Bordeaux -- On your own or hire a guide?

We are planning a trip that will take us to Bordeaux. Unfortunately, it will be in mid-July, something that can’t be helped. We have never been to Bordeaux before so I am asking for recommendations from those of you that have been there recently. We would likely plan to tour wineries for three days while we are there.

I don’t know how realistic it is for us to do it on our own without a guide. There will probably be five of us on this trip. What do you think? On our own or hire a guide? What wineries MUST be visited if we can get appointments. We want to do both left bank and right bank producers.

Thanks,

Based on my experiences visiting and wine-tasting in Bordeaux, a guide is not necessary, unless you all can’t, nor care to, do your own driving.

You’ll just have to plan out your daily wine visits by communes. For example, do 1 day in, say, Pauillac, and another day in another commune. The wineries within a commune is within a short drive from another. You can combine winery-visits in northern Medoc communes, as well as those in the Right Bank communes, if needed.

We hired a driver/guide, a fellow named Henri Challeau, on the recommendations of Howard Cooper and Charles Stewart. He was excellent, and I was happy not having to drive after having tasted wine at the chateaux and at lunch. We visited Mouton Rothschild, Ducru Beaucaillou, Yquem, Climens, La Haye, and Domaine de Chevalier. Climens was far and away the best experience (we opted to pay up for the priciest tour), followed by Domaine de Chevalier, but they all were quite interesting and enjoyable. In Bordeaux proper, we stayed at the Hotel Burdigala, which was excellent. We also spent two nights at the Clos de la Barbanne, which is a winery and upscale chambre d’hotes not far from St. Emilion. We flat-out loved our stay at the Clos de la Barbanne.

Great information Randall and Ramon. Randall, do you have the contact information for Henri Challeau? I would prefer not to drink and drive, especially in unfamiliar territory. It will be enlightening to learn what a guide costs in Bordeaux but if the guide is good, they are worth the cost. Thanks for the info on the winery visits and lodging too. It is all new to us.

If anyone is heading to Mendoza, Argentina, I highly recommend Peter Cubillos as a guide. We used his services in December 2015, and will be using them again in February 2018. He is relatively young (mid-30s I would guess) but has experience working in wineries from scrubbing the floors and tanks to working in the laboratories. He is much more than a guide. He is knowledgeable and will put together a memorable trip. I usually pick the wineries with a little input from him.
http://peterwinetours.com/

Michael, you can contact Henri at-- contact@bordeaux-wine-travel.com . We engaged him for two days. His services aren’t cheap, but he did a great job for us when we were in Bordeaux this past May. We were a party of three, and he drove us around in a van. I mentioned the Burdigala–one pleasant surprise about the place was its restaurant’s wine list–selected a 1998 Montrose for 150 euros the one night we dined there. Quite a nice price by DC standards!

We’ve been several times and have always done it alone with a car - sometimes booking through the hotel and sometimes booking direct. A few suggestions:

-Two maybe three tastings a day max. Lunch hours are strictly observed and you want to allow time to enjoy the visits.
-in the past we’ve stayed either in Pauillac to tour the northern Medoc (Cordellian Bages) and in Martillac (Les Sources de Caudalie) to tour the southern part. Cordellian Bages will easily set up visits at Lynch Bages and a few others. Caudalie will do the same for Smith Haut Lafite - and you can walk across the street from the hotel). You can also easily tour Sauternes from Martillac.
-The spa at Caudalie is one of May favorites and worth a day.
-I’ve only paid for a tasting at Mouton. But I hear more are charging and you can book tastings online for Pape-Clement, Fombrauge, and others in advance.
-For our Sept trip we are staying for the first time at Pape-Clement and Troplong Mondot. We’ve previously stayed at Cos d’Estournel so looking forward to trying these. Trolpng Mondot has a 1* Michelin restaurant and Pape Clement does a private dinner in their dining room for overnight guests. I believe that Beychevelle also has a limited number of rooms available.
-if you have time, hubby really enjoyed a day trip to Cognac with tastings at Hennessy, Otard, etc.

  • Some of our favorite visits were at Cos, Leoville Barton, Lafite, Yquem, Climens, Smith Haut Lafite, Lascombes, Pichon Baron, and Raymond Lafon.

I would hire a guide only for access to better visits.

We have done half a dozen ‘public tours’ of ‘grand’ estates and to be honest they bore the pants off me now, usual format is a PR lady (once a man) meets you, shows you a video about the estate, then a tour of the facility, info about vineyards etc, a walk through the cellar, a taste of 2-3 (usually one recent release and an older off vintage) wines then a nice thank you with a goodie bag of a leaflet about the estate.

Privately arranged visits (such as we enjoyed with nearly two hours at Lafleur are quite special but have to be arranged by someone ITB.

We prefer to visit smaller properties if at all these days (we spend even summer about 90 minutes north of Bordeaux).

We booked Henri as well — IMHO, well worth it. We booked two days.
I think we got much better tours than if we just dropped in to the wineries.
Plus, he knows how to get the most out of a full day - we didn’t waste any time.

Henri it is then. I have made initial contact with him and I didn’t find the cost prohibitive. It wasn’t clear to me if I would have to rent the vehicle or if he could provide the transportation. I am sure it will become clearer as we communicate. I also don’t yet know anything about deposits and final payments. If anyone wants to share their experience, it would be appreciated.

Thanks for the recommendations on wineries to visit and places to stay. Not having been there before ourselves, the information is invaluable.

Has anyone toured with Dewey Markham?

https://www.dmjwineworks.com/tours.php

Michael, the vehicle was provided as part of the service. As I recall, he didn’t ask for a deposit. We could have paid with cash in Bordeaux, but I elected to wire the money from my bank (a costlier approach these days than the last time I effected such a transfer!), as I didn’t want to be overloaded with cash.

Incidentally, for what it’s worth, I endorse Lori’s suggestion of a cognac house tour if you find yourself in Cognac. We took the Otard “Royal” tour (the priciest one), which I arranged on line. Very interesting and we got to sample some great stuff (which warped my judgement enough that I decided to buy an extremely expensive bottle of their 1972 Petite Champagne (an outstanding cognac, but not one of those we’d sampled)). The hotel at which we stayed was the François 1er, which had parking and was quite nice.

Lori also mentioned the restaurant at Troplong Mondot. We had a delightful dinner there one of the nights we stayed at the Clos de la Barbanne (on the other night we were at the Clos we dined in and had a lovely meal prepared by Mme Gerber, who runs the place with her husband (they spent a number of years in the US and speak excellent English)). While at the Burdigala, we had an outstanding meal one evening at the Pierre Gagnaire, a wonderful Michelin two-star place.

I haven’t but I did contact him. His communication wasn’t as complete and he requires that I rent my own vehicle while Henri is able to provide one. Henri’s communication was better and he actually read the information I initially sent to him. It was clear that Dewey Markham did not. So Henri it is.

Henri picked us up in a very comfy Mercedes van.
We paid him in cash at the end of each of the two days.
We also paid for his lunch at the very good places he selected - which I figured was his “tip.” The lunches were not inexpensive - and he selected the wines from the wine lists - which, of course, were excellent.

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Henri CHALLEAU
Bordeaux Wine Travel
85 rue des Pelourdes
F-33300 BORDEAUX
Tél: 0033 664 653 852


contact@bordeaux-wine-travel.com
www.chauffeur-bordeaux.com
www.bordeaux-wine-travel.com

We also had a wonderful time with Henri.

We have traditionally gotten around ourselves when we go to Burgundy. But, Bordeaux is several times larger than is Burgundy (and the city of Bordeaux is many times larger than the city of Beaune). So, we felt that we needed someone to handle the logistics and driving for us. We are glad we did. About our trip: My trip to Bordeaux - WINE TALK - WineBerserkers

He had a vehicle that he drove us in - we did not need to rent one. We paid him cash each day (and gave him a nice tip at the end of our four-day visit).

He scheduled lunches for us and gave us recommendations for hotels. We stayed at the Hotel de Seze in downtown Bordeaux.

My favorite visits were at d’Yquem, Haut Brion, Ducru Beaucaillou and Mouton (great wine museum at Mouton including the original art for all their artist labels). Also very much liked Domaine de Chevalier.

Our visits were at:

Pomerol and St. Emilion - Clinet, Troplong Mondot and Beausejour Becot
Medoc - Pichon Baron, Lynch Bages and du Tertre
Graves and Sauternes - Haut Brion, d’Yquem and Domaine de Chevalier
Medoc - Ducru, Pontet Canet and Mouton (with a stop in the morning to taste a wine at a winery he wanted to introduce me to - Ferriere).

Wow! Great information. We will have three full days to tour so now I can plan with confidence. Henri it is.

Hope that it works out well and that you have a great time.

Hired a guide. Was fantastic. No worries about getting lost, driving while tipsy, etc. Also a great resource of information (and gossip [wink.gif] )

The CT group has hired Bella Wine Tours, run by Hamish Wakes-Miller, and everyone (including myself) was extremely satisfied with the experience. Hamish has put together at least a couple such trips for the CT’ers. Highly recommended.

Thanks Brian. I am aware of Hamish. However in the past, I have emailed him 5 times through PM on this board and directly to him from his website. I have never once had a response. That ruled him out for me. I know others have had a great experience with him and he would be number 1 on my list but for a lack of response.