Recommenations for Northern Rhone and Loire winery visits

To make a long story short, after a 6 year hiatus, I will be returning to F rance in a few weeks, this time for my honeymoon, as I am getting married o n May 4th.

On my previous visit to France, partly on the advice of people in this grou p, I visited Clos des Cazaux, Chateau Beaucastel, and Domaine de l'Arjolle.

Alas, Beaucastel is booked up, and we won't be going near Arjolle, but I wi ll be re-visiting Cazaux and will be sure to buy some of their delectable b otrytis white grenache dessert wine, Grains de Novembre!

We will be driving from Avignon to Tours on Saturday the 11th, and thought we'd break up the monotony with a visit to one or two smallish, family run operations in the Northern Rhone. Our route will use the A7 as far as Givo rs, and then the A72 far enough to longer be in the northern Rhone.

I favor Syrah equally as much as Viognier, and as much as I'd like to see H ermitage Hill, it isn't a must.

We will be in the Loire from the 11th thru the 15th, and my wife to be is p articularly fond of Sauvignon Blanc. I myself am enamoured with the region 's Pinot Noir, Cab Franc, and Pineau d'Aunis. An eclectic mix of wineries there would be nice, as something to do in between visiting chateaux.

What say all of you?

Thanks! Chris

Reply to
Chris Sprague
Loading thread data ...

In addition, any shops or locations that offer tastings of a broad spectrum of the region's wines would be worth knowing about, too. I know the Boute illerie du Palais des Papes in Avignon offers such a tasting, which we will be sure to check out once again.

Chris

Reply to
Chris Sprague

um of the region's wines would be worth knowing about, too. I know the Bou teillerie du Palais des Papes in Avignon offers such a tasting, which we wi ll be sure to check out once again.

Have you checked our FAQ?

Reply to
lleichtman

the region's wines would be worth knowing about, too. I know the Bouteillerie du Palais des Papes in Avignon offers such a tasting, which we will be sure to check out once again.

One address I would definitely recommend in the Loire valley is La cave insolite in Montlouis, run by the wife of François Chidaine.

formatting link
and click on "Cave insolite" for details. And congratulations, btw.

Reply to
Eric Lafontaine

I had not yet, and was just now reminded of its existence. It looks like a great resource - thanks!

Chris

Reply to
Chris Sprague

Congratulations, Chris! In addition to the advice in the FAQ linked in my sig, I'd suggest seeing if you can get in with the Gonon brothers in Mauves (in the St. Joseph AOC) and Thierry Allemand in Cornas, both of whom make sensation Syrahs.

The Loire Valley I note is missing from our FAQ, which is a major oversight. My favorite producers there would be Baudry, Breton, Clos Roche Blanche and Eric Nicolas's Dom. de Belleviere, but I haven't visited any of them. Hopefully, Emery and/or Santiago will chime in with some information here.

Mark Lipton

Reply to
Mark Lipton

replying to Mark Lipton , Château du Petit Thouars, Historic Loire Valley Vineyard wrote: If you get near Chinon and like Cabernet Franc don't hesitate to come for a taste at Château du Petit Thouars. Our historic tasting room is open year round and English is spoken at the domain -- we'd be very happy to share our award-winning wines with you! Check out our blog for future information!

Château du Petit Thouars Saint Germain sur Vienne (La Chaussée) Chinon, France

formatting link

Reply to
Château du Petit Thouars, Historic Loire Valley Vineyard

Mark Lipton wrote in news:kk4l38$9gt$1 @speranza.aioe.org:

The problem with the Loire, and specifically about Pinot Noir + Cabernet Franc is that you find Pinot Noir in what the French call "The Centre" (Sancerre, Pouilly and surroundings) and Cabernet Franc around Anjou+Saumur+Chinon.

And they are not very close.

I must admit that I have not been to the Sancerrois, because on my trips I am always based on Angers and it is quite far to Sancerre.

Dagueneau, Vacheron, the Cotat cousins are probably the best producers in the area. Alphonse Mellot also comes to mind.

For Cabernet Franc, the best is probably Clos Rougeard, but I have been to the Loire 14 times in the last 12 years and I did not dare to ask for a rendez-vous for the first 10 years. And the last few times I could not make it even if I have some connections. Another opportunity next november. We'll see.

Anyway my favorite producer is Bernard Baudry, whose son Matthieu speaks English. They are friendly for French standards. Another good producers are Thierry Germain (a producer making modern wines) in Saumur, Philippe Alliet in Chinon, I had fond memories of Charles Joguet... (BTW, I never had luck with Breton which I always found too bretty for my taste).

If planning the trip in advance, I think it would pay to get a copy of Bettane and Desseauves yearly guide and read it carefully. It is a good guidance as an starting point.

To purchase wines, I have always purchased wine at a small caviste called "La Cave St. Aubin" in Rue St. Aubin in Angers. Expensive, but he used to have a great selection. Now he is very much in the natural wine movement and I think his selection is not that good.

There is a little chain of a few shops called "Vino Vini". One of those shops was in Les Ponts de Ce (not very far from Angers) and I think the owner had a connection with a Loire grower's association that made the commercial function in a cooperative style. I always found interesting wines there, and the prices were fine.

Also, in the outskirst of Angers, in a town called Avrille, there is a wine wholesaler that also sells retail at very fair prices. You can download their price list online. Beware this is not a fancy shop but more like a warehouse. Do not expect a lot of help.

formatting link

s.

Reply to
santiago

Yes, I didn't mention Clos Rougeard because the Foucault brothers do not usually take visitors (Nady Foucault has a reputation for not liking Americans very much either).

Mark Lipton

Reply to
Mark Lipton

Hi Chris, and congratulations from here too!

The Maison du vin Saumur/Anjou (I think it's called) in Saumur has what you're looking for. It's basically a tasting room to promote the wines of the region, so there's a lot of choice. It used to be free... but I haven't been there in a long time, so who knows now. There's one in Tours also. The Saumur one is on the river near where the main road goes into the town center.

I'll echo Baudry, and I think the wines of St Juste are fabulous right now (and I believe unknown in the US). You will never go wrong with a visit to Huet in Vouvray. If you get north a bit, check out Francois Fresneau (Dom de Cezin) in Jasnieres.

In the Rhone, the Coulon Bros are doing great stuff now at Beaurenard; their Rasteau is fab, and of course some very good CdPs. At Font de Michelle the new generation has taken over, with some new and interesting cuvees.

If you want to be blown away by something completely different, visit the Faucon d'Ore, (in Le Faucon, that's AOC Puymeras believe it or not) biodynamic wines made under difficult conditions with silly-low yields (

Reply to
Emery Davis`

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

Reply to
Chris Sprague

I just saw this post, hence the late reply.

I'm so glad you enjoyed Faucon d., in fact we drank a bottle of Lou Sanglie yesterday. :) I haven't actually tried the Deep Purple. But like them or no as you discovered all of the wines are very interesting indeed, and some are really fabulous.

I wish for them that they would be discovered, (although I'm sure I wouldn't like what it would do to the prices), they're a really nice family.

Glad you liked the area too, the Baronnies are to my tastes one of the most beautiful places on earth.

cheers,

-E

Reply to
Emery Davis`

DrinksForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.