The Spirit of Languedoc Food & Wine Tour

Experience the best Languedoc has to offer

Our 4 night food & wine weekend is an exploration of all the wonderful things that combine to make the Spirit of Languedoc. You have a choice of B&B accommodation in either the wonderful city of Carcassonne or in the Medieval village of Caunes-Minervois. Both locations have a great choice of restaurants and things to do during your evenings and both are ideally located for this fabulous 3 day wine tour.

2020 Dates & Prices

The Spirit of Languedoc tour begins when you arrive on Thursday evening and we welcome you with a special food & wine pairing dinner. This long weekend is available in May and September 2020.

May 21 to 24

September 10 to 13

€850 per person based on 2 people sharing a room

What’s Included

4 nights B&B accommodation – Thursday to Sunday night inclusive
Food & Wine Pairing dinner
3 fabulous days touring the region
Lunch each day
All visits and tastings
Airport transfers from Carcassonne airport

The flights are not included.

We have a fabulous itinerary lined up for you!

You arrive at your B&B on the Thursday evening and over the following three days you will visit 3 different parts of the region and taste some wonderful food & wine.

Thursday – Join us for Food & wine Pairing Dinner

After enjoying a tasty apéro, over the course of the evening you will enjoy exceptional wines carefully chosen to match each of the 4 delicious courses and each pairing will be described for you by our very knowledgeable and entertaining sommelier.

Friday – Limoux & the Malepère Vineyards

We start the tour with a visit to the little know appellation of Malepère and to one of the leading wine producers in the area where you will enjoy a private tour of the winery followed by an extensive tasting of red, rosé and white wines. During the visit you will learn about wine production in the Languedoc and visit the barrel room to discover how maturing wine in barrel is not just about oak flavour.

Lunch is a 3 course meal made from local and seasonal produce accompanied by delicious wines of the region and will take place at one of the family owned restaurants in the pretty town of Limoux. Afterwards you will have the time for a short stroll around the town before we head off to our next visit.

The afternoon will focus on the sparkling wines made in the Limoux area. We will visit a top class producer and here we will learn how sparkling wines are made using the traditional method, just like Champagne. However unlike the Champagne area this region makes 3 styles of sparkling wines; Blanquette du Limoux, Crémant du Limoux and Blanquette Ancestral, a delicious sweet sparkling wine, very unusual and very palatable!

We finish the day with a short drive to the abbey of St Hilaire where the world’s first sparkling wine was created by the monks in 1531. This is a beautiful abbey and we will spend a little time walking through the cloisters and taking a look at the wine cellar and the other historical buildings before heading back to Carcassonne.

Saturday – The Corbières Vineyards

The Corbières is a region of contrasts where cicadas sing, and buzzards circle lazily against a blue sky, over wild, windswept garrigue. The vineyards are perched on rocky hillsides and the roads wind round and round as we make our way towards our first vineyard visit which is a family owned domaine in the village of Monseret.

The vineyards are situated in the heart of the Boutenac region, an area dedicated to the culture of the vine since Roman times and the only cru in the Corbières. We will take a walk through the vines, some of them more than a century old. We will also take a tour of the winery which is also ancient but modernised to use the latest techniques to produce fabulous Corbières wines. The award winning reds are made from a blend of Carignan, Grenache, Mourvèdre and Syrah and the whites from Marsanne and Rousanne.

After an extensive tasting of Corbières and Corbières-Boutenac wines we will head for the beautiful village of Lagrasse where we will be welcomed into the home of one of the villagers for a typical Languedoc lunch that she has prepared just for us.

After lunch you will take a fascinating stroll around Lagrasse one of Les Plus Beaux Villages de France and learn some of the history that spans at least 1000 years. Your route will take you along the narrow cobbled ‘ruelles’ and along the way, between the town and the abbey, in squares and behind facades, there are stories to be told and a fascinating medieval history to be revealed. You will have the chance to take a browse through some of the small boutiques and also visit the vinegar maker and taste his wares.

Now its time to head off to our final visit of the day in a nearby village where we will meet father and son wine makers producing top quality Corbières wines from a small winery in the heart of their village. Clients voted this one of our best French vineyard tours!

Sunday – Canal du Midi Wine Tour We start this fabulous tour with a visit to one of the best independent olive producers in Languedoc where excellent oils are produced using local olive varieties. We will learn how the olives are grown and harvested and made into oil. This is followed by a tasting of oils and olives including the Rolls Royce of all Olives the Lucques variety.

From here we take the short drive to the village of Le Somail one the prettiest ports along the Canal du Midi where we join our boat for a 1 hour private cruise and along the way we will entertain you with a delicious tasting of Languedoc wines and tell you the story of the Canal. Lunch is always a very important part of our tours and today you will enjoy a 3 course meal in the Minervois countryside made from fresh and local ingredients.

After lunch we will visit the beautiful village of Minerve where your guide will explain the role this village played in the Cathar crusade which took place over 800 years ago and you will have a little free time to stroll through this bijou village.

Now its time to take the pretty drive through the Occitanie countryside to visit one of the finest wine producers of Minervois wines in the Languedoc where we will enjoy a private tour of the winery and learn how the wines are grown and made. This is followed by a delicious tasting of their expressive wines.