes you to Saint Emilion.
If you’re already in Saint Emilion you can start straight from there, and get a reduced price.
Book your tour here.
Group tours in the Bordeaux wine region
While I highly recommend taking a semi-private wine tour, their prices range from 90 to 160 euros p/p. It’s not extremely expensive for a wine tour, however, it’s not an affordable price for a lot of travelers to the Bordeaux region.
That’s where the group wine tours come in handy.
The Bordeaux tourism office offers tours to most wine appellations around Bordeaux, including the less-known ones. You can choose between a day trip to Saint Emilion with a visit to one winery and a wine tour to areas like Medoc, Blaye, Graves, and Sauternes where you get to visit two wine properties.
These tours are guided by professional guides who are generally quite charismatic 🙂 The main advantage of taking a group tour is the price which is usually under 50 euros p/p.
If you have the Bordeaux city pass, you get another discount of 15% – you can purchase the city pass here.
The downside of these group tours is the number of people allowed on a tour which can easily get to around 40.
Here’s the schedule of the group wine tours in Bordeaux:
Monday: Saint Emilion or Fronsac
Tuesday: Medoc
Wednesday: Graves and Sauternes
Thursday: Bourg and Blaye
Friday: Entre Deux Mers (the white wine region of Bordeaux)
Saturday: Medoc
Sunday: Saint Emilion or Fronsac
Some useful information:
- All the tours start at the Tourist office of Bordeaux at 13:30 and last for five hours.
- During the winter the tours are offered only on weekends
- Kids under the age of 5yo cannot join their tours
You can book your tours directly on their website.
Private wine Tours from Bordeaux
Another option is private wine tours from Bordeaux. These tend to be quite expensive as you hire a person to accompany you the whole day. But if you find the right guide, a private tour can be an unforgettable experience.
The best guides in this region are personally familiar with many wine markers and can take you to unique places.
Here are a few of my recommendations for private guides in Bordeaux.
If you’re looking for a tour in Saint Emilion, I highly recommend Nicolle from Sip. Her tour focuses on small independent producers in Saint Emilion. She also wrote a great book about Bordeaux wine which I highly recommend.
As she has been working as a wine guide for more than two decades she can organize tours to Medoc, Pessac Leognan, and other parts of the Bordeaux wine region. This is her Medoc private tour, for example.
If you’re interested to discover the Sauternes world, I highly recommend Anne from Aquitaine travel guide.
If you’re looking for kid-friendly experiences, Anne is great at that too.
Drop her an email with all your questions: aquitaineguide@gmail.com
Two other great English-speaking wine tour guides in the region are Malgorzata Balaban-Delcros and Marie Hallier who also offers amazing tours to Cognac.
Wine activity in Bordeaux
Finally, if you’re in Bordeaux for a very short stay and have absolutely no time for a wine tour you have a few other wine-related activities in the city.
Cité du Vin – visit the world’s biggest wine museum
La Cite du Vin is a unique cultural center, dedicated to the discovery of wine. Through its interactive exhibition, it offers a journey to both French and global wine history.
Read about what to expect when visiting the museum in my article about my visit to the Cité du Vin. You can avoid the lines at the entrance by booking the tickets online – here.
The ticket to the museum is quite pricy but you can enter the museum for free with the Bordeaux CityPass. To enjoy the free entrance you must enter the museum before noon.
Bordeaux Small-Group Wine Tasting class
You can also take a morning wine-tasting class with a Professional sommelier guide. This is a two hours workshop where you’ll learn about and taste wines from different wine regions in France.
Book the class here.
Pin this article, so you can use it on your visit to the Bordeaux wine region!
First time visiting Bordeaux?
If you’re visiting Bordeaux for the first time, be sure to check out my ultimate guide to Bordeaux, which will get you familiar with all the “must” places to visit in Bordeaux. To help you to choose a hotel in Bordeaux I’ve gathered a list of the best hotels in the center of Bordeaux as well as a guide to the districts of Bordeaux to help you choose your preferred location.
You can also get plenty of tips on things to do in the Southwest of France via lost in Bordeaux’s social media accounts and email list, check them out here:
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*Note – Some of the links in this article include affiliate links for which I earn a small commission. It adds absolutely nothing to your cost and helps me continue writing about this amazing region. Don’t worry, I’m not getting rich here, I’ll never recommend anything I don’t believe in 🙂
