Most Bordeaux wine tour operators offer similar packages, offering visits to well known and favorite chateaux’s, meals and lodging, ranging from three to six days. One of my favorite packages are Bordeaux Wine Tours 4 Nights 5 days which comes from Off the Beaten Path. Here is a description of what they have to offer and a synopsis of their offering.

Bordeaux Wine Harvest & Culinary
Walking Tour Summary
Our fully escorted five day Bordeaux wine harvest and culinary tour is a unique and rare opportunity for travelers to go behind the scenes of the exclusive world of Bordeaux wine and experience the excitement and activities of the annual "Harvest" period first-hand! There is no better way to discover, learn about and grow one’s appreciation for Bordeaux wine than being in the fields, walking from one historical estate to another, through some of the world’s most famous first growth vineyards and meeting and talking with the producers, cellar masters and pickers themselves while they are in full harvest mode. Unlike other wine producing regions of the world, Bordeaux is a one-of-a-kind place, an "invitation only" world where visits and tasting are by appointment only, and reserved exclusively for those with privileged relationships and connections, especially during the harvest. During our small group, Bordeaux wine harvest and culinary walking tour programs, our guests experience the privilege of our relationships, as they are welcomed to exclusive first growth producers as a group of friends, to learn about the families behind the names, differing trade and vinification practices and the reasons that still make Bordeaux wines the most distinct and special wines of the world!

5-DAY BORDEAUX HARVEST TOUR HIGHLIGHTS
Historian Guide
Expert Walking Guide
Professional Oenology Instruction
Wine Tasting & Blending Workshop
2 Evening, Hands-on Culinary Classes
Walking in Graves
Walking in Sauternes
Walking in the Saint Emilion Jurisdiction
Winery Tours & Tasting at First Growth Producers
Chateau Haut Brion on tour departure day
Gourmet Dining Daily
Historical Accommodations

Bordeaux wine, refers to all wine produced in the Bordeaux region of France, two hours north of the Spanish Border. Bordeaux is the second largest wine region in the world with nearly 300,000 acres devoted to vines, 57 appellations, 9,000 wine-producing châteaux, and 13,000 grape growers

With an annual production of over 700 million bottles, Bordeaux produces large quantities of everyday wine as well as expensive wines. Although the reputation of Bordeaux is based on its few prestigious red wines and the sweet white wines from Sauternes, Bordeaux also produces large quantities of ordinary table wines, including white wines, rosé wines, and a sparkling wine, called Crémant de Bordeaux.

Red Bordeaux is generally made from a blend of grapes. Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Petit Verdot, Malbec. Two other types have slowly seen their existence diminish, the Malbec and Carmenere. On the other hand, white Bordeaux is made from Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, and Muscadelle.

The Bordeaux region has an excellent environment for growing vines. The ecological foundation of the region is generally limestone, meaning that the soil is full of calcium, and the natural paths of the Garonne and the Dordogne rivers irrigate the land. Combined with the oceanic climate from the nearby Atlantic Ocean, giving humidity to the atmosphere, creates a desirable environment for grapes to flourish.

The Bordeaux wine region is divided into sub regions including Saint-Émilion, Pomerol, Médoc, and Graves. In 1855, a classification system, known as The Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855, ranked the wines into five categories according to price. The first growth red wines (four from Médoc and one, Château Haut-Brion, from Graves), are among the most expensive wines in the world, although in wine competitions they tend to be beaten by less expensive wines from various countries in blind taste tests. See, for example, the St. Catharines Wine Tasting of 2005, the Berlin Wine Tasting of 2004 and The Wine Rematch of the Century.

There is a plethora of possibilities to live out a dream tour, visiting some of Bordeaux’s world famous chateau’s. Flying directly into Bordeaux from many foreign departures are much more accessible today, to begin your Bordeaux Wine Tours. The TGV (Train Grand Vitesse) will also get you to Bordeaux in three hours time from the center of Paris. The facility to leave Paris to take on a Bordeaux Wine Tour has become a great getaway from the City of Lights. Even a drive down is quite simple five hour trot.

While wine tasting would be the featured activity, the southwest of France also offers many other attractions not well know to the less well traveled. One of the longest white sand beaches stretches across three counties all the way down to the Spanish border, countless acres of pine tree forests line the coast and neatly manicured bike trails which lead to pristine, secluded beaches. Amongst all this lay many little villages where an open palate will experience sensations never before imagined. From November until April, you can be greeted by either cold, rainy weather one day and the next with warm blue skies. It’s also a good chance that you’ll find sunny days the rest of the year, which makes this region perfect for wine making.

There are several Bordeaux Wine Tour specialists which all offer great packages ranging from 3 to six days, tours focusing solely on the Bordeaux area and others which will take you further south into the Landes and Pyrenees Atlantique region.

On a personal note, I found it a great compromise to take a three day Bordeaux Wine Tour and then wander by myself towards some of the smaller, up and coming Chateaux’s, which I found produces some astonishing cuvees.

Most Red Bordeaux style Wines are blends of several varieties of grapes, notably Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Petit Verdot. Finding the right amount to blend will make the difference between a wine that sits on the shelve for ageing or to collect dust and be forgotten.

There are many Bordeaux style wines all around the world, all trying to emulate the bouquets and colors found in Bordeaux wine. Bordeaux wines have been the reference of greatness for centuries and while California, Chile, Australia and dozens of others have made great leaps of progress, traditionalists always find their way back to their beloved Bordeaux.

Sure, as just about any wine producer knows, it is the unique climate and soils of the Gironde area that make the nearly 300,000 acres of wine making grapes exude their one of a kind flavors. Producers have taken their shot at taking their savior faire from wine making in Bordeaux and applied it to other areas in the world, only to come up short handed. Nonetheless, this has also opened up a Pandora’s Box of great possibilities with bottles which cater to other markets. Some may say Bordeaux is losing ground to New World wines, but it should be looked at as a blessing as more people become interested in enjoying a great glass or bottle of wine.

It would be unfair to say that a bottle of Opus One tastes better than a Chateau Haut Brion. Both have their unique smell, flavor, colors and connoisseur. Playing devils advocate here but, since wine stocks in California originally came from France, could a bottle of Opus One be considered a Bordeaux style wine, vice-versa as vines were re-sent back to France after the terrible disease that nearly wiped out all French stock.  The best wines in the world are Bordeaux styles wines.

Just as there are dozens of tour operators which offer you three to six day Bordeaux Wine Tours, you will find online sites featuring “cheap” Bordeaux wines.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that two gallons of Bordeaux wine, found at a service station, in a huge plastic jug would taste bad at very best. Oh yeah, it would most likely be pretty inexpensive or cheap.

For some, a 300 dollar bottle of Cheval Blanc would be reasonably cheap and to others a nice Pessac Leognan at 8 dollars would be a steal. The French have a term they use when they purchase; qualite rapport prix, basically translating into quality to price.

What makes Bordeaux Wines so special is the term “you get what you pay for” doesn’t always apply and should be described more as “you can’t judge a book by its cover”.

Many specialists were predicting a grand cru during the extremely hot, dry summer of 2003. Nature thought differently and the majority of Bordeaux’s red wines were “okay to good” but nothing exceptional compared to 2000 and those of 2005 which has been called “special” to even those skeptical on Bordeaux Wine.

There is a good chance that some of the cheaper Bordeaux’s you find online are from the 2003 harvest. But don’t be fooled, there dozens of great wines out there, ranging from a mere 6 dollars which has surprised me and has found its way down into my wine cellar. While we’re in the cliché mood, let me end by saying “One man’s garbage is another man’s treasure”. 

Good luck in your search of Bordeaux wine cheap online!