Bordeaux Vineyards Tour

This terrific bistro is beloved by locals.

Address:
Place Desquet-Bages
Pauillac
France

Phone:
33-5-57-75-00-09

Set in a former warehouse, the museum shows a rotating collection of art from the 1960’s to the present.

Address:
7 Rue Ferrere
Bordeaux
France

Phone:
33-5-56-00-81-50

Sprawling winery surrounded by perfectly manicured gardens.

Address:
St.-Julien-Beychevelle
France

Phone:
33-5-56-73-20-70

Thierry Marx helms the kitchen at Château Cordeillan-Bages, a two-starred restaurant in Pauillac owned by Lynch-Bages winery. His reputation as both tireless innovator and spiritual leader of the region’s food renaissance lures many to the hotel’s sedate dining room. The “risotto,” truffled and moistened with oyster jus, is composed of crunchy soybean sprouts instead of rice. Marx’s signature “saucisson virtuel” calls for the waiter to puncture a bubble of edible plastic so that warm bouillon oozes out onto the plate, miraculously transmogrifying the whole into something deliciously recognizable as earthy lentils and sausage.

Address:
Route des Châteaux
Pauillac
France

Phone:
33-5-56-59-24-24

The property, just southwest of Pomerol, is now in the hands of Martin Krajewski, an English businessman who has added several large and immaculate guest rooms, regional cooking classes, and a freestanding art gallery filled with John Hoyland and Terry Frost canvases. Krajewski continues to produce the estate’s fine rosés, but he’s begun developing reds with three young Bordelais enologists who can boast, unusually, of professional experience in Morocco, Chile, and the United States.

Address:
4 Château Sours
Saint-Quentin-de-Baron
France

Phone:
33-5-57-24-10-81

Part of France’s new wave of country hotels and restaurants, this estate dates from 1677, with a 19th-century château built by one of Napoleon’s generals. Dutch decorator Joris van Grinsven plays off Les Merles’s Neoclassical bones with simple, but not spartan, style. A crisp palette of white slipcovered sofas, charcoal-gray throws, and ebony-stained floors comes alive with a few ornate flourishes—Louis XV chairs covered in magenta velvet, gilt-framed mirrors. There’s a nine-hole golf course and a formal dining room serving foie gras terrine and turbot en papillote with an impressive list of Bergerac wines.

Address:
Tuilières
Mouleydier
France

Phone:
33-5-53-63-13-42

The property is owned by a young couple, Anna Barwick and her husband, Andrew, has claret colored walls, Ren bath products, and a screening room with faux-fur-lined-couches. Rigaud caters to peple exactly like its owners, professional Brits.

Address:
Mouliets et Villemartin
Gironde
France

Phone:
33-5-57-40-17-99

The city-sponsored program offers wine-country weekend tours and onsite two-hour tasting courses at a posh-looking but bargain-priced wine bar.

Address:
3 Cours Du XXX Juillet
Bordeaux
France

Phone:
33-5-56-00-22-85

The recently updated four-star hotel features molecular gastronomy in chef Philippe Etchebest’s restaurant. Try the unexpected scallops in beef jus with raspberry vinegar.

Address:
5 Place du Clocher
St.-Emilion
France

Phone:
33-5-57-55-07-55

This cool little upstart bed-and-breakfast combines colorful contemporary interior design with family-style service and rooms for under $300.

Address:
113 Rue du Dr. Albert Barraud
Bordeaux
France

Phone:
33-5-56-44-00-45

Chef Jean-Pierre Xiradakis’s take on French country cuisine ranges from traditional rillettes to tripe crisp, to tomato ice cream. Don’t be shy about ordering off the menu; if seasonal ingredients are in stock, such as truffles or even cochon de lait (suckling pig), the kitchen will happily oblige with something special. Its annex, L’Epicerie au Comestible, is an old-fashioned grocery store across the street.
Created by the editors of T+L for Regent Seven Seas Cruises

Address:
8 Rue Porte de la Monnaie
Bordeaux
France

Phone:
33-5-56-91-56-37

Bordeaux fussy and overpriced? Not at this bar run by the region’s wine council. Architect Françoise Bousquet has appointed the soaring Neoclassical space with whimsical pebble-shaped chairs and original artwork, including a grape-themed Aubusson tapestry. And who could complain about prices when $3.50 buys you a generous glass of cherry-nosed Château des Fougères La Folie de Montesquieu?

Address:
3 Cours du XXX Juillet
Bordeaux
France

Phone:
33-5-56-00-43-47

The scruffy restaurant is easy to miss, but is something of a clubhouse for the wine elite. It provides on-site lockers for the winery owners to store their own bottles, so diners can simply crack open their family’s case and swap with friendly rivals two tables over. It’s hard not to notice that everyone’s labels are facing out as to compete in jovial one-upmanship. Given the private stashes, the restaurant doesn’t offer much in the way of wine by the glass, so bring your own bottle and join the label game.

Address:
11 Route de Pauillac
Arcins
France

Phone:
33-5-56-58-96-79

Request a light white wine in this low-key bar and you’ll likely be served a chilled bottle for less than $10 that will go perfectly with a plate of seared calamari.
Created by the editors of T+L for Regent Seven Seas Cruises

Address:
22 Rue du Parlement Saint-Pierre
Bordeaux
France

Phone:
33-5-56-79-76-58

A museum of French customs throughout history.

Address:
Place de la Bourse
Bordeaux
France

Phone:
33-5-56-48-82-85

For its renovation of the 232-year-old historic palace across from the National Opera, Regent tapped Jacques Garcia to revamp the 250 rooms. The whole place verges on the ornate, with 19th-century French furniture, richly colored brocade fabrics, and vast marble bathrooms.

Address:
2 Place de la Comédie
Bordeaux
France

Phone:
33-5-57-30-44-44

Acclaimed molecular gastronomy in the Médoc.

Address:
61 Rue Vignerons, Château Cordeillan-Bages
Pauillac
France

Phone:
33-5-56-59-24-24

Private excursions, customized by a local oenologist.

Address:
Bordeaux
France

Phone:
33-8-72-25-17-89