Food and Wine Tours Across Europe and Britain
These are holidays built around the table. A morning at a bodega in Rioja, an afternoon watching cheddar turned by hand in Cheddar itself, and a dinner where the wine has come from the hillside you drove past earlier in the day.
We travel to regions where the food and the landscape are really the same subject: Bordeaux and Champagne, Emilia-Romagna, the Basque Country, Somerset and the vineyards of Kent. British breaks go by coach, European trips by air, and someone else does the driving and the booking of tables. Where a tasting is listed on the itinerary, it is paid for.
Frequently Asked Questions About Our Food & Drink Tours
No. Most people who come are interested rather than expert, and the winemakers are used to explaining things from the beginning. You will pick up how the soil, the grape and the ageing fit together simply by standing in the cellar while someone describes it. Nobody is asked to spit, score or identify anything, and there is no test at the end.
Yes, where they appear on the itinerary. Admissions and tastings listed for a tour are covered, as are the meals shown in the inclusions, which is usually breakfast and an evening meal, with lunches on some European itineraries. Wine with dinner is included on several tours and extra on others. The inclusions panel on each tour page is the accurate list, and we are happy to confirm details for a specific departure.
Not Scotch whisky at present. The food and drink programme centres on wine, cider, cheese and regional cooking, though there are spirits in it: Somerset Cider Brandy distils and oak-ages its own apple spirit, and the Ludlow break includes a brewery tour and tasting. If a Scottish distillery tour is what you are after, ask us what is being planned, or whether a private group could be arranged.
Many people on these tours drink very little, and it works perfectly well. Tasting portions are small, nobody minds if you pour yours away, and the cellars, kitchens and market towns are half the point. Soft drinks and water are always available at meals. If you have dietary requirements, tell us at the time of booking so we can ask the hotels and restaurants what they can do.
Yes, and solo travellers are a regular part of these groups. Several of the British coach breaks set aside a number of single rooms with no supplement, which are limited, so it is worth asking early. The European tours carry a single supplement, and the amount is shown on the tour page where it has been set. Ask us what is available on the departure you are considering.
Yes. Wine circles, U3A branches, WI groups and gardening clubs book these as private groups, travelling only with their own members. The itinerary, hotels and tastings work in much the same way as a scheduled departure. Numbers matter to the price, since tours are costed on a group size, so tell us roughly how many you expect and we will tell you what is possible.
Wine Regions We Travel To
Wine holds up the European half of the programme, and the regions we return to are the ones where a tasting explains the countryside you have just crossed.
- Bordeaux — the limestone slopes at Saint-Émilion, the Citadelle de Blaye above the estuary, and a day at Arcachon and the Dune of Pilat away from the vines.
- Champagne — Épernay and its Avenue de Champagne, the chalk cellars beneath Reims, and Hautvillers, where Dom Pérignon was cellar master.
- La Rioja — based in Logroño, with tastings at Marqués de Riscal and Eguren Ugarte and days out to Haro, Laguardia and Pamplona.
- Northern Italy — Lake Garda, the Barolo country of Piedmont, and Emilia-Romagna, where the wine comes with the ham and the balsamic.
The Basque Country is different in character. Less château, more pintxos counter, and a proper pintxos dinner in Bilbao where you eat standing up with everyone else.
Cheese, Cider and Food Festivals in Britain
Not every food holiday needs an airport. The Somerset tour is based at Weston-super-Mare and works round the county's producers: the Cheddar Gorge Cheese Company, the only place still making cheddar in Cheddar; Sheppy's for cider and cheese; and Somerset Cider Brandy, where cider is distilled and then left in oak for years. Cheddar Gorge and the caves are on the same itinerary, which makes sense, because that limestone is where the cheese was once matured.
Kent is the shorter option. Two vineyards sit on the same band of chalk that dips under the Channel and surfaces again in Champagne, which is a good part of the reason English sparkling wine has done so well there.
In Yorkshire there is a walking food tour of York, afternoon tea taken across Harrogate's old tea rooms, and a tasting at Little Wold Vineyard near Beverley. The Ludlow Food Festival break adds a tour and tasting at Ludlow Brewery.
When to Travel for Harvest and Truffles
Timing changes what you see rather than whether the trip works. Late September and October are harvest across most of France, Spain and Italy: presses running, cellars busy, everyone slightly harried and rather more interesting to listen to.
October and November belong to Piedmont, when the white truffles come out of the oak woods around Alba and the chestnut roasts start in the villages. Spring is the quieter alternative. Growers have time to talk, the vines are in leaf by late May, and the hill towns are not yet hot.
For Britain, vineyards look their best between May and September, while Somerset's cheese and cider producers work all year, with the apple pressing itself falling in autumn.
Departure months differ from tour to tour, so ask us which season a particular departure falls in before you book.
What Is Included at the Table
Half board is the usual arrangement: breakfast every morning and an evening meal, taken mostly at the hotel with a night or two out at a local restaurant. Several of the Italian and Spanish tours include water and house wine with dinner. Some European itineraries also include lunch on excursion days, which matters when you are out in the vineyards a long way from a town.
Tastings, cellar visits and entrance fees that appear on the itinerary are paid for as part of the price. Where drinks are extra, or where a lunch is at your own expense, the tour page says so.
Each tour lists its own inclusions, and they genuinely vary between three days in Kent and eight in Emilia-Romagna. Read that panel, and if anything is unclear, ask us before you book rather than after.
