Loire Valley Vineyards
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‘Best for a range of flavours’The Loire has an excellent range of wines and flavours. If you’re not sure what you like you’ll be able to taste a range here from the crispest of the crisp Sauvignon Blanc to the smooth warmth of the Pinot Noirs which reflect the terroir so purely, to the value for money rogue of a wine Muscadet (the best ones are from the Loire). You’re bound to discover something new here which is the main reason to tour wine regions. And the countryside is second to none as well if you like a pretty village and the odd gorgeous chateau.
5 / 5
Review by member ‘La Grande Maison, Best Loire B & B with Wine Tours’We spent three nights with Sue and Micaela in their fascinating B & B, an historic wine manager's house with caves, near Saumur in the Loire Valley. Both hostesses are wine experts and enjoy driving their comfortable van with guests to visit local wineries and vineyards for private tours and tastings. They are personally acquainted with owners and winemakers who take pleasure in sharing their wines and wine knowledge. Picnics along the scenic Loire Valley are included, and Sue is an excellent cook who will also prepare dinner (paired with local wines, of course), with prior reservations.
Set among vines, the house has four wonderful bedrooms with ensuite baths,completely modernized for comfort but retaining their 14th century charm. Guests are pampered with local handmade soaps and soft linens. There is a lovely garden for relaxing with an evening glass of local Anjou wine. You will be welcome to tour the caves beneath the property which were used for collecting and crushing the grapes at harvest as well as aging the wines in oak barrels. This is truly a unique property and a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Visit the website for additional information and directions: www.lagrandemaison.net
5 / 5
Review by member ‘Excerpt from 'Days of Wine and Poses'’By Kate Mikhail for The Observer First published April 23, 2000
...The British have a bad name when it comes to wine tasting, or at least they used to have. After downing the free wines on offer, they would buy one bottle and walk, earning them the shameful nickname 'the one bottles'. Rule number one: if you're visiting a vineyard, you should expect to carry away at least half a dozen bottles. Other basic tips include: always phone beforehand to check opening hours; avoid lunchtime (noon-2pm); and try to put the odd French sentence together. It will be appreciated.
You can't walk 10 paces without tripping over a vineyard in the Loire and the chance of stumbling across a good one par hasard is far from guaranteed. So, before heading off blindly in the direction of this wine-drenched belt, do some research. Ask someone in the know, or buy a decent wine guide such as the Guide Hachette des Vins.
Driving down from northern France had been a pleasure in itself: straight Roman roads slicing ahead to the horizon, flanked by picture-postcard villages, busy allotments, tiny vineyards, fields of sunflowers and maize and regimented tree farms with their unnatural, though dramatic, measured grids.
I'd chosen five vineyards strung out between Chinon and Angers, which I thought could be visited in a day, but was being over optimistic. Wine tasting is all about knowing what exactly is in the bottle and this, of course, takes time. And there are the distractions en route. Churches, chateaux and farm signs left and right with tempting adverts for fresh farm produce: fruit, veg, flowers and trout ready to be stunned and gutted on demand.
It is also easy to get waylaid while tootling through medieval villages. Troglodyte homes beckon from the rocky hills above Montsoreau, outside Saumur, and cafes, restaurants and ancient village centres all make a play for your attention. Candes-St-Martin is particularly picturesque, with its milky white stone buildings and its twelfth-century church, set back from the narrow main road up a sweeping flight of broad, shallow cobblestone steps. A restaurant sits to the left of the arched entrance, while the air is alive with house martins which have stuck their mud huts in the nooks of the porch's vaults. Inside, canned Gregorian chants lend a slightly cheesy air to what is otherwise a beautiful interior built on the site where Saint Martin died in 397.
The fourteenth-century chateau in Saumur could also lure you, attention-grabbing as it is hovering above town, perched high on sixteenth-century fortifications. Part fortress and part turreted fairytale castle, the chateau, which has served as both barracks and prison, has a great panorama over the river and gardens that are worth a visit.
Worryingly for the local economy, the popularity of the chateaux of the Loire Valley has plummeted in the past decade. Since 1989, visitors have dropped by up to 35 per cent, and only the really enterprising chateaux that put on pageants and son et lumières are attracting enough visitors. This is why, or so I was told, the narrow, winding roads that weave through Loire villages are now often blissfully empty, when in times past tourist-filled cars crawled nose to tail. ... Full Article from The Guardian Review by press. Have you been here? Why not add your own review. |
Photo by flickr user Joe Shlabotnik
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