The 25 Best Activities in France

The grapes here are picked berry by berry, by hand, across multiple passes through the vines, because a whole cluster would be too imprecise for what Château d'Yquem is trying to do. A visit to this Sauternes estate means walking vineyards given over to noble rot, the peculiar fungus that concentrates the juice into something its devotees treat less like wine and more like evidence. It ranks ninth on the World's 50 Best Vineyards list.

Bollinger still farms two tiny plots in Aÿ that somehow escaped the phylloxera blight that wiped out most of Europe's vines, and the ultra-rare Vieilles Vignes Françaises made from them is what people make pilgrimages for. The house is pinot-dominant, aged in oak, and carries a particular richness you either find thrilling or a bit much. It placed fifteenth on the World's 50 Best Vineyards list, which tracks.

Harvesting grapes in the cool of the night gives these Provençal rosés their famously pale hue, and that kind of care runs through everything at Château de Berne. The estate spreads across nearly a thousand hectares of Var forest, with vineyards, olive groves, a vinotherapy spa, and two restaurants, one holding a Michelin star. It lands at number 43 on the World's 50 Best Vineyards list, which feels about right once you've seen the place.

The cellars here run 18 metres underground through fourth-century chalk quarries beneath the ruins of a Benedictine abbey, which sets a certain tone before you've opened anything. Taittinger is one of the few grand Champagne houses still family-run and open to visitors, and the guided tour winds past WWI graffiti and riddlers hand-rotating bottles by the old method. Sommeliers lead the tasting at the end. It ranks on the World's 50 Best Vineyards list.

The Avenue de Champagne is essentially a two-mile flex, and Moët et Chandon's headquarters sits near the center of it. This is a cellar tour and tasting experience at one of Champagne's great old houses, where kilometers of chalk caves run beneath the estate and the bar pours cocktails, rare vintages, and snacks to go with them. A Discovery on The World's 50 Best Vineyards list.

Seven generations of the same family have been tending these Côtes de Nuits vines, and the current siblings run the domaine with the quiet intensity of people who grew up hearing about soil composition at the dinner table. A visit here is a deep dive into Burgundian terroir, with grapes hand-sorted and aged in French oak the old way. The World's 50 Best Vineyards list has them at number 59.

Pagodas and elephant statues rise over the Saint-Estèphe vines, which tells you this is not a typical Médoc château visit. The estate's founder came back from trading in Oman with a taste for the East, and the architecture never let anyone forget it. Tours move through the gravity-fed cellar built into the château walls, where some of the most talked-about wines in Bordeaux are made. Book ahead; they mean it.

A chalk body wrap paired with a glass of Champagne is either peak indulgence or a science experiment, and Manoir Henri Giraud leans into both. This boutique hotel and oenotourism destination sits inside a UNESCO-listed wine region, offering private cellar tours, fine dining built around the house's multi-vintage cuvées, and a spa that literally rubs the local geology on you. A Discovery from The 50.

The name itself tells the story: passing ships once lowered their sails in salute to the admiral who owned this estate, and "bêcha vêla," lower sail in Gascon, stuck. A visit to this Saint-Julien château means guided tours through formal French gardens, centuries-old cellars, and a nautically themed winery that leans into the river mythology rather than pretending it isn't there. Classic Médoc, dressed up and proud of it.

Samuel Pepys wrote about the wine here in the 1660s, which is either a great sales pitch or proof that some things never change. Château Haut-Brion is one of only five Bordeaux estates to hold Premier Cru Classé status, and its vineyards sit inside the city limits of Pessac, an odd suburban setting for something this storied. The visit is for the wine, the cellars, and the quiet thrill of walking ground that shaped what red Bordeaux became.

A tree-lined drive delivers you to a Neo-Palladian manor before you've even reached the vines, which feels about right for one of Bordeaux's original First Growth estates. Pre-booked tours move from the 19th-century main house through Norman Foster's glass-fronted winery and tasting rooms, walking the full sweep of the property. Come for the history as much as the wine; the architecture alone makes a strong case for the detour.

Horses still plough the steep slopes above the Loire at Coulée de Serrant because tractors simply can't manage the grade. Nicolas Joly's estate is a pilgrimage stop for anyone curious about biodynamic viticulture, and a visit makes his conviction hard to argue with: that wine should be "true" to its terroir, not just pleasant. The cellar has been around forever, and the vines are tended with corresponding seriousness.

Sancerre's goat cheese and its wines were made for each other, and the Bourgeois family seems to have organized their entire estate around proving it. The winery sits at the foot of the Monts Damnés vineyard in the medieval village of Chavignol, and between the cellar visits, the twelve-room hotel, and a Michelin-starred restaurant on site, a weekend here has a way of becoming two.

A family estate in Bergheim where the tastings come with a gentle philosophical challenge: stop cataloguing flavours and start paying attention to texture. The approach is grounded in field blends, different grape varieties grown together on the same plot, many tended by organic and biodynamic methods. The wines are poured from some of the domaine's most prized vineyard sites, and the surrounding old-town streets make the detour easy to justify.

A brook runs through the estate and gives it its name, which tells you something about how long this Alsatian winery has been thinking things through. The vines at the heart of the property, a walled plot called Clos de Capuchins, go back centuries. The 28 hectares are farmed organically and biodynamically, with Grand Cru sites on the storied Schlossberg hill among them. Come to taste, to walk, and to recalibrate your sense of what Riesling can do.

The cellars beneath this family-run Burgundy négociant once belonged to the Dukes of Burgundy, which sets an appropriately intimidating tone before you've opened a bottle. Maison Joseph Drouhin produces wines across nearly 90 appellations, leaning on old-school respect for terroir without the lecture. Visitors can tour the cellars in central Beaune, and the estate hosts workshops and themed tastings for anyone who wants to go deeper than a quick sip.

Twelve generations of the same family have been growing grapes on these Alsace hillsides since the 1600s, which makes most wine dynasties look impatient. Maison Trimbach is a winery visit in Ribeauvillé, set among the Vosges slopes that turn every shade from yellow to deep red come autumn. The hiking and biking trails that wind through the vineyards give you an excuse to earn your tasting. Named a Discovery by The 50.