After many successful years in the wine trade, involving countless tastings and dinners and, more importantly, a little more time to spare, we started taking our customers on wine holidays. Over the years we have heard many comments along the lines of: “you know all these winemakers, why can’t you take us to visit them so that we can get a real feel for the area and its wines?”. Well, we decided to do exactly that!

After tremendously successful trips to the Loire Valley, Champagne, Bordeaux, Alsace, Veneto and Rioja, we set up a separate company under the Grapes umbrella to specialise in purely wine holidays. The group size on each trip varies, and all have been great fun and very informative.

In May 2023 we went to Burgundy, taking in Champagne and Chablis along the way, then in October we enjoyed Amboise in the lovely Loire Valley.

Spring 2024 saw a wonderful visit to Bra in Piedmont via Beaune. Lovely wines, super food from excellent restaurants and stays in a couple of lovely hotels…and that’s without all the fun and laughter! In Autumn 2024 we visited Cahors (via Amboise in the Loire Valley), staying in a fabulous chateau down there.

In May this year we went to the Rhone valley, via Champagne, and stayed midway between Hermitage and Chateauneuf du Pape, visiting several wineries (and restaurants) in this beautiful area. We followed that with an October trip to Sancerre via Champagne, visiting a Champagne house before staying in the lovely hotel near Chalons that featured during our May trip. We then went to another great hotel set in vineyards in the Sancerre area. As usual we visited various top wineries and enjoyed some lovely lunches and dinners along the way.

In May 2026 we are making a longer trip, this time to Champagne, Beaujolais and the Languedoc for 7 nights/8 days. The trip will run from Monday May 25th to Monday 1 June inclusive over 7 nights/8 days. This trip is fully booked.

We have the same excellent coach (with facilities!) and driver as last time - expect the usual format of excellent company, and lovely hotels on a bed & breakfast basis (a couple of them have swimming pools). Various lunches and/or dinners will be included. Naturally there will be the usual winery visits and tastings, including a couple of interesting and “slightly different” venues.

In October 2026 (5th-9th) we return to where we started, lovely Saumur in the Loire Valley where we will be staying in the same great boutique hotel. Full details will follow, but the hotel, ferry and coach are booked. A provisional list is already building. Please register your interest with me to reserve a place.

I have also started planning our Spring 2027 trip which will be to Ribera del Duero in Spain, using our usual coach and going via the ferry crossing between Portsmouth and Bilbao/Santander. More details later in the year.

Please contact us if you would like further details on any of these visits, or if you are interested in us arranging a trip for your own group in the future.

Please see picture galleries below for a few pictures from Burgundy in May 2023 and Oporto in October 2022.