Saint-Émilion Wine Tours
Saint-Émilion is Bordeaux’s most beautiful wine town, a UNESCO-listed medieval village of golden stone standing on a hill of Merlot vines, with grand cru châteaux you can walk to and an underground church cut from the rock. Compare the top-rated tours below, then read our notes.
Saint-Émilion wine tours and château visits
Saint-Émilion day trips from Bordeaux
Formats: half-day tours from Bordeaux to Saint-Émilion with two château tastings; village tours with a grand cru visit; picnic-and-tasting afternoons; full days pairing Saint-Émilion with the Médoc.
What you taste: Right Bank Bordeaux, Merlot-led and softer than the Left Bank, from grand cru classé estates and family châteaux, with the village’s macarons.
Price: 23 dollars for a grand cru winery visit in the village; 99 to 180 for a half or full day from Bordeaux with a driver.
The village and the wine
Saint-Émilion is a rarity: a wine of the first rank made in and around a town you would visit anyway. The medieval village, its jurisdiction a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1999, sits on limestone honeycombed with cellars, including a vast monolithic church carved out of the rock. The wine is Right Bank Bordeaux, led by Merlot with Cabernet Franc, generally rounder and more approachable young than the Cabernet-based Médoc, and the estates carry their own classification of grand cru and premier grand cru classé, revised every decade.
What a tour does
The best visits combine the village, a walk through the streets and the underground monuments, with two château tastings, one a grand cru classé, often with a picnic among the vines. Because many of the best estates are small and by appointment, a guided half day from Bordeaux is the easy way, though the village itself is 35 minutes by train and full of tasting rooms if you go alone. For the Left Bank and the wider region, see our Bordeaux wine tours.
When to come
May to October; harvest in late September and early October fills the village. Buy the macarons, made here to a seventeenth-century convent recipe.
Frequently asked questions
Is Saint-Émilion worth a separate trip from Bordeaux?
Yes; it is the prettiest and most walkable of the Bordeaux wine areas, and the only one where the village is as much the draw as the wine.
Can I visit Saint-Émilion on my own?
Yes, 35 to 40 minutes by train, with tasting rooms and châteaux in and around the village; a tour adds the estates you cannot reach on foot.
How is Saint-Émilion wine different from the Médoc?
It is Merlot-led and softer, from the Right Bank; the Médoc is Cabernet Sauvignon and firmer. See Bordeaux wine tours.
How we choose
We list only experiences with a strong rating over a meaningful number of reviews and free cancellation where available, and we favour small-group and family-run hosts. FindEatLocal earns a commission when you book through GetYourGuide or Viator links on this page; it doesn’t change the price you pay. More about how we choose.