Gourmet Odyssey Wine Experience

For the duration of the wine making year, you will adopt your choice of between 6 and 36 vines. You will be informed of the exact location of your vines in the vineyard so that you can visit them during a Gourmet Odyssey Wine Experience Day. You receive a personalised bottle of wine at the end of your wine experience for each vine you adopt. 

Follow the progress and journey of your grapes as they bud and flourish until being harvested, where they are taken to the winery, carefully sorted, and placed into the vats to begin the fermentation and vinification process. Please note that your adopted vines remain the property of the winery at all times, so unfortunately you can’t dig them up and take them with you!

Each customer receives a welcome pack containing:

• Wine cooler bag
• DropStop
• Vinolok re-usable glass wine bottle top
• Personalised certificate
• Details of the Wine Experience chosen
• Access to their private customer portal

You can choose whether to have the pack sent to you, or delivered directly to someone else if being offered as a present. Gift-wrapping and personalised message options are also available.
more details on delivery options.

Designed to learn about all of the work that goes on in the vineyard to produce the best quality grapes at harvest time, and to give you an introduction to the winery, the winemakers, and their philosophy in making wine.  You will get to:

• Visit the vineyard and your vines
• Learn about all of the work needed throughout the vine lifecycle
• Participate in some of the activities such as pruning, de-budding, or raising the training wires. This isn’t just a normal vineyard tour remember!
• Discover the benefits and challenges of working organically
• Learn about the region in general, the terroir, and the grape varietals used
• Taste the wines produced at the winery and enjoy the winemaker’s lunch
• Visit the fermentation hall and cellar

Discover the highlights from the latest Wine Discovery Experience Day at:

• Château Coutet

• Domaine Chapelle

• Château de la Bonnelière

• Domaine Stentz-Buecher

• Château de Jonquières

• Château Cohola

5% discount included for 2 or more experience days ordered !

Immerse yourself in the atmosphere of the harvest.  Secateurs in one hand, a basket in the other, you will roll your sleeves up and get involved in harvesting the grapes.  During the day you will:

• Visit your adopted vines and the vineyard
• Harvest the grapes, learning which grapes to pick and which to leave
• Follow the grapes on their journey to the vat as you help them on their way through the sorting table, de-stemming machine, and press
• Learn about the process that turns the grape juice into wine
• Discover the work in the cellar at harvest time.  There’s more to do than just picking grapes!
• Taste the grape juice and wine at different stages of fermentation

After all that effort, you’ll welcome the “repas des vendengeurs” (harvesters meal), and wine tasting!

Discover the highlights from the latest Harvest Experience Day at:

• Château Coutet

• Domaine Chapelle

• Domaine Stentz-Buecher

• Château de la Bonnelière

• Château de Jonquières

• Château Cohola

5% discount included for 2 or more experience days ordered !

The purpose of this wine experience day is to learn about all that happens in the cellar after the harvest until the wine is bottled, labelled, and ready to be drunk.  This is where the skills of the winemaker really come into play as they analyse the wine and make decisions on what needs to be done during the fermentation phases, ageing, and blending of the wine.

During this wine experience day you will:

• Visit the fermentation hall and cellar
• Understand how the different fermentation processes change the wine
• Learn about the multitude of crucial decisions that the winemaker must take to influence the structure, aroma, and flavour of the wine
• Receive a wine tasting lesson to help develop your senses of sight, smell and taste
• Taste wines that are still in the ageing process to better understand their evolution
• Participate in hands-on workshops to learn about the work done to age and blend the wine
• Enjoy the winemaker’s lunch and wines from the winery
• Visit the vineyard and your adopted vines
• Discover the work to prepare the wine for bottling, labelling and packaging

Discover the highlights from the latest Vinification Experience Day at:

• Château Coutet

• Domaine Chapelle

• Domaine Stentz-Buecher

• Château de la Bonnelière

• Château de Jonquières

• Château Cohola

5% discount included for 2 or more experience days ordered !

Each vineyard has different date options available for the wine experience days according to the customs and climate of the region.

To give you an idea of the timing, please look at the typical timeline.  A selection of exact dates will be published in the Recipient Customer Portal, enabling you to choose the date that best suits you.   Most of the wine experience days take place during weekends.

Should you not be available for any of the dates, not to worry. Just contact us, and we'll find a solution, either by carrying your day over to the following year or at one of our other partner wineries, or by exchanging it for another type of day. Our objective is that all of our clients benefit fully from their Wine Experience . 

That’s no problem – just check the “No Experience Days” option when ordering. You will still have the opportunity to follow the evolution of your vintage virtually through the newsletters and private customer portal.

Yes.  Should you, or the person to whom you are giving the Wine Experience gift, wish to add one or more experience days at a later date, that's possible too in the recipient’s customer portal or by contacting us.

You can follow the progress of your vines and the making of your wine virtually through newsletters and your private customer portal. Gourmet Odyssey will provide regular news, updates and photos from your winery.

The wine-makers will tell you about the work that has been going on at the winery, the challenges and surprises that your vintage creates. So even if you are physically far away, your Gourmet Odyssey Wine Experience is always close to you.

Towards the end of the Wine Experience you will:

• Choose the name of your wine
• Personalise your wine labels (two designs are available, one that is more traditional and one that is more modern)
• Receive from  6 to 36 bottles of personalised wine (one bottle = one adopted vine)

Once the wine is ready for bottling, your personalised labels will be applied and you will be notified that your wine is available. You can choose to collect the wine directly from the winery, or pay for the wine to be delivered to you. Please see the Delivery Options section for more information.