Summer holidays in a Wine Region?
You don't want to lie on the beach for 2 weeks, spend 3 days driving to (and home again) your holiday destination or spend too long in a big city?
I think I'll visit a wine region! But where to go?
Well, if in Australia, South America etc I'm sure you'll give a day over to visiting Mendoza or Margaret River but what about a holiday of Wine!
The whole of Europe is within easy reach nowadays but where should you go?
My in-laws 'did' Bordeaux last year and enjoyed it but there was a lot of driving between vineyards.
If you are in Brittany etc, you can drive to Nantes, Angers or Tours to experience the beautiful scenery AND wines (although Nantes is now technically in Loire-Atlantique not Brittany)!
But, if you can afford it, there is nowhere like Burgundy and it's epicenter Beaune! A lovely old walled town of supposedly 20,000 people but with allegedly 1,000,000 visitors a year, it has plenty of hotels, loads of restaurants and all the famous villages within 15/20 minutes - Nuits St Georges, Meursault, Puligny, Aloxe, Vosne Romanee etc etc.
One of the benefits here is that, if you stop for a Tasting at one of the road side vineyards (you'll have to book the big names well in advance) you'll get to taste a range of wines from numerous villages. In Bordeaux, most vineyards only make a Red and white wine!
Beaune isn't perfect - it has only one proper Pub! Pickwicks!
I think I'll visit a wine region! But where to go?
Well, if in Australia, South America etc I'm sure you'll give a day over to visiting Mendoza or Margaret River but what about a holiday of Wine!
The whole of Europe is within easy reach nowadays but where should you go?
My in-laws 'did' Bordeaux last year and enjoyed it but there was a lot of driving between vineyards.
If you are in Brittany etc, you can drive to Nantes, Angers or Tours to experience the beautiful scenery AND wines (although Nantes is now technically in Loire-Atlantique not Brittany)!
But, if you can afford it, there is nowhere like Burgundy and it's epicenter Beaune! A lovely old walled town of supposedly 20,000 people but with allegedly 1,000,000 visitors a year, it has plenty of hotels, loads of restaurants and all the famous villages within 15/20 minutes - Nuits St Georges, Meursault, Puligny, Aloxe, Vosne Romanee etc etc.
One of the benefits here is that, if you stop for a Tasting at one of the road side vineyards (you'll have to book the big names well in advance) you'll get to taste a range of wines from numerous villages. In Bordeaux, most vineyards only make a Red and white wine!
Beaune isn't perfect - it has only one proper Pub! Pickwicks!