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Alsace Wine Tour

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Wine tour to Alsace: aromatic, elegant wines, classic gastronomy and charming picture-book villages

— Alsace has its very own style both when it comes to wine, food and architecture. It is easy to fall in love with this wine region where the picturesque village lie on a dotted line along the route du vin. They have many different grape varieties and many different wine styles. You can find everything from bone dry and crisp to the sweetest of sweet wines. The wines are a perfect match to the local cuisine. A riesling to a choucroute, or a gewurztraminer to a munster cheese, or a pinot gris to a foie gras.

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Next tour to Alsace:

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This is a sample program, an example. Every wine and food tour that we organise is different and specially adapted for the season and the circumstances. Details in the program, e.g. which producers we visit, will be different each time.

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Alsace is one of the northern-most wine regions in France but it is protected from rain by the Vosges Mountains. It is actually one of the driest wine regions in all of France.

In early September the weather is still warm of the lingering summer. Some of the grapes have probably already been harvested. The harvest is an out-drawn affair in Alsace. It depends on what type of wine the grapes will be used for, dry wines, sweet or perhaps even sparkling.

During this tour you will experience several extensive and instructive wine tastings with all the great Alsace grapes: riesling, pinot gris, gewurztraminer and muscat. There will surely be some pinot noir too. The red wines from Alsace are becoming a match for some Burgundies!

Colmar is right in the heart of Alsace, some 70 km south of Strasbourg, and Colmar will be our base during this trip. It is a charming town with its half-timbered houses, geraniums everywhere, and the canals criss-crossing the centre. There are many restaurants of course. We can give you our favourite address for the best tarte flambée, an Alsatian super-thin version of the pizza.

Alsace has a very rich food culture and tradition. There is the hearty country-style food such as the choucroute served with delicious sausages and pork, the charcuteries and the cheese and more haute-cuisine dishes like foie gras.

Vineyards in Katzenthal, Alsace
Vineyards in Katzenthal, Alsace, copyright BKWine Photography

Strasbourg is by many considered to be the capital of the foie gras, the fat goose or duck liver, ever since the first pâté de foie gras de Strasbourg en croute was created by the chef Jean-Pierre Clause in 1760.

You will have ample opportunities to try how the Alsatian specialities go with the different wines at our gastronomic meals on this trip.

Alsace is one of the classic French wine regions. It is calm on the surface. But appearances deceive. Today it is a wine region with an active discussion among wine growers, and with wine drinkers, on where the future lies. Should there always be the name of the grape variety on the label? Or should more emphasis be put on the provenance, the vineyards or the villages? The soil, the terroir, in Alsace is incredibly complex and varied and it can have a direct impact on the style of the wines. So does the soil and vineyards sometimes have more impact on the character of the wines than the grape variety? We can promise you many interesting discussions with the winemakers on these subjects!

It is easy to get to Colmar from for example Paris. There is a high speed train, TGV, that takes you to Colmar in less than three hours from Gare de l’Est. There is even a train from the Charles de Gaulle Airport (with a change in Strasbourg).

The tour is led by one of BKWine’s wine and travel expert guides.

Punt boats in Little Venice, 'La Petite Venise', Colmar, Alsace
Punt boats in Little Venice, ‘La Petite Venise’, Colmar, Alsace, copyright BKWine Photography

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More travel information

Here are some useful pages and guides about this travel destination:

Even more info

We have written a lot about Alsace and about wine touring in the region, what to do and what to expect.

Here you can find more about travelling in the Alsace wine region.

You can also find more information on the wines from Alsace on BKWine Magazine.


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Program — Wine Tour to Alsace

This is a sample program, an example. Every wine and food tour that we organise is different and specially adapted for the season and the circumstances. Details in the program, e.g. which producers we visit, will be different each time.

Contact BKWine for more details.

Program overview

  • Day 1, Wednesday — Arrival in Colmar
  • Day 2, Thursday — Ribeauvillé and Bergheim
  • Day 3, Friday — Riquewihr, Scherwiller and Barr
  • Day 4, Saturday — Pfaffenheim and Eguisheim
  • Day 5, Sunday — Heading back home

Wednesday, day 1 — Arrival in Colmar

Arrival in Colmar at your leisure any time during the day and check-in at our charming centrally located hotel.

The hotel, a renaissance building from 1543, is right in the centre of the city on the edge of La Petite Venise, Little Venise. The modern interior is an interesting contrast to the old details of the building, the exposed beams the old exterior.

La Petite Venise is the part of the old town where the old tannery water canals criss-cross between the houses. It is less than a stone’s throw from our hotel. Today you can take a gondola on the canals (flat bottomed boats is perhaps a better description), or you can just stroll around in the old town. There are cobble stone streets, many exceptionally well preserved half-timbered houses, and of course many cafés and restaurants to explore.

Evening is free to get a first taste of all the exciting things in Alsace.

Little Venice, La Petite Venise, in Colmar
Little Venice, La Petite Venise, in Colmar, copyright BKWine Photography

Thursday, day 2 —  Ribeauvillé and Bergheim

Our bus picks us up in the morning at our hotel. We head north on the beautiful route du vin, to villages with names like Riquewihr, Ribeauvillé and Bergheim.

There seems to be innumerable picturesque villages in Alsace, as if taken straight from a children’s story book. We will se several of them today.

We will start with a morning visit at Domaine Gustav Lorentz in Bergheim. Domaine Lorentz is famous for its Grand Cru wines from the Altenberg de Bergheim and Kanzlerberg vineyards. We will have an extensive tasting with some ten wines, including some older vintages and a vendange tardive. And a visit to the winery of course.

We will stay in Bergheim for lunch, at a charming bistro that has both traditional Alsatian classics as well as more modern cuisine on the menu. And a superb wine list. Or perhaps we should call it a winstub or wistub? Alsace has its very own language! Maybe this can inspire you to some unexpected wine and food pairings?

After lunch we continue to Ribeauvillé where we have a visit to another famous wine producer: the ambitious Domaine Louis Sipp. It is a wine producer that some years ago converted to organic farming and winemaking. We will inspect the almost ripe grapes in the vineyard, the extensive wine cellar with its impressive barrels and taste a good selection of wines from the many labels this domaine produces. From the tasting room you have a beautiful view over the village and the vineyards.

Late afternoon we are back in Colmar at our hotel. Evening is free for more gastronomic adventures, or just to relax.

Vineyards in Katzenthal, Alsace
Vineyards in Katzenthal, Alsace, copyright BKWine Photography

Friday, day 3 — Riquewihr, Scherwiller and Barr

Our bus picks us up in the morning and we head for Riquewihr, perhaps the most picturesque of all.

Riquewihr is a small village that has not changed much, it seems, since the 17th century. The town has miraculously been saved from all the wars that the region has suffered over the ages.

In Riquewihr we will visit one of the bigger, famous wine producers. They put a lot of emphasis on choosing the best grape variety for each specific plot of land, according to soil and exposition, to achieve maximum quality. They have a new wine cellar where you can admire both the big oak vats, the foudres, as well as their stainless steel and concrete vats. They choose different types of vats for different wines.

We continue further north and arrive at the small village of Scherwiller where we find Paul Dussourt at Domaine André Dussourt. He will tell us, among other things, of the difficult art of making vendange tardive, luscious sweet wines from late harvest grapes.

The estate was founded in 1964 by André Dussourt and since 1994 it is run by his son Paul. In 2000 they renovated the winery and installed several small stainless steel vats in order to be able to vinify each grape variety and each plot separately, which is needed, for example, if you want to make vendange tardive.

Domaine Dussourt also runs a restaurant where we will enjoy lunch that will be a selection of the local specialities. You will get a challenge for lunch too: can you tell the difference between foie gras from duck and from goose! The most common type today is actually from duck.

We will finish the day with a visit to Domaine Jean-Daniel Hering in Barr. Jean-Daniel is the fourth generation winemaker in the Barr village. He makes several different wines, for example some very elegant, mineral and long-lived Grand Cru from the Kirchberg de Barr vineyard.

Late afternoon we are back at our hotel. The evening is free. Perhaps it is time for a choucroute or a tarte flambée?

Wooden vats and barrels in a winery in Kaysersberg, Alsace
Wooden vats and barrels in a winery in Kaysersberg, Alsace, copyright BKWine Photography

Saturday, day 4 — Pfaffenheim and Eguisheim

Our bus picks us up at the hotel and we head out for a day that will, among other things, show you what goes on in organic winemaking.

If you have not yet seen any storks today is the day to lift your gaze to the roof-tops. The stork is becoming a more and more frequently seen bird in Alsace and there is even a research centre for its reintroduction.

In the morning we will get to know in detail biodynamic farming. We will visit Domaine Humbrecht in Pfaffenheim where Pierre-Paul Humbrecht is winemaker assisted by his young sun Marc. Both are just as passionate about biodynamics, and of making wines full of personality.

After having seen the vineyards and wine cellar and tasted the Humbrecht wines we continue to Eguisheim, where we find Domaine Paul Zinck. On top of the winery, which is in the basement, they have a restaurant where we will stop for lunch. We will have time for a quick visit in the cellar and of course taste their wines for lunch.

Our afternoon visit this day is also in Eguisheim. It is a small wine producer that makes 22 different wines from his 11 hectares of vineyards. Some of his wines have excellent expression of the grape varieties whereas others are more marked by the vineyard and the soil.

This is the chance to ask all the remaining questions that you have not yet had answered since it is our last visit on the tour.

We return back to Colmar and evening is free. Considering the theme of the day, perhaps you can be tempted with a visit to one of the restaurants and wine bars that specialises in organic, biodynamic and “natural” wines?

Vineyard in Hatschbourg, grand cru, Alsace
Vineyard in Hatschbourg, grand cru, Alsace, copyright BKWine Photography

Sunday, day 5 — Heading back home

The tour ends after breakfast. Departure.

Program may be subject to minor modifications.

Gewurztraminer grapes in the Brand grand cru vineyard, Turckheim, Alsace
Gewurztraminer grapes in the Brand grand cru vineyard, Turckheim, Alsace, copyright BKWine Photography

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Tour Details — wine tour in Alsace

Dates: This is a sample program. Look in the menu “Our Tours > Scheduled Tours” to check what scheduled tours are currently on the program or contact us to discuss a custom made private wine tour.

Price per person: This is a sample program. Look in the menu “Our Tours > Scheduled Tours” to check what scheduled tours are currently on the program or contact us to discuss a custom made private wine tour.

Included in the price:

  • 4 hotel nights, double occupancy, including breakfast, good quality mid-range European style hotel:
    • Four nights in Colmar
  • Meals as described in the program above (*):
    • 3 gastronomic multi-course lunches including prestigious wines, at wineries or local typical restaurants
  • Start and end point: Colmar
  • Bus transport during the whole trip
  • All vineyard and winery visits
  • Private, high quality tastings at wineries, approx. 3 per day
  • Interpretation from French as needed (some visits may be in English)
  • Wine guiding and wine tutoring by an expert BKWine guide

(*) See below for more important information on our meals.

Not included:

  • Travel (flights) to the destination and back from your home location.

You organise your travel to the destination yourself. If you want assistance with organising your flight tickets etc, please contact us.

We warmly recommend that you plan a few extra days here if you have the time! It is a very interesting place and well worth some “non-wine” tourism too! We can assist you with booking additional hotel nights if you want.

For this trip to take place we must have a minimum of 4 participants registered at the “book before” date. Maximum number of travel guests: 8.

Book This Tour

Book before: [this is a sample programme]

Booking is confirmed by paying the booking fee of [sample programme, this varies by trip]. Full payment should be received at the latest [sample programme, usually one month or 60 days, depending on the trip] before the departure date (see our terms and conditions). Details on how to pay will be sent to you when you register.

It is important that you read our travel booking terms and conditions.

We also invite you to read more on why you should travel with BKWine, about customer protection, and about what you can expect from our wine tours in the section below “More on our wine tours”.

You book by contacting Britt Karlsson, BKWine:

  • phone: +33 1 58 88 04 66 or +33 6 80 45 35 70 (+33 is the country code for France)
  • Skype: “bkwine”. Call us on skype.
  • email: info@bkwine.com, or use the contact form below

“I want to book this tour” or “I want more info”

* = required

Important: We automatically send you a copy of this email when you submit it. If you have not received it within a few minutes: 1) check your spam folder, 2) consider resending it, you might have misspelled your email address. Or simply send us a normal email using our address noted just above.

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More on our wine tours

Why travel with BKWine?

We are Britt and Per Karlsson. We are specialists in wine and food tours and wine tourism, but also experts in wine in general. We are internationally published wine writers and have written ten award-winning wine books.

No other tour operator has a comparable knowledge and experience of wine, wine regions, wine tourism and gourmet travel.

We have organised hundreds of wine and food tours, and this is what we love to do. We take it very seriously – it is not a sideline or a hobby – and what we want more than anything is to share all these wonderful experiences with you.

All our tours are led and managed by guides who have in-depth wine knowledge, and in many cases we lead the tours ourselves.

Read more on why you should choose BKWine for your wine and food tour.

Thousands of happy customers

Over the years, thousands of wine lovers have travelled with us. Many come back to tour again and again with BKWine to new wine regions. Our record-breaking client has been on more than ten BKWine tours. We are happy and proud to have such faithful customers.

Read more on what travellers have said about our tours.

Awards and Mentions

We’re pleased and proud to have received many accolades, including:

  • “World’s Top Wine Tours”, Travel+Leisure Magazine, the world’s biggest travel magazine
  • “Best wine tasting holidays”, AOL Travel’s list of top wine tours
  • “Recommended Wine Tours”, Munskänkarna, the world’s biggest wine appreciation association
  • “World’s Best Wine Book for Professionals” as well as “Best Wine Book of the Year”, Gourmand International awards, and many other book prizes
  • Three OIV book awards, International Organisation of Vine and Wine
  • “Wine Personality of the Year”, an honour bestowed on Britt Karlsson by Munskänkarna in 2011, the world’s biggest wine appreciation association
  • Inclusion on the Wine Media Power List, by Wine Business International magazine

About the wine producers and wineries we visit

Our aim is for you to experience some of the very best and most interesting aspects of the wine world, in terms of wine and food.

We put great effort into creating outstanding winery visits, and in this way we are quite different to many wine tour organisers. It is not always the most renowned, internationally known estates that offer the best experiences. Organising a wine tour featuring famous names of the wine world is relatively easy: it is merely a question of making lists and ticking boxes. On those kind of “bucket list” wine tours, you rarely meet the winemaker or the owner. You will simply be one of thousands of visitors they receive each year.

We do things differently. With BKWine Tours, you will meet the people behind the label, often the winemakers and/or the owners. Thanks to them, you will have a unique, truly personal experience and an insight into the wine world that no one else can offer. When you travel with BKWine, you are more like a special guest than a tourist.

We have personal connections and unparalleled knowledge thanks to more than 20 years as wine journalists, with 10 wine books published, and as wine tour organisers with more than 30 years’ experience. You can be sure of getting the best wine travel experiences with BKWine Tours.

Read more on the wine producers and wineries we visit.

A true gourmet experience: food and gastronomy

For us, wine and food are intimately linked, and this is a fundamental part of our wine travel philosophy. For this reason, a wine tour with BKWine is always an outstanding culinary experience both for the wine enthusiast and for the gourmet. A BKWine tour is a gastronomic voyage that explores the deep relationship between food and wine.

Read more On Meals: Food and Gastronomy on Our Tours.

Customer Protection,  Financial Travel Guarantee, and Terms and Conditions

You can always feel safe when you book your tour with BKWine. BKWine has a bonded bank guarantee that gives full protection according to EU and Swedish law. BKWine is a Swedish limited company and as such is regulated by strict rules.

Read more on Customer Protection, Financial Travel Guarantee. and our Terms and Conditions.

When you book a tour it is important that you read the terms and conditions. BKWine’s booking terms and conditions follow the guidelines developed by the Consumer Protection Agency.

Health, vaccination and allergies

Our tours have no particular health requirements although inevitably we will be walking a certain amount in wine cellars and vineyards. Sensible footwear is a must.

Most of our travel destinations have no particular health guidelines or requirements for vaccinations or medical certificates, but if in doubt, you should always consult a medical professional, vaccination centre or relevant embassy in your country of origin.

We can always accommodate food allergies. However, in order for us to manage such requests you must let us know about any allergies before the tour starts.

Read more in our FAQ and in our Terms and Conditions.

Travel insurance

BKWine does not sell travel insurance. If you want travel insurance, check if your regular home insurance policy includes some kind of travel insurance, or contact your regular insurance company or a travel insurance specialist.

Custom Tours

We also offer custom wine and food tours if you want to travel on different dates, or if you want something different to what we currently offer on our scheduled tours. This tailor-made service can be offered for individuals, companies, professionals, wine tastings clubs etc.

Important information

Our groups are always small. The number of people in the group may vary. The maximum can range from 8 to around 20; check the details in each programme. But our groups are always modest in size. This is important because it guarantees a quality experience and a personal welcome at the wineries we visit.

Read the BKWine Booking Terms and Conditions here. They are important to you!

You are expected to organise your travel independently to the destination for most of our tours, but once you are at the location, we take care of everything.

For more inspiration

Read our wine travel blog. For more, read our online wine magazine the BKWine Magazine with articles from all over the wine world.

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