Tour description
From Burgundy & Beaujolais to Barolo & Barbaresco – France & Italy Wine Tour
This journey is designed for travelers who want to experience Europe’s great wine regions as living landscapes rather than museum pieces. Moving from Paris into the Côte de Nuits in Burgundy and onward to Barolo and Barbaresco in Piedmont, you will follow a clear thread connecting Pinot Noir and Nebbiolo through structure, site, and tradition.
In Burgundy, the focus is on the Côte de Nuits, where vineyard hierarchy, limestone soils, and time define the world’s most benchmark expressions of Pinot Noir, with the option to contrast these wines through white Burgundy or a deeper exploration of red villages. In Piedmont, that same logic continues as you move from Barolo to Barbaresco, where Nebbiolo expresses power and refinement through neighboring but distinct terroirs.
Traveling by high-speed train and private chauffeur, you will stay in carefully chosen boutique hotels and enjoy privately hosted winery visits shaped by long-standing local relationships. The pace is measured, the access personal, and the focus always on understanding how great wines are shaped by land, climate, and the people who work them.
DAY 1 ARRIVAL PARIS
Arrival into Paris
You will arrive in Paris and settle into your boutique hotel, ideally located for walking and neighborhood dining. If you wish, we can add extra days in Paris, guided tours, visit to the nearby Champagne wine region, etc.
Tour in a nutshell: Private transfer. Overnight in a 4* boutique hotel in the heart of Paris.
DAY 2 BEAUNE
Paris to Beaune
After breakfast, you will travel by high-speed train to Beaune, the historic heart of Burgundy’s wine trade. Once settled into your hotel within the old town, you will explore the charming village of Beaune on foot and enjoy private tastings at two excellent cellars in the village itself, a perfect way to introduce Burgundy Pinot Noir and Chardonnay wines, emphasizing how subtle differences in soil, exposure, and élevage shape style. You will also have time to visit the Hospices de Beaune, whose charity wine auction remains a cornerstone of Burgundy’s wine culture.
Tour in a nutshell: First class high-speed train. Overnight Beaune.
DAY 3 CÔTE DE NUITS
Côte de Nuits: Structure, Depth, and Longevity
Today you will explore the Côte de Nuits, the structural backbone of Burgundy and the region’s most important source of age-worthy red wines. Traveling through villages such as Gevrey-Chambertin, Vosne-Romanée, and Chambolle-Musigny, you will see how Pinot Noir takes on power, aromatic depth, and firm tannic structure when grown on deeper limestone soils and steeper slopes.
Your private tasting with local winemakers will focus on wines built for evolution, where extraction, whole-cluster use, and élevage play a decisive role. Producers will explain how they balance precision with structure, offering insight into why Côte de Nuits wines often require time to fully reveal themselves. This day will lay the foundation for understanding later tastings in Barolo, where Nebbiolo similarly prioritizes structure, tension, and long-term aging.
Tour in a nutshell: Private chauffeur transfer visiting the Còte de Nuits wineres. with private visit & tastings. Local cuisine lunch. Overnight Beaune.
DAY 4 BURGUNDY
Burgundy in Contrast: Côte de Beaune Whites or Refined Côte de Nuits Reds
Today is designed as a study in contrast, mirroring the stylistic distinctions you will later encounter between Barolo and Barbaresco.
If you choose to explore the Côte de Beaune, you will focus on Chardonnay shaped by fine-grained limestone and careful élevage. Villages such as Puligny-Montrachet and Meursault will illustrate how texture, minerality, and controlled reduction create wines of depth without weight. This day provides an important counterpoint to the power of Pinot Noir, sharpening your sensitivity to balance and site expression ahead of Piedmont’s more restrained Barbaresco wines.
Alternatively, if you prefer to remain with red Burgundy, you will continue in the Côte de Nuits, shifting the focus toward finesse and aromatic lift. Tastings may highlight Chambolle-Musigny or select Vosne-Romanée producers, where Pinot Noir shows elegance, layered perfume, and earlier approachability. This stylistic lens will prepare you for Barbaresco, where Nebbiolo often expresses similar refinement, transparency, and grace when compared to Barolo.
Tour in a nutshell: Private chauffeured transfer with more private visits & tastings at Còte de Nuits wineries. Local cuisine lunch. Overnight Beaune.
DAY 5 BEAUJOLAIS
Beaune to Lyon via Beaujolais
Traveling south with your chauffeur, you will pass through Beaujolais, stopping in one or two cru villages such as Morgon, Fleurie, or Moulin-à-Vent. Here, the Gamay grape shows its most serious expression, shaped by granite soils and careful farming. You will meet producers working with low yields and minimal intervention, whose wines emphasize structure and longevity rather than simple fruit. In the afternoon, you will continue on to Lyon.
Tour in a nutshell: Chauffeured transfer. Overnight in a boutique 4* hotel in the heart of Lyon.
DAY 6 LYON
Lyon: Food as Culture
Today you will experience Lyon as the city understands itself: through food. Long regarded as France’s gastronomic capital, Lyon’s cuisine is rooted not in luxury ingredients, but in technique, tradition, and respect for local produce.
Your day may begin in Les Halles de Lyon – Paul Bocuse, where cheesemongers, butchers, and wine merchants work with chefs on a daily basis. Here, you will encounter regional staples such as Saint-Marcellin and Saint-Félicien cheeses, rosette and Jésus de Lyon sausages, and pâtés seasoned with restraint rather than excess. These foods are traditionally paired with the wines of the nearby Rhône Valley or Beaujolais—wines chosen for freshness and balance rather than power.
Lunch will typically be enjoyed in a classic bouchon lyonnais, where dishes such as quenelles de brochet, tablier de sapeur, or saucisson chaud with lentils reflect a cuisine built around texture and comfort. The afternoon is left open for walking through Vieux Lyon or along the rivers, allowing you to experience how food, wine, and daily life remain closely intertwined in this city.
Tour in a nutshell: Private guided tour of Lyon with food tastings. Local cuisine lunch. Overnight Lyon.
DAY 7 TURIN
Turin: Chocolate, Coffee, and Quiet Elegance
Crossing the Alps by train, you will arrive in Turin, a city whose culinary identity is shaped by restraint, precision, and understatement. Before continuing into the Langhe, you will spend time exploring the historic center with your chauffeur, discovering why Turin feels markedly different from other Italian cities.
Turin is inseparable from chocolate and coffee culture. You may stop at historic cafés to taste gianduja, the local blend of cocoa and Piedmont hazelnuts, or sip a bicerin, the city’s traditional layered drink of espresso, chocolate, and cream. These traditions developed alongside Piedmont’s wine culture, reflecting the region’s preference for depth and balance over sweetness.
Local dishes such as vitello tonnato, tajarin pasta enriched with egg yolk, and carne cruda all’albese speak to the same philosophy you will soon encounter in the vineyards: high-quality ingredients, minimal intervention, and clarity of flavor. Aperitivo in Turin is elegant and unhurried, often accompanied by local Vermouths or lighter Nebbiolo-based wines.
By late afternoon, you will continue by car into the Langhe hills, where these culinary traditions take on their most agricultural and wine-driven expression.
Tour in a nutshell: High-speed train. Private Transfers. Overnight Barolo.
DAY 8 BAROLO
Barolo: Power, Tannin, and Time
Today you will explore Barolo, where Nebbiolo reaches its most structured and uncompromising expression. As in the Côte de Nuits, this is a landscape defined by hierarchy—communes, crus, exposures, and soils all shaping wines built for longevity rather than immediacy. This day intentionally echoes your experience in the Côte de Nuits: wines that demand patience, reward attention, and reveal their character slowly.
In the company of your private chauffeur and local wine expert, you will visit estates where Nebbiolo is handled with patience and restraint. Conversations will naturally turn to maceration length, tannin management, and the role of large-format oak versus smaller barrels. As you taste, you will recognize familiar ideas first encountered in Burgundy: wines that reveal themselves slowly, built around tension, structure, and the promise of time rather than early generosity. Time in the vineyards will reinforce how altitude, marl-rich soils, and cooler exposures contribute to Barolo’s authority and long aging curve.
Tour in a nutshell: Private chauffeured tour visiting wine estates in Barolo. Local lunch. Overnight Barolo.
DAY 9 BARBARESCO
Barbaresco
In Barbaresco, you will encounter a different voice of Nebbiolo; one that favors clarity and early balance while retaining depth and seriousness. Much like the contrast between powerful villages and more refined expressions in Burgundy, the distinction here lies in texture and transparency rather than ambition.
You will meet producers whose wines emphasize aromatic lift, precise tannins, and a more immediate sense of harmony. You will discuss how site selection, harvest timing, and extraction choices shape Nebbiolo’s expression, and why Barbaresco often feels more open in youth while remaining capable of graceful aging.
By this point in the journey, the parallels will feel intuitive: the same grape, nearby landscapes, and shared traditions yielding wines that speak with different accents rather than different languages. As with refined villages of the Côte de Nuits or the contrast with Côte de Beaune finesse, the distinction here is not quality, but expression.
Tour in a nutshell: Private chauffered transfer visiting wine estates in Barbaresco. Overnight Barolo.
DAY 10 PIEDMONT
Piedmont – Your Way
This day is designed to follow your interests. You may choose to spend an additional day in Barolo or Barbaresco, returning to favorite communes or exploring producers whose wines benefit from slower, more focused tasting. This second encounter often brings clarity, as patterns in soil, structure, and style begin to emerge more clearly.
Alternatively, you may prefer to widen the lens within the Langhe, tasting Nebbiolo bottled outside the DOCG framework, or exploring neighboring areas where site expression is more transparent in youth. This day is less about discovery through quantity and more about understanding through continuity, revisiting, comparing, and asking better questions now that the region feels familiar.
Tour in a nutshell: Free day in Barolo. Overnight Barolo.
DAY 11 MILAN
Piedmont to Milan, with Optional Canelli Stop
In the company of your chauffeur, you will begin the journey toward Milan. Depending on your interests, the route can include a stop in Canelli, a historic center of Italian sparkling wine production and the spiritual home of Alta Langa DOCG wines. Here, you may visit an underground cellar network carved into limestone hillsides, where long lees aging defines wines made under the Alta Langa designation. Produced primarily from Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, these wines offer an instructive point of comparison to Champagne and Franciacorta, while remaining distinctly Piedmontese in style.
For guests less focused on sparkling wine, the day may instead remain unhurried, allowing for a relaxed departure from the Langhe and a smooth arrival into Milan by late afternoon. Once settled into your hotel, the evening is free to enjoy Milan at your own pace. If you would like to extend your stay in Milan, add guided tours or even a relaxing tour finale on the Lake Como, we will be delighted to assist.
Tour in a nutshell: Chauffeured transfer. Private visit & tastings at a Sparking wine producer. Local cuisine lunch. Overnight Milan.
DAY 12 DEPARTURE MILAN
Departure from Milan
A private transfer will take you to the airport, concluding a wine journey shaped by comparison, continuity, and direct encounters with Europe’s most influential wine regions.
Tour in a nutshell: Chauffeured transfer to Milan Airport.
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