Alsace & Baden Wine Tour
28th June-2nd July 2023 – fully booked*
5 days/4 nights based in Colmar £1,349pp, single supplement £125
Price excludes flights/Early booking discount available
- Discover the stunning scenery of these two regions
- Taste the diverse range of bone dry through to lusciously sweet wines
- Understand the difference between the Grand Cru vineyards and importance of Terroir.
- Contrast the Alsacien style with Baden – Germany’s most southerly wine region.
- Experience fabulous Riesling, Gewurztraminer, Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris and Pinot Blanc.
- Enjoy fabulous regional cuisine.
- At least six visits over three days, covering key appellations in each region.
- Based in the pretty town of Colmar.
- Comprehensive tastings at every visit, and four fabulous tasting lunches or dinners.
Read about the tours I previously ran to Alsace and to Germany
Tour dates
Wednesday 28th June – Sunday 2nd July 2023 – fully booked *
* If you wish to be wait listed or enquire about future tours to Alsace or Germany, please contact me.
Outline Itinerary
Day 1
Our tour commences at our Meeting Point at Basel Airport (see Flight Transfers below). I will meet the afternoon flight arriving from Heathrow and our coach will take us to Colmar, where we will settle in to our hotel. If timing permits, we may visit a winery en route to Colmar. We will take dinner together in Colmar.
Day 2
The first full day focuses on Germany and the Baden region, across the Rhine River from Colmar. This wine region is the most southerly and the warmest in Germany and is renowned for the three Pinots, Noir, Blanc and Gris. We will visit two producers in the north of the region and have lunch either at a local restaurant or at a wine estate. Dinner at leisure in Colmar.
Day 3
The Haut-Rhin area of Alsace will be our focus as we explore some of the best known towns and villages. A visit to Domaine Paul Blanck in Kientzheim is an essential part of any tour to this region. We also take the opportunity to take a look at the incredibly picturesque village of Riquewihr and taste in Ribeauvillé. Dinner at leisure in Colmar.
Day 4
We return to Baden, this time to vineyards east of the Black Forest, where prestigious regions such as Ortenau and Kaiserstuhl produce some of the best wines in Germany. We visit at least two producers and will enjoy a light lunch, returning to Colmar to enjoy a final dinner together.
Day 5
With an evening flight, we have time for further visits in the Alsace region. We head north towards Strasbourg to explore Bas-Rhin villages such as Andlau. We will return to Basel airport at 16.45.
Note: the Itinerary may be changed at Tim Syrad Wine Tours discretion so as to facilitate the smooth running of the tour and to accommodate great opportunities for visits or tastings that may become available.
Key Tour Information
* The Key Tour Information specifies what you should expect from the tour, no matter how far ahead you book.
As additional information is published on the website, it will be advised to clients who have reserved a place. The daily itinerary will be finalised in the weeks leading up to the Start Date.
Pricing
- £1,349 per person based on 2 people sharing a double/twin room.
- £125 supplement for single occupancy of a double room,
- £100 discount for bookings made before 1st January 2023, and paid for 10 weeks before departure.
Price includes
- Transport from the Meeting Point at Basel Airport to the hotel on Day 1, and to the Departure Point at Basel Airport on Day 5.
- 5 days (including arrival and departure days)/4 nights bed and breakfast in good quality hotel in Colmar.
- Coach for all activities in the itinerary.
- Three full days of visits and tastings.
- Six visits/tastings, to wineries in key wine producing areas of Alsace in France and Baden in Germany, focussing on key grape varieties and styles.
- Four lunches/dinners with local wines.
- All local taxes and service charges.
- The services of Tim Syrad as your Wine Tour Manager and Wine Guide.
It is a condition of my accepting a booking that you will take out appropriate travel insurance – please see our Terms and Conditions Section 8.
Terms and Conditions are available here or on request.
Please note flights are not included in the price. Many of my clients prefer to extend their holiday before or after my tours, so I let people make their own flight arrangements.
* End of Key Tour Information
Flight Transfers
Our Meeting and Departure Point is Basel Mulhouse Freiburg Airport. The coach will pick up and drop from the Mulhouse (ie French) side, although flights from the UK will be routed to Basel. I will arrange transfers to coincide with the following flights.
Outbound (Wednesday 28th June)
British Airways from London Heathrow to Basel. Flight BA0752 departs LHR 0815 arrives BSL 1050.
Return
British Airways from Basel to London Heathrow. Flight BA0755 departs BSL 1850 arrives LHR 1930.
Please contact me if you would like to discuss travel options, for example flying to or from a different airport or making the journey by rail or driving. I cannot arrange travel for you, but I can advise on what might work best.
How to book this tour
Please contact me by phone or email, or use the enquiry form on the Contact page on the website to check availability. When I confirm a place is available, please complete the booking form to reserve your place.
Once I have confirmed a tour is proceeding I advise clients to arrange flights and confirm travel arrangements to me. Please do not arrange flights before I have confirmed your place and that the tour is proceeding.
Full payment must be made 10 weeks before the tour starts, invoices will be sent out 12 weeks before the tour starts. At this point you will need to provide your insurance details (name of insurer, policy number, 24 hour emergency telephone numbers), outbound/inbound travel arrangements and any dietary requirements.
More about my Tour to Alsace and Baden
The areas to the west and east of the River Rhine are great favourites of mine. The combination of amazing scenery, extraordinary diversity of wine style, delicious cuisine and the juxtaposition of cultures stemming back to the areas history creates a potent and exciting mix.
We first visited Alsace in 2009 and again in 2016. I have taken a number of other independent groups over the years and it never ceases to surprise and impress. While wine production is predominantly white and sparkling, the diversity of style is amazing with utterly bone dry Rieslings through to richly unctuous Pinot Gris, spicy Gewurztraminer with a myriad of other taste sensations in between.
It is fundamentally important to understand the terroir. The geography and topography is beautiful to behold and creates both subtle and extensive differences in wine style in a very small area. Combine this with the Grand System, Vendanges Tardives and Selection a Grains Nobles and delicious Cremant, Alsace is a land that deserves to be explore.
This will be our first tour that includes Baden – Germany’s warmest and most southerly wine region. Following on from the success of our 2016 tour to Wiesbaden, where we focussed on the Mosel, Rheingau and Pfalz, it is definitely time to venture into another German wine area.
Running parallel to Alsace from Basel to just past Heidelberg, the Rhine is an important moderator and influencer on wine style. Key grapes are Pinot Noir, Pinot Blanc and Pinot Gris which will contrast with the French versions.
As ever on my tours, we will seek out family estates and endeavour to combine local food pairing with the wines.
More about Tim Syrad Wine Tours
Since 1997 I have escorted over 110 groups of people on wine tours, visiting more than 30 wine regions in Europe and the New World. My clients keep coming back year after year because in addition to tastings and visits we really do meet the people who make the wine and tend the vines.
I pride myself in offering tours that are informative, imaginative and enjoyable. I keep group sizes manageable so that we spend our time appreciating our visits, not getting on and off the bus or queuing for the loos! I personally escort all of my tours, and I ensure as much as possible of the money my clients pay is spent on great food and wine, and good hotels. I believe you can combine appreciating fabulous wine with relaxation and laughter, which is why so many of my clients come on tour with me every year. More than 70 people have come on at least 10 of my tours.
There is a friendly and welcoming atmosphere on every tour from the start, and I am proud that many friendships have been made between the people who come on tour with me.
For more information about me, my next tours, and previous tours I have run, and to find out what my clients say (some of whom have been coming on tour with me since 2001) please explore the website.
For more information about this tour, or to book a place, please contact me
By phone (020 7060 4529)
Or email (tim@timsyradwinetours.com)
Or use the online enquiry form on the Contact page