I will be in Paris in mid June with my wife and 22 year old daughter and 17 year old son. It is my wife's first trip to Paris. She really enjoys wine so I would like to find a day trip to wine country. While she enjoys Champagne, wine is her favorite.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Paris is not wine country so you are talking about a pretty long trip for a day trip. You might book a wine tasting experience in Paris rather than heading for another region for a day. If you must go to wine country to do this, look into a tour that might go from Tours in the Loire.
Agree with the above: the nearest wine region to Paris, other than the Champagne region, is the Loire Valley / Touraine. There are day trips from Paris to the eastern end of the Loire, though most of them probably focus on visiting 2-3 chateaux, not tasting wine. You could take the train to Tours (less than 2 hrs each way) and book a wine tasting tour that runs from there. Here is a map of the vineyards near Tours http://www.touraineloirevalley.co.uk/discover-touraine/wine-tours-in-loire-valley/along-the-loire-valley-wine-route
If you do decide to stay in Paris for a wine tasting, o-chateau.com has some wonderful selections. Definitely time well-spent!
I just booked a tour through Viator that visits one castle and 2 wineries in the Loire Valley. It's a group of no more than 8 people, travel in a minivan, hotel pick up/drop off, lunch is included and they give you pastries in the van on the way there. I love castles but my husband can handle just 1 in a day so this trip was perfect for us to get out of the city for a day.
In speaking to the Warden, she believes that this will be quite a bit of traveling. She would prefer staying in Paris and doing some tasting there. Thanks to those who replied but apparently a higher court has ruled on this and we are staying in Paris. "Staying in Paris". Wow, life is sure tough. ;-)
I second o-chateau.com. We did I wine class/tasting with food pairings that was great.
I third O-Chateau, take one of the classes, great intro to how the French go about wine tasting and the best part, you taste the wine and get to swallow!
A wine class in Paris may be a good idea.
The best trip that could qualify as a convenient day trip is Reims, easily reached quickly by train, where you can tour a champagne house or two (massive places with underground caves holding thousands of bottles of wine) and back to Paris in one day.
As a stretch you could probably get to western Loire Valley where a local white wine is grown and bottled. It's not a convenient trip but may be doable.
For red wine, I think you have to plan for more than a day trip. Maybe somewhere in Burgundy would work? Beaune has a place in town that's high on Rick's list, but I don't know whether it's reachable from Paris as a day trip?
I'm glad to hear the recommendations for O'Chateau! I found it during a wine tour search and already have a wine tasting lunch reserved for April 24th!
