Wine Harvest Season is Around the Corner

The weather is still warm, but the summer is slowly drawing to an end. It means the beginning of autumn and more precisely Wine Harvest Season.  

It is hard to overstate the importance of wine in France. French production is nearly 20% of the world’s total wine production. 

In order to harvest the immense quantity of grapes, 400.000 seasonal workers are needed to every year. 

During the harvesting weeks, certain telltale signs occupy villages around France. Among them the clanking sound of tractors transporting grapes to the wineries of castles and “Cave Cooperative” and the sticky roads from fallen grapes.  

If you are interested in seeing what manual harvest looks like from the first-timer’s point of view, have a look at this video by YouTuber Jay Swanson.

2020 looks promising for wine quality

Winemakers will have high hopes of an excellent vintage. The winter was fairly mild, the spring was rainy with almost no nights of severe frost. 

An excellent vintage would be a welcome consolation prize for the wine industry after a commercially difficult year. 

Cycling Tours in Wine Regions

Experiencing Wine Harvest Season does not necessarily mean manual work in the vineyards. Cycling through wine regions will provide plenty of opportunities to get a first hand view of what it is like.

Tasting wines from the regions after having seen the work gives a new perspective and appreciation for each bottle. 

Below, we present three of our most popular wine tours. 

Burgundy

Burgundy is one of the most famous wine countries in the world and this trip is your chance to visit some of the best names in Burgundy vineyards, such as the famous Meursault!

Starting in Beaune where you will have time to visit the old Hospices, this tour takes you through the Cote de Beaune vineyards and the Chateau de Meursault and Pommard, among others. 

After two nights in Beaune, you will cycle to Nuits st-Georges, a charming wine village from which you can explore places like Gevrey Chambertin, home of great wines!

Bordeaux

This cycling tour of Bordeaux and the Aquitaine vineyards include some of the most famous wines : Saint Emilion, Entre Deux Mers, and other small wine villages throughout the region.

You will start in Bordeaux, which is easily accessible from Paris. Then cycle along the charming Garonne river, you will make your way to the Entre deux Mers, a famous wine region and then to Saint Emilion. 

At the end of the Tour, you return to Bordeaux. Take some time to discover the historical sites of the city before leaving again. 

Champagne

This Champagne bike tour is based in the key cities of the famous wine region: Reims and Epernay! 

Standing at the foot of the Regional Nature Park of the Montagne de Reims, and on both banks of the Marne, the Champagne vineyards are a spectacular sight all year round, displaying a whole host of different colours.

Discover all the secrets of Champagne while cycling some rolling country roads where you can drop in to visit the cellars and taste champagne, including Hautvillers where Dom Perignon ‘invented’ the Champagne method.