SUPERB WINE TOURS with SPECIAL VISITS & TASTINGS

Our tours are about great wine experiences, you have special visits to the cellars and you are treated to private wine tastings often with the winemakers themselves, where you’ll taste superb, rare and undiscovered wines.

You’ll enjoy gourmet and regional food, deliciously matched to the wines. Dining as a private guest at a bodega, winery or renowned Bordeaux chateau is one of the ultimate experiences that you can have on a wine tour experience. Being taken by a one of the world’s great experts to the ‘unvisitable’ domaines in Burgundy is another. Arblaster & Clarke make these kind of remarkable events happen.

Great wine tourism also involves an element of exploring. A&C’s tours take you to the wine regions of France, Italy, Spain, Portugal and many other countries. In France this means visiting the beautiful vineyards of Alsace as well as say Champagne, Rhone or Burgundy. In Italy, it means visiting top growers in Trentino and Sicily as well as Tuscany. It can also mean going to Chile, looking at the origin of wine in Georgia or exploring Barolo’s cru vineyards on a vineyard walk in Piemonte.

CHAMPAGNE WEEKENDS

The programme includes our famous and original escorted Champagne Weekends, offered many times a year, every year since 1987. On these, you’ll taste at least 25 Champagnes, visit the caves, have comparative tastings, enjoy a meal at one of the cellars and enjoy Champagne breakfasts every day! See also our luxury Ultimate Champagne Tour and our Champagne festivals.

WINE CRUISE, SEA CLOUD 8 – 15 July 2012

Our Mediterranean small ship wine cruise on the ‘Sea Cloud‘ sails from Rome to Ischia, Amalfi, Sardinia, Elba, St Tropez and Nice. This luxury square rigger takes a maximum of 50 passengers. (Cabins now limited, call urgently if you are interested). See Wine Cruises

NEW TOURS for 2012

Georgia: Explore the world’s oldest continuous wine culture with Tim Clarke.

Gourmet Istanbul: Staying in a traditional boutique hotel in Sultanahmet, includes cookery classes, a fascinating walking culinary exploration of the city and a Turkish wine tasting.

Gourmet Provence with a Michelin star chef.
A delightful new gourmet cookery holiday staying in a beautiful hilltop town in Provence with wines from Bandol and Cassis.

Ribera del Duero Vineyard Walk: Explore Ribera del Duero, Rueda and Toro on this great new vineyard walk. New date!

25th Anniversary Champagne Festival: Join us for the Champagne event of the year! Our Festival in Reims at the medieval meeting house of the Counts of Champagne will be attended by ten superb Champagne Houses; Taittinger, Bollinger, Billecart-Salmon, Philiponnat, Cattier, Goutorbe, Vilmart, Brice, Ployez-Jacquemart and Hatté. There’s also a Gala dinner with Taittinger and lunch with Vilmart available, depending on your choice of Cru, Premier Cru or Grand Cru.

ARBLASTER & CLARKE WINE TOURS 2012

Please take a look at the online version of our 2012 Brochure, our 25th anniversary edition. Double-click on the icon below. Or call us and we will send you a copy, with 2013 updates.

If the icon is not displaying in your browser (and you see a space here), go to the Download Centre where you can download in sections.

NEW WORLD WINE TOURS

The two New World wine tours in 2013 are to the Vineyards of Chile, 11 – 19 February and South Africa, 14 – 21 February other plans include Australia, New Zealand and California.

OPERA & WINE TOURS & OPERA BREAKS

Our Opera programme for 2012 features Wine & Opera tours to Italy; to the Verona festival and Paris, Champagne & Opera. Plus Private Opera trips to ‘La Scala’, Milan, ‘La Fenice’, Venice, ‘Staatsoper’, Vienna and the Verona Festival. There is also date for the Puccini Festival at Torre del Lago, Tuscany.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Go to the FLAGS at the bottom of the page.

25 YEARS OF GREAT WINE TOURS

At Arblaster & Clarke Wine Tours our passion is, and always has been, simply to give you a great wine tours holiday! These are wine holidays with joie-de-vivre, designed with our love and knowledge of the wine regions and with the benefit of many years of experience.

“… the operator is the best of its kind”. – Daily Telegraph, 21 January 2012.

Arblaster & Clarke Wine Tours are unrivalled as the world’s leading specialist wine tour operator. We pioneered the concept of wine tourism in many parts of France, Spain, Italy, Portugal and other places, and were often the first serious visitors to many wine producers, regions and even countries which have since become famous.

CHOOSING YOUR WINE HOLIDAY

Or explore the web-site by date or theme

Last Minute is for departures coming up in the next couple of weeks/months.
Dates & Prices takes you to a full list of winetours organised by date, including tours already scheduled for next year and and a range of tours that have gone ahead in the past.
Destinations shows you the full range of wine regions we visit, from Bordeaux & Tuscany to Australia, South Africa & Chile.
Types of Holidays gives the full range: Luxury Winetours, Walking trails in the vineyards, Wine Weekends, Private Groups, Opera breaks, wine cruises….

VIDEO of our Port Harvest Wine Tour!

EXPERT LED WINE TOURS

Arblaster & Clarke’s wine tours are led by knowledgeable, approachable wine experts. They include “Masters of Wine’ (MWs), Wine Writers, merchants and consultants, including some of the top names in the wine-world.

With our Wine Guides, many of whom are good friends with the wine-makers and chateaux owners, you’ll get the most out of your visits to the cellars and wine regions. They will comment on wines and explain the terroir and history, normally with ‘insider’ stories and humour. They also often host their own tastings, so you learn about (and enjoy!) further wines.

MORE ABOUT A&C’s ORIGINAL WINE TOURS

Arblaster & Clarke is run by founders Lynette Arblaster & Tim Clarke. Our team offers the most imaginative and widest selection of winetours available anywhere in the world.

We do all our own research to create our wonderful wine tours and visits to the wineries, chateaux or Champagne cellars are chosen by our experienced in-house team of wine experts from among the world-famous chateaux and the up and coming stars, the “ones to watch”. The visits we arrange will be in depth and beyond the usual cellar door/tasting room experience.

We make all the arrangements ourselves. More than this, you may find that the person you speak to on the phone or correspond with is the person who travels with you on your tour. In this world of ever larger corporations such personal service from the market leader is rare.

NO SURCHARGE GUARANTEE & 100% FINANCIAL PROTECTION

Arblaster & Clarke is the only specialist wine tour operator offering 100%, externally regulated financial protection whether you choose to fly, travel by train, coach or car, and no matter where in the world you are travelling from. Our “No Surcharge Guarantee” means that once we’ve confirmed your booking, there will be no currency, fuel or other surcharges. You never pay more for booking early with A&C, but you may well do so for booking at the last minute when flight or train prices will be higher and when the original hotel may be full, meaning that the only available rooms are at a higher price to you. Why this is important for you.

Any Questions, Please Call Us!

We are very happy to talk to you about our wonderful holidays; the escorted wine tours, opera tours and vineyard walks. We love our tours and are sure you will too!

THE BLOG

See Tim Clarke’s postings from Georgia in the Caucasus, the world’s oldest wine culture. As the most experienced person around on the subject of wine tourism, Tim was asked to go to Georgia to write a strategy report on wine tourism as part of Georgia’s ‘Economic Prosperity Initiative’. There is also a brief report on Tim’s presentation on the economic impact of Wine Tourism in Oporto.

You’ll also find tour reports such as our holidays on foot – Burgundy Vineyard Walk. Go to the blog

© Arblaster and Clarke Wine Tours 2012. All rights reserved. No part of this site including any part of our booking conditions may be copied.

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