Champagne & Burgundy with Domaine Carneros

Bienvenue to Lyon! We’ll meet at our hotel and kick off the adventure with a welcome cocktail. As we get to know each other, our tastemaker will share his connection to the destination and we’ll chart a course for the week ahead.

Dinner tonight is a refined affair close to home at the heralded hotel restaurant.

After a traditional Lyonnaise breakfast, we’ll head to the market, mingling with locals as we peruse fresh cheeses, foraged mushrooms, and even the odd table of antiques. It’s the perfect way to start an incredible week together.

Our next stop is the world’s most storied gourmet market: Les Halles Paul Bocuse. Named after Lyon’s revered chef, this hall is a foodie’s haven. After tasting our way through its fifty-odd stalls,  we’ll enjoy a leisurely tour of the historic city.

Dinner tonight is at a charming bouchon in the Presqu’île district.

Today, we make our way from Lyon to Beaune, but not with a few stops along the way. Beaujolais is called the “little French Tuscany,” today is all about learning why.  We’ll experience a private wine tasting and visit a storied family estate in the heart where winemaking is not a job but a tradition passed down for generations.

Next is Château des Bachelards, where we’ll enjoy lunch expertly paired with the estate’s wines. Upon our arrival in Beaune, we’ll hit the ground running with a tour of the medieval village, paying particular attention to the limestone Remparts that once protected its inhabitants. The rest of the evening is yours to explore Beaune’s culinary scene as you wish. 

Today, we’ll discover Burgundy’s countryside charm: cruising on e-bikes, climbing up gentle hills, and cycling between rows of grapevines and by hamlets of red-roofed stone cottages. We’ll stop to taste wines at a family estate, before finishing with a luxurious selection of Château de la Crée wines and small bites to match.

After taking some downtime for ourselves, an elegant affair at Maison Joseph Drouhin, a beacon of Burgundian winemaking tradition, awaits us for dinner.  

Burgundy is renowned for the sheer number of individual vineyards in the region. Each grower imparts their own personality to their wine; the result has been some of the world’s best Chambertin-Clos de Bèze, Clos de Tart, Clos des Lambrays, Échezeaux, Romanée-Conti, La Tâche, Musigny– and the list goes on. Today, we’ll see it all with our own eyes as we visit Gevrey-Chambertin, Vosne Romanée, and Nuits-St-Georges, three of the region’s most celebrated villages.

We’ll immerse ourselves in the process of hand-stitched wines among the plots of the world’s most expensive vintages before enjoying a Michelin-starred lunch at La Rôtisserie du Chambertin. Our bellies full and hearts happy, we’ll ramble down the road and continue to meet local tastemakers as we stroll some of the most compelling terroir in all of France. 

The evening is yours to embellish.

 We start the morning exploring Beaune’s vibrant market, famed for its bright produce, barrels of cured olives, and sausages direct from the charcuterie farms. We’ll make the acquaintance of a master barrel maker. Together, we’ll build an authentic 228L barrel and leave as budding experts in this age-old trade.

In the afternoon, we visit Beaune’s 15th-century wine cellars of a Gothic hospital-turned museum, the Hospice de Beaune. The first plantings were in 1457; almost six centuries later, it remains one of Burgundy’s most esteemed names. We’ll enjoy rare access to the private cellars and an exclusive tasting with head winemaker Ludivine Griveaux.

We’ll reconvene in the evening to enjoy an elegant private wine tasting at Les Celliers de la Cabiote and then wander over to our farewell dinner—sublime French cuisine paired with wines so exquisite we may never want to leave. 

Alas, all good things must come to an end. We’ll bid adieu to each other and make our way to the airport.