Bordeaux Wine Holidays: How to Plan a Week Among the Vines

A good Bordeaux wine holiday needs four to seven nights, a base on the side of the river whose wine you most want to drink, and no more than two or three estate visits a day. Spring and the September harvest are the best times to go, and July and August the busiest. Hire a car, or book a guide for the days you want to taste without driving, and leave room for what Bordeaux does well beyond the glass: the city, the oysters at Arcachon and the Dordogne valley. We would also suggest staying on a working vineyard rather than in a hotel, and below we explain why.

When is the best time for a Bordeaux wine holiday?

Every season works, but each gives you a different trip. From where we sit on the Right Bank, the year looks like this.

Season	What is happening	How busy
April to June	Green vines, flowering in June, mild days	Quiet, good availability
July and August	Warm, long evenings, grapes changing colour	Busiest, book well ahead
Mid-September to October	Harvest, picking and fermentation in every cellar	Busy at estates, book early
November to March	Pruning, quiet cellars, cold bright days	Very quiet, some estates close to visits

If you want to see wine being made, come for the harvest, which we describe in our guide to a Bordeaux harvest holiday. If you want quiet roads and easy bookings, come in spring.

How long should a Bordeaux wine holiday be?

Three nights is the least we would suggest if you want to do more than skim the surface, and a week is better. A week gives you time for two days of château visits on each bank, a day in Bordeaux city, a day at the coast or in the Dordogne, and evenings with a glass and nothing in particular to do. For a trip focused only on the Right Bank, three or four nights in the countryside is enough.

Getting here is easy from the UK. Direct flights to Bordeaux airport take under two hours from many British airports, and from the airport the city centre is around 35 minutes away and the Right Bank vineyards around 40. Our guide to where to stay in the Bordeaux wine region compares the city, Saint-Émilion and the vineyards as a base.

Should you book a Bordeaux wine tour or plan visits yourself?

It depends on how you like to travel. Organised day tours from Bordeaux city are the simplest start: most cover either Saint-Émilion or the Médoc, transport is included, and nobody has to drive. A large group tour reaches the well-known names but rarely anywhere personal, so if you are a group of six or more, a private guide for a full day often works out well for both cost and quality, and lets you shape the day around an appellation or a mix of grand and small producers.

Planning your own visits gives you the most freedom, as long as you book ahead, because almost every Bordeaux estate works by appointment. Our guide to the Bordeaux wine châteaux you can visit explains which famous names open their doors, which don't, and how to book. If you drive yourself, remember that France's drink-drive limit is lower than in England and Wales, so spit at tastings or take turns behind the wheel.

Which parts of Bordeaux should you visit?

On the Right Bank, Saint-Émilion is the most visited wine village in Bordeaux and deserves its reputation, with its limestone streets and cellars carved into the rock, and the village and its vineyards are a UNESCO World Heritage site. Merlot leads here, giving rich, rounded wines that are often approachable younger. Pomerol, next door, is small and quiet, with little in the way of visitor facilities, but even one visit there is worth the effort.

On the Left Bank, the Médoc is home to Margaux, Saint-Julien, Pauillac and Saint-Estèphe, the names on the world's most famous labels. The soils are gravel and Cabernet Sauvignon leads, so the wines are firmer and built to age. A Médoc day takes 45 minutes to an hour each way from the Right Bank, so it is best treated as a day of its own.

What else is there to do on a Bordeaux wine holiday?

Plenty, and the best trips leave room for it. Bordeaux city deserves a full day, with its 18th century riverfront, its markets and its restaurants and wine bars, where you will often find a small producer you have never heard of. The Cité du Vin on the waterfront covers the history and culture of wine around the world, and is a good start to a trip or an answer to a rainy afternoon.

Arcachon Bay is around an hour from the city and a complete change of scene, with oysters, the vast Dune du Pilat and long Atlantic beaches. To the east, the Dordogne valley is around an hour from the Right Bank estates, with medieval villages, walnut orchards and some of the best markets in France, and it pairs well with a morning tasting.

Why stay on a working vineyard rather than a hotel?

Because the wine stops being something you drive to. On a working estate you wake up with vines outside the window, walk the rows before breakfast and taste in the cellar where the wine is made, usually with the people who made it. You see the seasonal work going on around you, whether that is pruning, the green growth of spring or the harvest.

For groups it also solves the room problem. A whole farmhouse keeps everyone under one roof, with a proper kitchen, a long table and space to spread out, which no hotel can match for a family or a group of friends. The trade-offs are honest ones: you need a car, you shop and cook for yourselves, and the evenings are quiet country evenings rather than city ones.

Where does Château Méaume fit?

Our farmhouse is an 18th century stone house on our Right Bank vineyard, 15 minutes from Pomerol and 25 from Saint-Émilion. You have it to yourselves: four double bedrooms, three bathrooms, a full kitchen and a long dining table, sleeping up to ten adults, with the swimming pool, tennis court and small lake on the estate. Every stay includes a tasting in the cellar with Mark and Sandra, and we are always happy to suggest neighbouring estates worth visiting.

The minimum stay is three nights for most of the year and five in July, August and harvest. Because we are a working estate with heavy machinery and cattle, we can't accept guests under 17. You can see the house and check dates on the page for our farmhouse on the vineyard, or start with a bottle of our Right Bank Bordeaux wines.

Quick answers

What is the best month for a Bordeaux wine holiday? May and June for quiet green vineyards, and late September for the harvest.

How many days do you need in Bordeaux wine country? At least three nights, and ideally a week to see both banks and the city.

Do you need a car for a Bordeaux wine holiday? Yes, unless you base yourselves in the city and join organised tours.

Can you stay on a vineyard in Bordeaux? Yes. Many estates have rooms or houses, and our farmhouse on the vineyard sleeps up to ten.

So how should you plan your Bordeaux wine holiday?

Decide first which wines you most want to drink, and base yourselves on that side of the river for most of the week. Book your château visits a few weeks ahead, keep to two or three a day, and save one day for the city and one for the coast or the Dordogne.

If the Right Bank is your side of the river, the farmhouse sits among our vines and every stay includes a session in our cellar, usually with something older if Mark has it open. See the farmhouse and check dates.