Cocoa & Grapes - Chocolate & Wine Tasting Walking Tour - THE Food Tour To Do — Attraction in Carcassonne

On the recommendation of our B&B hosts (Carcassonne B&B), I booked a tour with Brent to celebrate my birthday with my husband. It was the perfect tour for us!

We met Brent and the three other guests at 9am and Brent quickly got us chatting with his natural conversational tone and some easy icebreakers (don’t worry, not the kind you have to do on corporate training days!). Uncharacteristically for late May, the weather was pretty awful, wet as well as windy. It’s a testament to the quality of Brent’s chat that I didn’t mind despite being poorly dressed - I was enjoying the history too much to care!

The walking distances were very easily manageable and Brent kept us safe crossing roads which was very thoughtful. Our first stop was a chocolate shop, where Brent and the owner Phillipe gave us an interesting history of chocolate, and explained production techniques etc. Then we got to taste some of Phillipe’s creations, which were sublime.

We moved on to a fairly newly opened natural wine shop, and learned about quality wine production whilst tasting some delicious local wines. At our second wine shop stop, Vins & Vinos, we enjoyed a picnic Brent had brought along (bread, humous, pate, cheese and olives), and more lovely wines. We finished with an incredible dessert wine and more chocolate from Phillipe’s shop. The wine servings were far from stingy and we tried plenty of varieties - enough that we left with rosy cheeks!

The pacing of the tour was fantastic, allowing us a chance to chat to our fellow guests as well as learn, and all in we had a very enjoyable morning (more than really, it was well after 1pm when we left). We took advantage of a discount offered to buy chocolates from Phillipe, and a case of wine to be shipped home at a very good cost at Vins & Vinos.

I should mention that in the evening we dined at La Marquiere on Brent’s recommendation, and it was perfect.

Thank you Brent for a memorable tour which introduced us to Carcassonne as an amazing foodie destination as well as a wine lovers parasise, and left us...

I booked this for my wife's birthday as she is rather partial to chocolate and wine, as am I and we weren't disappointed. It was 4 plus pleasurable hours spent in Brent's company and from the moment you meet him he felt like an old friend which makes for free flowing and easy conversation. Brent takes you on a good walk around the Bastide area of Carcassonne along with some great history and facts about the Medieval Cite too. You start out looking across the river to see the great vista of the Cite and then discover some lesser known sites and information about the Bastide. Learning the origins of a couple of well known phrases was really cool and along with these quirky facts Brent is also a mine of interesting history and information. The chocolate shop we visited was spot on, with the produce of a really high quality and this properly got the palate going in anticipation for a taste of some wine later on. The next stop was a lovely wine shop owned by a very bilingual English family with well stocked shelves to fit all budgets. We sat sipping on some fabulous local sparkling wine that was the original champagne, Brent will tell you the story! Now and again Brent reaches in his bag for an extra surprise to compliment the wine and in this case it was some unusual but tasty savory biscuits. The final stop was another wine place owned by Italian Americans and they pride themselves on stocking the finest single grape local wines and you get a good taste of a few and all excellent. The wine here is accompanied by a slightly different take on "pizza" and was totally delicious. Another chocolate surprise rounded things off and it was just such a pleasant and entertaining way to spend a few hours. You are able to purchase from the venues as you go along and we got some wine and chocolates to take back home with us. Cannot recommend this tour enough and all about the personality and human touch along with great chocolate and fine tasting wine. Many...

What a fantastic morning we had with Brent, although by the time the party broke up it was mid-afternoon!

Brent has a great knowledge of the local history and of chocolate and wine which he was able to share in a very easy and enlightening manner.

We met some great people at a variety of venues around the city where we tried various chocolates, wines and snacks, also having time to take in the Saturday market, arriving at our final destination to taste a range of wines at lunchtime.

At Le Chat Bleu we met Robert and other people who had dropped in for wine tasting and enjoyed four different wines and a range of appetisers prepared by Robert, the owner and Michelin starred chef who was as delightful and considerate as our original host. The delicious treats there were an unexpected bonus and absolutely divine.

We went on the tour as a couple but by the end of the morning we felt like we were with old friends and we are disappointed that our holiday has now come to an end and we are back in grey old Blighty!

We cannot recommend Brent and his tour enough. We have been to Carcassonne several times and so had a reasonable knowledge of the old and new but Brent added a new dimension to our understanding of the area and of the chocolate and wine industries. We would contact Brent for another tour in the future and we have yet another reason for...