There is no finer classroom for understanding wine than the cellars of Bordeaux, and no more civilised way to navigate them than from the rear seat of a private car, unencumbered by designated driving arrangements or the compromise of a shared coach. FFGR Bordeaux offers fully customised wine tour programmes across the great appellations of the Gironde: Saint-Émilion and its limestone plateau, the iron-rich soils of Pomerol, the gravel ridges of the Médoc, the elegant terroir of Pessac-Léognan, and the golden botrytis of Sauternes. Each tour is conceived in collaboration with our clients, tailored to their level of connoisseurship, the estates they wish to visit, and the rhythm of a day they wish to keep.
Saint-Émilion: The Village and the Plateau
Saint-Émilion's medieval village — a UNESCO World Heritage Site — sits above a limestone plateau threaded with the vines of some of the world's most sought-after wines. Cheval Blanc, Ausone, Pavie, Angélus: names that appear on auction catalogues and in cellar books of the discerning. FFGR Bordeaux facilitates private visits to estates at all classification levels, from Premier Grand Cru Classé A to emerging boutique producers whose wines rarely appear outside France.
A full-day Saint-Émilion programme typically includes two to three estate visits with cellar tours and guided tastings, a private lunch at a domaine or at one of the village's acclaimed restaurants, and time to explore the medieval streets, the monolithic church carved into the limestone, and the local wine merchant ateliers. Our chauffeur remains at your disposal throughout, waiting with discretion and ready to depart the moment you are.
Pomerol: Intimacy and Rarity
Pomerol has no formal classification, no appellation hierarchy, no tourist infrastructure — only iron-rich clay soils and some of the most intensely personal wines on earth. Pétrus, Le Pin, Lafleur, Vieux Château Certan: these are properties that do not advertise, do not hold open days, and do not receive walk-in visitors. Access is the privilege of the well-introduced, and FFGR Bordeaux's network extends to the introductions that make such visits possible.
A Pomerol programme is necessarily intimate — typically one or two properties per day — and is best conceived as part of a multi-day Bordeaux exploration rather than a standalone afternoon. We work with our clients and their sommeliers or négociants to identify the visits that are both relevant and available, then build the day around them.
The Médoc: A Route Among Châteaux
The D2 road north of Bordeaux is one of the great wine roads of the world, passing through Margaux, Saint-Julien, Pauillac, and Saint-Estèphe — the spine of the 1855 Classification. A Médoc tour by private chauffeur transforms what would otherwise be a logistically demanding road trip into an effortless progression from estate to estate, with each visit pre-arranged and each arrival anticipated.
We recommend the Médoc as a full-day programme, with morning visits to two estates in the southern appellations and afternoon visits to the Pauillac châteaux — Lafite Rothschild, Mouton Rothschild, Latour, Pichon Baron — before returning south along the Garonne as the light fades over the estuary. A riverside dinner in Bordeaux completes the day naturally.
Sauternes and Pessac-Léognan: The Other Faces of Bordeaux
South of Bordeaux, the Sauternes appellation produces the world's greatest sweet wines from grapes individually selected at peak botrytis. Château d'Yquem, the only Premier Cru Supérieur in the 1855 classification, anchors a tour that also encompasses Château Suduiraut, Rieussec, and the intimate producers of Barsac. Visiting during the harvest — typically late September through November — offers the rare spectacle of the trie selective, the meticulous hand-harvesting that makes these wines possible.
Pessac-Léognan, just south of the city, is the home of Haut-Brion and Mission Haut-Brion, the great red and white estates that hold Cru Classé status across both colour categories. A Pessac-Léognan morning combined with a Sauternes afternoon makes for one of the most complete expressions of Bordeaux's diversity in a single day.
Gastronomic Pairings and Multi-Day Programmes
Wine without food is an incomplete conversation, and FFGR Bordeaux approaches multi-estate programmes with gastronomy at their heart. We collaborate with estate restaurants, Michelin-starred properties in and around Bordeaux, and private dining caterers to build programmes where the table is as carefully considered as the cellar.
Multi-day wine programmes — two to five days covering multiple appellations, with hotel accommodation at Les Sources de Caudalie, Château Smith Haut Lafitte, or the InterContinental Le Grand Hôtel in Bordeaux — are available as fully managed itineraries. We handle all reservations, logistics, and communications; our clients need only arrive.
How to Book a Wine Tour
Wine tour programmes are booked with a minimum of five days' notice to allow estate coordination. We request an initial conversation — by WhatsApp or telephone — to understand your preferences, experience level, and available dates. From this, our reservations team prepares a programme proposal within forty-eight hours.
Pricing varies by duration, number of estates, and the level of on-ground coordination required. All-inclusive day programmes start from a transparent flat rate communicated at the proposal stage; multi-day programmes are quoted as complete packages including transport, estate access coordination, and meal reservations.