Northern Rhône Wine Tour
Tuesday 16th – Friday 19th June 2026 – limited availability
5 days/4 nights based in Saint Etienne or Lyon, £1,499pp, £125 single supplement
Price excludes flights/Early booking discount available
- Visits to top estates, meeting owners and winemakers.
- We will cover the key grape growing regions of Côte Rôtie, Condrieu, Hermitage and Saint Joseph.
- Enjoy the wonderful viticultural landscapes, the famous hill of Hermitage and the amazing Rhône River.
- At least five visits over three days.
- Comprehensive tastings at every visit, and four fabulous tasting lunches and dinners
Tour dates 2026
Tuesday 16th – Friday 19th June 2026 – limited availability
- Read the tour reports of my recent tours to the Southern Rhône and of my Rhône tours in 2013 which included appellations in the Northern Rhône,
Outline Itinerary
Day 1
Our tour commences at our Meeting Point at Lyon Airport (see Flight Transfers below). Our coach will meet the mid morning arriving flight from London. We will take lunch nearby followed by a tasting, and then head to our hotel to check in.
Evening at leisure
Day 2
Our coach will take us to Côte Rôtie and Condrieu for two visits and lunch. Syrah and Viognier take centre stage: this is a wonderful opportunity to understand why these two grape varieties perform so exquisitely well in these appellations, not least than to the steep, sun exposed hillside vineyards.
Evening at leisure.
Day 3
Today the focus is Hermitage and Crozes-Hermitage. The famous hill will be explored, and we will enjoy a new perspective on Syrah, and explore the white grapes Marsanne and Roussanne. Two visits, a light lunch and a tasting dinner will complete a comprehensive day.
Day 4
Our final day takes us to Saint Joseph, a lesser known but important Rhône appellation, source of some very high quality, good value red and white wines.
At least one visit and lunch will round off the tour before we head back to the airport to catch our evening flight home.
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
- £1,499 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 2026, and paid for 10 weeks before departure.
Price includes
- Transport from the Meeting Point at Lyon Airport to the hotel on Day 1, and to the Departure Point at Lyon Airport on Day 4.
- 4 days (including arrival and departure days)/3 nights bed and breakfast in a 4* hotel in Lyon or Saint-Étienne.
- Coach for all activities in the itinerary.
- Three full days of visits and tastings.
- Five visits/tastings, including wineries in major appellations, tasting the key grape varieties and winemaking styles of the region.
- 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 Lyon Airport. I will arrange transfers to coincide with the following flights.
Tour 1
Outbound (Tuesday 16th June 2026 )
British Airways from London Heathrow to Lyon (LYS). Flight BA0356 departs LHR 0745 arrives LYS 1025.
Return (Friday 19th June 2026 )
British Airways from Lyon to London Heathrow. Flight BA0361 departs LYS 1740 arrives LHR 1825.
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 Northern Rhône Wine Tour
The Rhône Valley is one of the world’s most iconic wine regions, and the Northern appellations are the oenological home of the Syrah and Viognier grape varieties, famed for the intensity and elegance of their wines. In 2013 I ran five tours to the Rhône Valley, that included visits to key appellations of Hermitage and Côte Rôtie – do read the report of these tours. More recently I have run tours to the Southern Rhône, the report and daily blogs of which will give a good flavour of what my tours are like.
The Northern Rhône produces barely 5% of the total of the Rhône region, but its acclaimed wines have reputations that generally far exceed those of its southern neighbours. From the ‘roasted slopes’ of Côte Rôtie in the north to the cooler limestone soils of Saint-Péray in the south, its wines have great elegance and aromatics, and in some cases amazing longevity.
Vineyards are never far from the river, and its route through the limestone, sandstone and granite bedrocks of the region presents a range of micro-climates that ensure that every tasting we have will reveal something different about the region’s wines.
There are only nine appellations in the region: Côtie Rôtie, Condrieu, Chateau-Grillet, Saint-Joseph, Hermitage, Crozes-Hermitage, Cornas, Saint Péray and the catch-all Côtes du Rhône, which is barely used. In these famous crus just four grape varieties are permitted: Syrah, Viognier, Marsanne and Roussanne. The IGP Collines Rhodaniennes permits a wider palate of varieties, though these are rarely found in the UK. Our tour will be an opportunity to explore in detail the nuances of terroir and winemaker approach that provide a varied landscape of wine styles and quality levels.
Our visits will encompass famous names and lesser known vignerons, but all will reveal distinct aspects of the traditions, trends and terroirs of the region. As in so many regions nowadays, top winemakers are experimenting with winemaking approaches to ensure their wines retain freshness and acidity even as climate change presents them with grapes that ripen more quickly. Quality levels have never been so high in the Rhône, and we will have the opportunity to drink older vintages to help us to understand how wines evolve over time.
Gastronomy will be a key feature of our tour. Lyon, is of course, the gastronomic capital of France, the place where the word gastronomy was invented, and we will enjoy some fabulous meals that draw on the traditions of the Mères Lyonnaises, whose influence can still be found in the fusion of southern rusticity and northern haute-cuisine that Lyonnais food celebrates.
More about Tim Syrad Wine Tours
Since 1997 I have escorted over 150 groups of people on wine tours, visiting more than 40 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 100 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