Phil’s Extended French Wine Vacation
- Phil Lo
- 18 hours ago
- 4 min read
My wife, Goretti, and I spent a three-week vacation in France in October 2025. Two of those weeks were with the Vinfluence Group for a wine tour of Burgundy and Rhone. Then we spent an extra four days in Provence on our own in a small historical town named Arles. We finished off in Paris for another two days before returning home to Calgary.
My regular readers would have noticed that this is my fourth tour with the Vinfluence Group. In fact, this is my second wine tour through Burgundy. I did the first visit to Burgundy almost 10 years ago with the Willow Park Wine Tours. This re-visit was every bit enjoyable and impressive as the first one. And let me tell you, the food in Burgundy was still as impressive as the wines!!
This tour was two tours linked together, with the Burgundy part taking up the first five days, then a two-day break on our own in Beaune, followed by the second five days in Rhone. And thanks to Brien and Peggy (Vinfluence), we were very well taken care of during this trip.
We started in Reims, a city in the heart of Champagne. Then traveled southwards through Chablis, then stayed in Beaune as our base for the time in Burgundy. We averaged two tastings a day. In Beaune, we stayed in an AirBnB, we called the Maison. All the other hotels were all four- or five-star level hotels and majority of the lunches and dinners were at Michelin recommended or 1-star level restaurants.
During the two-day break on the weekend in Beaune, we had the chance to visit the famous Hospice de Beaune where it was a working hospital from the mid-1400’s until 1971. It also is the location for the famous Hospice de Beaune wine auction every year in mid-November. The Hospice is the largest vineyard owner in Burgundy. Its land holdings are the results of donations by vineyard owners over the years.
We left Beaune the following Monday and traveled by bus to Beaujolais and stopped at the famous Moulin-A-Vent and had lunch in a restaurant in the village.
While in Beaujolais, we visited Domaine Anita which owned vineyards in Moulin-A-Vent, Fleure, Chenas, and Morgon. And tasted some 2023 and 2024 vintages.
After lunch in Moulin-A-Vent, we continued by bus to Tournon-sur-Rhone, which would be our base in Hermitage, Rhone. The following two days we visited Chapoutier, Guigal and Paul Jaboulet Aine.
After Hermitage, we departed for our last destination, Chateauneuf-du-Pape. In Chateauneuf, we visited Gonnet and Chateau La Nerthe.
After the wine tour, we traveled on our own by train to Arles, an historical town in Provence with many Roman ruins, many declared UNESCO World Heritage Sites, including a colosseum and an amphitheatre. It also is an historical artists’ town where the famous Van Gogh had lived a couple of years. Finally, we traveled back to Paris and visited the repaired and renovated Notre-Dame Cathedral before coming home.
I recorded 15 formal tastings/winery visits during these 10 days and tasted 86 wines according to my notebook. Moreover, all the lunches and dinners were accompanied by wines from the region and local area. I can report that almost all the wines tasted were good to excellent. In order not to bore most of my readers with my tasting notes, I decided to only show the more outstanding wines tasted and put those tasting notes in the appendix for the benefits for the curious and more serious wine lovers.
I also have a couple of discoveries which I would like to share with my readers.
1. Saint Romain, a village in Beaune which makes some excellent and not very expensive white Bourgogne. This name was not in my vocabulary for fine white Burgundy until this trip. Geographically, Saint Romain is neighbour to Mersault to the East and Montrachet to the North, but it sits in a valley and a higher altitude. Apparently, grapes grown in this village used to have a hard time ripening properly. As a result, it has no 1 Cru nor Grand Cru and was not well known. But global warming has helped the grapes grown here to have a chance to ripe properly in the last few years. With improved wine making technique, it is now producing wines as interesting and drinking like those coming from Mersault, but at a fraction of the price. Look for them before too many people find out and prices start to rise.
2. Of the three famous producers in Northern Rhone: Guigal, Chapoutier and Paul Jaboulet Aine, I have bought and cellared wines from Guigal, and Chapoutier, but have never bought from Paul Jaboulet. This trip showed me how much I have been missing out. At the winery they presented six wines for tasting and I love them all. I hate to say this: I find their wines every bit as good, if not better than Guigal and Chapoutier. I now must start buying their wines!
3. Before this trip, I was not a fan of the white wines from Rhone, made with the Marsanne and/or Roussanne grapes. But some of the whites we tasted in both Hermitage and Chateauneuf during this trip impressed me quite a bit. I found out if they were carefully made and care was taken not to over extract from the grapes, and with judicial use of oak, very fresh and delicate wines can be made. I am planning to buy more of these whites from Rhone in the future.
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