Saint-Émilion dagstur: bybesök, Châteaux och lunch

The group for our tour of eight persons from several countries met at the Olala Bordeaux offices near the Grand Theater for a full-day in the Saint-Émilion wine region. Our guide Margot began by taking us on a brief walking tour of the small village of Saint-Émilion itself, discussing its history and role in the origins of French wine production. We had just over half an hour to explore points of individual interest before heading to the first of three châteaux. At each, we were lead through a tasting of several wines produced at the respective vineyards by members of their staff, for a total of 12 different wines. We also toured some of their facilities and learned about the process for producing the wines. While at the second vineyard, we enjoyed a nice lunch that offered three options each for the appetizer, main course, and desert, accompanied of course by wine. The tour provided an excellent introduction to French wine production practices that give them their distinctive characteristics. Our guide and the vineyard staff members were not only very informative by also excellent hosts.

We have taken a lot of family vacations together, but I must say this wine tasting with Margot was one of our favorites! Margot was fantastic, and the tours were outstanding! First class all the way – highly recommend!!!!

We had such a great day. Our driver Renee was fantastic - very knowledgable and interesting and he made the day so fun. We visited 3 beautiful wineries who were very generous with their time and their wine!

Our driver was delightful. She shared history of the area as she drove and was very helpful. Vineyard choices were great.

This was a pleasant day from start to finish. The van was comfortable, clean and modern with great air conditioning. Silvie was very fun and animated as she shared her extensive knowledge about Bordeaux and Saint Emilion. She was open to unscripted conversation about what it's like to be a local and her life experiences adding to the interesting conversation during the 1 hour drive. We tasted a total of 11 wines in three Chateaus and each guide in the individual stops told us something different about wine making and tasting, so it wasn't information overload. We appreciated Silvie having umbrellas for our rainy day, and a back up location for our Picnic lunch which was a beautiful solarium room surrounded by hydrangeas.Thus was a great way to spend our last day in France and we were back to our hotel by 5pm.

The tour was super excellent!! Our guide was Valentin and he is very knowledgeable and very good driver !! He is fun and good explaining everything with detail!!! We had a great time !! The places we visited were great. !! Thanks

This was a very well thought out and planned full day event. There were seven people per van that was very comfortable and air conditioned. While riding in the car the driver was giving so much information on Bordeaux, the history, wine and the region’s. We had a lovely relaxing lunch. Three different chateau’s with generous wine tasting. I would highly recommend this tour.

Tour guide was exceptional, very knowledgeable about wine and Saint-Émilion, would highly recommend this tour

Awesome Tour. Worth every penny of what they charge. Wineries were beautiful and steeped in history. Many wine tastings and wonderful lunch.

We had a nice day on this tour, but we've had wine tours that were much better so this tour doesn't compare well to those. That being said, we haven't done another Bordeaux tour so this may be a very good tour for this area. The things that disappointed us were the lack of any microphone system in the van, which could be installed so inexpensively and easily. If you were in the back row or if other passengers were talking, you couldn't hear anything the guide said. He was giving important information about the area, wine making, the chateaux, etc. and most simply couldn't hear it. We've been on dozens of similar tours and the guides always had microphones. Secondly, the lunch was served in a small solarium of a chateau, by our guide, but it was very poor. All was served in glass jars that we had to heat up in the microwave if we wanted it warm. That was ridiculous. We've just had much, much, nicer meals served on these tours. This was a disappointment. Our guide was very nice and gave lots of information, answering all questions. The chateaux were interesting, they visit 40 different chateaux, so you can't know which you will visit. If you had the time to choose the chateaux and arrange for a car you could do it so, so much better. If you're in the area for a short time and cannot plan it all yourself, this is a passable tour. The tour company could make this tour better and they should.