Harvest Tour 2026
Trip Highlights
• Hands-on harvest experience — walk into the vineyards, pick grapes, taste straight off the vine
• Five famous wine regions, but the side few ever see — small family wineries, face to face with the winemakers, off-the-beaten track regions,
• Two nights in a Pyrenees valley in the mountain villa of a winemaker — close to nature, with the valley, the winemaker, and a sky full of stars
• Mid-Autumn dinner under the vineyard moon — a Mid-Autumn feast held in the vineyard of a small family winery
• The annual Penedès Sparkling Wine Festival — get to the heart of Cava country and taste sparkling wines alongside locals
• Taste Spain through its flavors — lamb chops grilled over vines, a Riojan feast in a cave, food from the same terroir as the wine
The Journey
From the plateaus of Castile to the Mediterranean coast — crossing five spectacular wine regions.
Day 1: Welcome to Spain!
A private driver will be waiting at the airport to take you to the hotel. Freshen up and rest, or head out to explore Madrid. In the afternoon, everyone gathers in the hotel lobby for a wine tasting workshop. Maybe you’ve loved wine for years already — but this workshop helps us build a shared tasting vocabulary, so every bottle we open from here on means more.
Dinner together in the evening to welcome everyone. Sit down, have a drink, and get to know your fellow travelers — a week from now, they might be the most memorable part of this trip.
Day 2: Mid-Autumn Festival in the Vineyards
Set off early for Ribera del Duero. Step into a real family-run winery — walk through the vines and taste the grapes straight off the vine. After visiting a second, more traditional winery in the afternoon, we return to the vineyard in the evening to celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival!
A private winery owned by a fifth-generation growing family, lamb chops grilled over vine cuttings, four wines hand-picked by our sommelier Esther, and the same moon overhead — except tonight, it hangs over the sky of Castile.
Day 3: Ribera del Duero to Rioja
In the morning, we visit a winery surrounded in a two-hundred-year-old pine forest on the northern bank of the Duero River. After lunch, we head to Rioja. In the evening, we head out together to the famous Calle del Laurel. Along this 200-meter street are over 60 small tapas bars, each with its own specialty dish. We will go bar to bar, eating and drinking our way through Logroño’s liveliest spot.
Day 4: The Heart of Rioja
Today you’ll see wine not in the glass, but in the land. We go deep into the vineyards and the harvest itself, seeing firsthand how ripeness differs from plot to plot, and talking with the winemaking team at the busiest moment of the season to see how a bottle of wine begins, from harvest to fermentation.
In the afternoon, we head to Haro, the heart of Rioja wine. There’s a story rarely told here: when phylloxera devastated French vineyards, it was Rioja’s wine that propped up the French market. We’ll step into a century-old winery and see that history carved into the oak barrels. Dinner is at a small, refined modern restaurant with an open kitchen, with wines selected by the sommelier from independent producers.
Day 5: The Other Side of Rioja
Today we are following winding lanes deep into Rioja, towards a natural wine producer, where we will experience wine from soil to glass — biodynamic farming, tasting straight from the barrel. This is a world apart from the grand, century-old estates, yet just as powerful.
In the afternoon, we visit the Vivanco Museum of Wine Culture, with over 5,000 pieces telling the story of humanity and wine. Free time in the evening — take a walk through the old town, find a small bar on Calle de Laurel, order a glass of Rioja, and feel the rhythm of a local night.
Day 6: From Cave to Valley
On our way to the Pyrenees, we will pass a little-known place called Quel. Here we’ll find 150 family wine cellars carved into a rock face, each small door holding generations of memory. We will have lunch in a neighboring town, in a cave, before turning north, toward the foothills of the Pyrenees.
Day 7: The Valley
Birds outside the window. Step out with your coffee — no itinerary, no schedule.
Nico takes us into the vineyards to tell the story of this valley, and why he started making wine here.
In the afternoon, a walk through the old town of Aínsa. In the evening, a barbecue at the guesthouse — in the valley, beside the vines, drinking and chatting.
This is the most enchanting part of the whole trip.
Day 8: Slate Slopes
Welcome to Priorat. Here, vineyards grow on near-vertical slate slopes, in soil called llicorella, giving the wine a minerality almost impossible to replicate.
Lunch at a winery named after two ancient fig trees, then in the afternoon we visit a sixth-generation winemaker — a new independent project that has already drawn attention worldwide.
Day 9: The Monastery and the Old Village
In the 12th century, French monks brought viticulture to this mountainous region. This is the true starting point of Priorat’s wine history. In the morning, we visit the ruins of the Scala Dei monastery, then a winery that’s among the oldest in the region. Lunch is in a medieval village perched on a cliff, overlooking a reservoir, with cobblestone streets and stone houses. In the afternoon, we return to city life: Barcelona! The evening is yours to explore.
Day 10: Sparkling Wine Festival
For our last full day, we’re in Penedès. Corpinnat — Spain’s answer to the “Champagne spirit” — we visit a top sparkling wine producer that holds firmly to the traditional method. Then, we head to the annual Penedès Sparkling Wine Festival: outdoors, in the sun, drinking the region’s best sparkling wines alongside the Catalans. In the evening, we are back to Barcelona for a final dinner on a private terrace.
Day 11: The Aftertast
After breakfast at the hotel, it’s time to head to the airport — heading home with a trip’s worth of memories, flavors, and stories!
What You Get Out of This Trip
Terroir to Table — Highlights
• Mid-Autumn Festival dinner celebration in the vineyards, with roasted lamb chops on vine shoots
• Ribera’s legendary lechazo (milk-fed roast lamb)
• Gourmet Riojan cuisine in a cave
• Wine tasting with local artisanal snacks in the vineyards
• Calle Laurel tapas crawl
• BBQ under the Pyrenees at a winemaker’s mountain villa
Sleeping in the Landscape
10 nights · 4–5* boutique hotels with character or equivalent
- Handpicked for location, atmosphere, and comfort.
- We favor small accommodations with soul — windows that look out onto the vineyards, the silence of the valley you can hear, a character unique to each place.
Note: villa rooms at the mountain estate are limited; in rare cases, two travelers may share a villa (private bedrooms, shared common area and bathroom).
What’s Included
What’s Not Included
- 10 nights at 4- and 5-star or equivalent boutique hotels throughout
- Private chauffeured vehicle and dedicated driver for the full trip
- Airport transfers
- All winery visits, tastings, and museum admission
- A Mandarin-, English-, and Spanish-speaking guide with you throughout
- Daily breakfast
- All meals and drinks specifically arranged in the itinerary (4 meals during free time are not included)
- A guide holding WSET Level 3 certification and a diploma from CAFA Wine School in Bordeaux
- All taxes and service fees throughout
- International flights
- European visa and application fees
- Personal expenses
- Travel insurance (mandatory)
- Gratuities (driver, guide, etc.)
- Meals during free time (4 meals)
- Personal hotel expenses (minibar, laundry, etc.)
