Rioja & Basque Country Wine Tour

• You’ll learn so much more than you would on your own! During WSG tours, our internationally renowned instructors are always with you; providing fascinating information, answering questions and clarifying facts and figures to ensure understanding of the nuances and subtleties of each region and its wine styles.
• Camaraderie! And the experience of exploring new wine regions with other like-minded individuals who are just as passionate and obsessive about great wine as you are!
• Access to amazing wine tastings and estates you would not be able to visit on your own. With personal and long-standing relationships in each of the regions we operate, WSG has some of the highest-level contacts in the industry. As a WSG study abroad participant, you will have the opportunity to taste incredible wines at each estate and will be welcomed as an honored guest everywhere you go.
• All our WSG instructors have lived or worked in France, Italy, Spain, Germany, or the other countries in which we operate, for many years. This has allowed them to cultivate extensive experience and contacts within the region. You’ll get expert information about the wine business, and an insider’s take on local culture.
• Avoid taking chances on hotels or restaurants you don’t know.  With more than a decade of experience, our guides use first-hand knowledge to select the best hotels and restaurants for your enjoyment.
• Make the most of your travel time! Our itineraries minimize driving to ensure you receive a thorough overview of the region, taking in the breathtaking landscapes and amazing wine culture of each respective region.
• Avoid driving, parking, or navigating in foreign lands. Feel free to relax and enjoy wine your meals in the comfort of a safe and carefully curated learning environment.
• Your WSG Tour Instructor and Tour Manager will translate for the group at all times, eliminating communication or language barriers, as many winemakers in France, Italy and Spain may have limited English proficiency.

Our Educational Wine Tours offer end-to-end full-service wine experiences with all lodging and most meals included. You may move locations throughout the week and visit up to three wineries each day. This type of tour provides a deep-dive experience in the vineyards, cellars and with local winemakers and there is no formal classroom instruction.

Our Masters Program Immersions provide a 360-degree view of a region via three days of classroom instruction with extensive tutored tastings and two days of field trip study. These programs supplement the existing WSG course content and are available to new students, current students and alumni. Course materials are included in the price and you can take your certification exam for the corresponding program once you return home. It’s expected that students arrive in the region having already completed all of the online lectures of the corresponding Masters certification.

Hotels are not included in the price of our Masters Program Immersions, but we are happy to provide information on options for all budgets once you reserve your seat. Lunch is included on field trip days, with free time on classroom days to source your own lunch at your expense. A welcome dinner and farewell meal are also included. Many students prefer the structure of learning in the classroom combined with the free time in the evenings of this format.

We request that all guests on our trips are serious and passionate about wine; however, there are no official prerequisites for WSG Study Abroad experiences. Guests will receive study materials from the WSG prior to the tour that must be thoroughly studied before coming on the tour.

For all Masters Program Immersion experiences, you will receive the Masters program study materials once your deposit is paid. Students should complete all six months of the online program before travelling to the region.

They begin and end directly in the wine region you’ll be visiting. For your convenience, all trips start and end in or near a city with major rail links and/or airports.

Transportation to and from the meeting and ending point is up to you and at your own cost. Information on trip starting and ending points is included in the itinerary for each trip. You’ll be sent all the information you need to make your travel arrangements once reserved.

Our instructors have arranged professional-level tastings at some of the finest estates in each region. At all the estates, you'll receive a warm welcome and an educational tasting often with the winemaker. In most cases, you will tour the technical facilities (vat room and aging cellars) in addition to your tasting. You may taste from the barrel or vat in addition to recent and older vintages in the bottle. Sometimes you’ll taste in the cellar, sometimes in a tasting room and other times outdoors. 

During some visits, you’ll go out into the vineyard with the winemaker to discuss vineyard management and harvesting. If the winemaker doesn’t speak English, the instructor will translate for him or her and for you if you have questions. Each estate visit is unique.

Please ask the instructor if there is enough time before the end of the visit for you to make your purchase without impeding the progress and timing of the trip.

It is very rare that estates offer international shipping. If you would like to purchase wine, we recommend that you ask your government’s customs office for their rules and regulations if you intend to bring wine back into your country, or have wine shipped to you. You always have the option of bringing wine home with you in your checked luggage. A specialized wine suitcase is perfect for this. Depending on your home country, this amount will vary.

You may have to pay some amount of duty on your wine when you go through customs. Therefore, it's best to check with your local authorities for further information.

For the field trip days, we recommend comfortable and casual attire. But please avoid sweats and old sneakers, for example. For our visits to more prestigious estates, slightly more elegant attire is requested and appreciated. We'll be doing quite a bit of standing and some walking during the field trip days, plus the cellars can be damp, so it would be best to avoid high heels and opt for comfortable shoes for the daytime. For walks in the vineyards, you’ll want appropriate walking shoes or sneakers. For the evening, do bring some dressier clothes for dinners in elegant restaurants.

We choose 4 and 5-star hotels to ensure a high level of comfort, including en-suite bathrooms and WiFi.  It’s very important for the hotels to be well situated in the region, to keep driving time and distance to a minimum. We want to make sure you are as close as possible to the vineyards and other local sites of interest. The hotels we choose also must be large enough to accommodate groups.

We thoroughly check each hotel before including it in a WSG tour or program. In wine regions that are large and spread out, you may change hotels once or twice during a week-long stay (to keep driving times to a minimum each day). In other regions, there may be only one centrally located hotel.

Please note that air conditioning in European hotels may differ from what you’re used to. It is often seasonal, temperature-regulated, and may be subject to local or government policies.

In most of the hotels yes, the rooms are identical. However, exceptions may occur in many of the charming French, Italian or Spanish hotels located in historic buildings. 

There may be differences in the size of the rooms, the view from each room may vary, the decor may be slightly different etc. Since many of these hotels are also small, it is sometimes difficult to reserve the quantity of rooms required all in the same category. In this case, we fill the rooms in the order of sign-ups, filling the highest category rooms first, to reward those who sign up quickly.

Rest assured, all rooms have the same lovely level of comfort and services (A/C, WiFi, en-suite bathrooms, TV, etc.). No guest will receive a “bad” room, the rooms may just not all look exactly alike.

For Educational Wine Tours the majority of meals are included in the tour price. You’ll enjoy lunches and dinners at excellent establishments that offer finely prepared dishes.

Most dinners are gastronomic and include three or four courses; lunches are gourmet but somewhat lighter so you can stay alert during your afternoon visits and tastings.

Most of the time, there will be a set menu expertly selected for your enjoyment, paired with preselected special wines of the region. Meals offer great opportunities to discuss food and wine matching, of course!

Most tours include a few lunches and/or dinners on your own, so you can also try local restaurants of your choice or have a lighter meal if you wish.

For Masters Program Immersion, these experiences typically include a welcome dinner, a farewell meal, as well lunches during your field trip days. These meals will be paired with selected local wines. The rest of the meals are at your expense. WSG and/or the instructor will provide a list of some dining options for you to consult

For group meals included in the price of the program, premium—and sometimes quite prestigious—wines are expertly selected from the region you’re visiting to perfectly pair with each dish.

Meals offer an opportunity to taste wines from appellations that may not be represented in the winery tastings or to introduce you to some interesting or unusual wines your instructor feels merit your attention. 

There are usually several different wines served with each meal.  At all meals, we include a minimum of a half-bottle of wine per person.  All wines included in your tour are meticulously chosen by the instructor.  You are always welcome to purchase additional wine or other beverages at your own cost, in addition to those provided. 

We do our best to accommodate special needs and dietary restrictions. It's usually possible to provide a substitute meal or dish if an individual cannot have what the group is eating. Please inform us of your allergies or intolerances in advance, upon registering for the tour or immersion course. We will do our best to accommodate.  The reservation form includes an area to specify dietary restrictions. If you have not informed us beforehand of your specific dietary needs, we cannot ensure these will be met.   If you have been on a tour with us before, you will still need to indicate your allergies on the reservation form for each subsequent tour.

We use deluxe, air-conditioned motor coaches throughout the tour, with bottled water available on board for your comfort. In some regions where winery access is limited, smaller vehicles may be used to ensure safe and convenient travel. The bus is a shared space, and everyone’s comfort is important. Please keep in mind that we may need to make small compromises, such as adjusting the temperature or volume, to ensure a pleasant experience for the whole group.

Our tour instructors are among the most renowned and respected wine professionals in the industry. They are also professional wine educators who are absolutely passionate about the region and its wines. You can see a full biography of the instructor for each trip on the corresponding page, so you can know exactly with whom you'll be touring and learning. Most are native English speakers (American or British) and all other instructors speak English fluently.

Our instructors have that special combination of high-level wine expertise, personal warmth, friendliness and excellent leadership skills. They'll accompany you every day, throughout the tour, and will be able to answer all of your questions about the wines of the region you’ll be visiting (and about wine in general).

The tour manager is there to help the instructor during the time in class, serving wines and assisting with other tasks. On our wine tours and field-trip days, they are there to make sure all the logistics of the day run smoothly so that the instructor can devote their time to educating. This includes liaising with the bus driver and restaurants before and during the tour. Along with the instructor, they are responsible for making sure that the group is punctual for all visits, meals, and drop-offs. They also help to handle any emergency that may come up.

Yes, we strongly encourage you to purchase a very comprehensive travel insurance package once you have paid your non-refundable deposit for a Study Tour. Note that many plans require you to purchase the insurance very soon after your deposit payment (some require it within 14 days). There are any number of things that can happen that can cause cancellation or interruption of package travel, and travel insurance can help cover the costs you incur as a result.

You can find travel insurers easily and there are sites where you can compare policies (for example, Insure My Trip). Be sure to read policies very carefully before you purchase. Include your airfare, train fare, and any other expenses you will have in addition to the price of the study tour itself. We highly recommend getting a “cancel for any reason” policy, which offers the best coverage. Travel experts say “if you can’t afford travel insurance, you can’t afford to travel,” so don’t skimp on this important coverage!

"Students of Wine"; whether wine industry professionals or serious wine hobbyists who wish to learn extensively about the wines of France, Italy, Germany and Spain with the leaders in wine education. Many tour participants have formed friendships and bonds on our tours with like-minded people.

Yes, you need to be in good physical condition. On field trip days, we will be walking short distances into the vineyards, walking through a winery, up and down stairs, and often standing in place for quite a while during a winery tour and tasting (sometimes there is no place to sit in the winery).

Yes, definitely. We keep group size on our wine tours to no more than 16 participants, to make sure that everyone gets individual attention. The smaller group size also allows us to use a smaller motor coach, so we can take smaller, more scenic country roads and maneuver more easily through narrow estate access roads. It also enables us to visit exclusive estates that do not accept large groups.

No, the single supplement is intended for individual occupancy only. Bringing a non-paying guest is not permitted.