I though I'd post a follow-up, since so many of you were helpful with recom mendations.
We visited le Clos de Cazaux in Vacqueyras, which I also visited in 2007. All great stuff once again, though I passed on all of the reds this time as I'm able to purchase them in Lexington MA, which I regularly drive through on the way to our vacation home in Cape Cod. However, I did stock up on s ome of their fantastic dessert wine, Grains de Novembre (a botrytis Grenach e Blanc) and some of their VV Blanc.
From there we drove to Domaine du Faucon Dore, and wow are we glad we did. First of all, what a gorgeous place to drive to! The wines were all at le ast interesting (we didn't enjoy a couple of them, for example Color Deep P urple, but at least appreciated the 100% natural approach (wild yeast, no s ulfite, no fining/filtration). Others were absolutely fantastic, and we en ded up buying quite a lot of Dedicace and 200%, plus some of their 100% Vio gnier, Cuvee St Germain. To drink on picnics, we also bought a bottle of t heir Merlot, Lou Sanglie, and were gifted a bottle of La Souche (it was our honeymoon).
After visiting Les Baux de Provence, we visited Mas de Gourgonnier on the a dvice of the proprietor of the aforementioned Lexington, MA wine shop (Joel Berman). All of their wines left us unimpressed, but they made some delig htful olive oil which we bought instead.
On our drive to Tours, we stopped for a single visit in Chavanay, at Domain e Du Chene (Rouvière). This domaine specializes in St Joseph, Condrieu, and some fantastic Syrah and Viognier grown just outside of the AOC limits that they sell cheaply as lowly Vin de Pays. Being an enormous sucker for earthy, gamy northern Rhone Syrah and for Condrieu, I filled my quota for t he number of bottles I was able to bring home here.
Of special interest here was the Julien, a late harvest dessert Condrieu. Their regular Condrieu was likewise fantastic, though perhaps not quite as evocative as some of the better Yves Cuillerons I've had, for the price it was hard to beat (well, for Condrieu prices).
Their lowly Syrah VDP was one of the most stunning QPR wines I've ever tast ed in my life, costing something like 6 or 8 euros.
Their St. Joseph's, while certainly not Parker wines, were right up my alle y. Earth, spice, game, complexity, not forgetting the fruit...just wonderf ul. They make a special cuvee from old vines called Anais which has a bit more oomph, as well. I brought back several of each, buying a total of 11 bottles here, and I wished I could have bought more.
Once we made it to the Loire, our wine shippers were at capacity and we sim ply had no way to bring back any more. We made sure to drink locally durin g meals, but did no tastings.
Bonus: unlike in 2007, when I came back through customs this time, they wer e strangely uninterested in bothering to fill out the duty forms, and waive d us through, even though we honestly declared our haul on the declaration forms. Who am I to second guess them?
Chris