Kate_W

My father is visiting us in Paris again, just before we move back to North America, so we planned another weekend in wine country. This time, we chose the Loire Valley because: (a) it seems inappropriate to leave France without having visited a castle or two; and (b) some of our favourite wines (from Sancerre, Pouilly Fumé and a little known appellation called Quincy) come from the Loire region.

Unfortunately, we could afford only a two-day trip (Saturday-Sunday) because of work commitments and a party at the Canadian ambassador’s house scheduled on the Friday evening. This meant that it would be impracticable to visit our favourite sub-regions and also visit chateaux, because are relatively far apart and each sub-region is relatively far from Paris. (The Touraine region, where we had made a non-refundable hotel reservation is about 2.5 hours southwest of Paris and Sancerre, for example, is almost due South, also about 2.5 hours away and about 2 hours or so away from the Touraine region.) So we decided to attach our trip to Sancerre et al to our upcoming trip to Burgundy and focused instead on the wines in the Touraine region.

Having learned some lessons with our trip to Champagne and Bordeaux last summer, I did quite a lot of planning and mapping for this trip. We learned that, unless you book a tour, it is best to make reservations in advance to visit a winery in France. My principal tools for wine were Robert Joseph’s Eyewitness Companion to French Wine (in English), a Hachette Guide (in French), Chris Kissack’s Winedoctor website (in English), the website of the Independent Winemakers in France (in French, at www.vigneron-independant.com) and the website www.loire-france.com/vins (also in French). I chose our hotel (Le Vieux Manoir in Amboise based on tripadvisor reviews) and mapped our trip with www.mappy.fr. To be honest, the castles were an afterthought that I fit in around the winetasting plans.

It was challenging to schedule visits with the wineries on this trip because generally they are open for visits between 9:30 or 10 and 12 or 12:30 and then between 14:00 or 14:30 and 16:00-17:00. Because of the travel time from Paris, we wouldn’t be able to visit any wineries in the morning. (This is why it would have been better for us to drive or take the train to Amboise on Friday night, instead of delaying our departure until Saturday morning. But how could we turn down an opportunity to see the Canadian ambassador’s residence?) Accordingly, I planned a castle visit (Chambord) for late Saturday morning, then lunch if we had time and then our first winery appointment for 14:00.

Mappy is a great tool. You can ask it to tell you the most direct route (on major highways) and it will tell you how much the tolls and gas cost, where the radar is, the accumulated distance, accumulated time and the distance for each segment. Most importantly, it tells you exactly what to look for on the signs that identify routes and directions. (French road signs can be confusing at first because they list the route number (e.g. A10) and towns/cities in the direction you might be looking for, but unless you have an encyclopedic knowledge of French geography, it can be hard to know that “City x” is in the direction of the “village y” you are looking for. And sometimes the signs will list two cities that seem to you to be in completely opposite sides of the country (e.g. take this route if you would like to go to Bordeaux, or Strasbourg or Aix-en-Provence). Hhm. This is why Mappy’s directions are helpful, because it tells you exactly what to look for on the signs. I download the mappy directions into a wordperfect document (or print it directly).

Mappy unfortunately does not build “getting lost” time into its estimates of time (or distance). After last summer’s experiences, I have learned to budget at least 15 minutes for getting lost trying to get on the right highway out of Paris and at least 30 minutes of getting lost time to get to the precise address you’re looking for (e.g. castle, winery, hotel, restaurant). We used every minute of getting lost time throughout the whole weekend.

Dukey

How was the hotel in Amboise, Kate?

Kate_W

Dukey: I'll report on Le Vieux Manoir shortly.

On Saturday morning we got up early so that we could be on the road by 9. This turned out to be more painful for me than expected because I came down with a cold on Friday evening. Fuelled with caffeine, however, we still managed to get on the road by 9:30 and only got a little lost in Boulogne-Billancourt before getting ourselves onto the A10. We had a smooth trip all the way to our first stop, at Chambord. Of course, we took the wrong exit and wandered around for a while (but I’d expected us to get lost) so we still arrived at Chambord in good time.

I’m sure Chambord is a lovely castle. It is certainly very historic and has an amazing double helix central staircase attributed to da Vinci. But for me the experience was marred by swarms (well, I exaggerate but certainly swarmlettes) of aphid-like bugs. Blech. I am practically phobic when it comes to bugs – and we ended up covered in them as we walked from the parking lot to the castle. On our clothes, in our hair, etc. At least they didn’t bite.

After wiping ourselves down, we got back on the road and headed for the town of Vouvray, where our afternoon appointments were located. We were ahead of time, so we stopped for lunch in the town centre at a very good restaurant that was probably a little fancier than we needed (baguette sandwiches would have been fine) but it’s a good idea to line your stomach with foie gras, duck and other such items if you are about to spend the afternoon drinking.

We got directions from the restaurant to Domaine Huet and found it with only one small misturn, arriving about 10 minutes early. We were pleased with ourselves, because the Wine Doctor says of Vouvray “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here. Well, abandon hope of finding the particular domaine you are searching for within a reasonable time, anyway.” We were curious about the wines of Vouvray, which are made exclusively from Chenin blanc grapes. Still wine (dry, semi-dry and sweet) and petillant (slightly bubbly) wines are produced. Those of you who are accustomed to big, oaky Chardonnays or perhaps the lemony, grassy Sauvignon Blancs might not like Vouvray. But we are fond of Riesling and Gewurtztraminer and had learned on a trip to the Mosel Valley a few years ago that well-made semi-dry and unoaky whites can be extraordinary in the hands of great winemakers. Domaine Huet is considered to be one of the best traditional producers in the region, and we weren’t disappointed by the quality of the wines on offer. What was a little disappointing was the fact that all that was on offer was a tasting, in a small tasting room, rather than a tour either of the vineyards or the wine-making apparatus. Our hostess (a winery employee) was very pleasant and professional, but it was a relatively brief visit and the experience lacked the personal and idiosyncratic touch that we got when visiting some of the small producers in Champagne, and lacked the “big show” aspect of our visits to large producers in Bordeaux and Champagne. But the wine was very good, and the sparkling wine was a pleasurable surprise. We’ve become hooked on Champagne since moving to France because it’s so affordable. Huet’s sparkling Vouvray is very intriguing because it’s not sweet at all. We can imagine that it would be a lovely aperitif on a hot summer day, as a change from champagne. So we stocked up on half a dozen sparkling wines and half a dozen others (for a total average cost of about 9 euros a bottle).

Keeping in mind the WineDoctor’s warning about how easy it is to get lost in Vouvray, we asked the woman at Huet how to get to our next appointment at Domaine Champalou. We also asked her where we might go for an hour, since we were ahead of schedule. (I’d budgeted 2 hours between visits but we only needed 40 minutes at Huet.) She produced a map and showed us how to get to Champalou, as well as suggesting that we go to the Cave de Producteurs (the local wine coop) because it was sure to be open and had a small museum and the possibility of visiting a cave).

We found the Cave de Producteurs easily and lined up at the bar for a tasting. Hhm. Interesting. Now we understood why Domaine Huet was considered one of the best producers in the region. The wines we tasted at the Cave de Producteurs were overwhelmingly mediocre. They constitute a blend of grapes grown by coop members and then blended and made into wine by the Cave’s own winemakers. Flabby, ordinary, completely unmemorable. Thank goodness we had another appointment scheduled.

Kate_W

Despite having a map, we got lost a few times (on extraordinarily narrow and bumpy roads) on our way to Domaine Champalou. But there weren’t a lot of different paths to try, so we just kept trying them until we seemed to find the right one. We arrived at Champalou in good time, and were greeted by one of the owners (and her mother, who had been cutting roses in the garden). Again, there was no opportunity to see the winery itself or the vineyards, but we had an interesting tasting experience. Our hostess offered to speak English and we carried out our discussion mostly in English with some French mixed in. We were interested to learn that her daughter had gone to Canada to try her hand at the ice wine harvest (on the Niagara Peninsula) and then spent a little time in the Okanagan Valley. Champalou’s wines also were excellent (erasing the taste of the mediocre wines we’d tasted a little earlier). We bought another half dozen bottles, this time of a dry and a semi-dry which tasted like it would be good with spicy food, as Riesling and Gewurtztraminer often are.

Alas, this visit was also a buggy one. Somehow, between the car and the tasting room, we ended up covered in tiny, pinprick-sized bugs. My skin just crawls thinking of them. I asked our hostess about them and she said that they had turned up a few years ago and have blanketed some of the wineries. They don't bite, but they do some damage to the crops. Unfortunately, the winemakers aren't permitted to treat them because not enough is known about them yet and therefore they aren't addressed in the protocols governing production of AOC wine.

I should add that at both wineries, we asked and got contact details for the winery’s agents in the US. This might make it possible to buy more of their wines, once we move to New York later this summer.

We drove back down the hill and continued on to Amboise, where our hotel (Le Vieux Manoir) was located. After a day’s driving and wine-tasting (and with my cold), we weren’t up for an more sightseeing, which is too bad because Amboise certainly looked worth exploring. Inadvertently, we ended up exploring it by car because we took too early a turn and ended up on our hotel’s one-way street (rue Rabelais) but too far along. It took us almost 20 minutes to get back to the Quai and turn onto the right cross street that would take us to the right location on rue Rabelais.

What a beautiful hotel! It is a wonderful surprise to turn in off the narrow streets (which have high walls and/or building fronts) and discover a courtyard, a stunning, classical garden and a charming white manor house trimmed in blue. We were met at the door by our hostess, an American, and offered a welcome drink. Since we’d just drunk our way through Vouvray, we declined the offer and headed upstairs to our rooms. They looked just like the photographs on the website. Our rooms (Madame de Sevigne and Madame du Barry) were relatively small but comfortable and very tastefully decorated (with AC!), with high quality finishes. We collapsed into bed and napped for an hour or so.

At seven pm we got up and went downstairs to the salon, where we chatted with our hostess, who made a dinner reservation for us and offered wine (this time we accepted). Again, we were reminded of how good the wines we’d tasted at Huet and Champalou (as this wine was unmemorable). We wandered off for dinner at 8 pm, and enjoyed the simple meal served at L’Eclus.

The next morning we got up fairly early, with plans to meet for breakfast at 8:45 because we had an appointment at 11:30 some distance to the west of Amboise. Unfortunately, we didn’t know that breakfast wasn’t served until 9, and my dad was rather peremptorily directed to the front garden while our hosts prepared the conservatory for breakfast. I suppose we should have mentioned our plans the day before, but we hadn’t expected that 8:45 would have posed a problem.

Breakfast was worth waiting for, however, with excellent coffee, pastries, yogurt, granola and fresh strawberries. We chatted with the other guests and our hosts. I would have to say that much as we enjoyed our visit to Le Vieux Manoir, there is a possibility that - how shall I put this? – the forceful character of our hostess might have become a little wearing after a day or two. For example, while we enjoyed learning about the history of their development of the manor, but perhaps did not need to know exactly how much the bedspeads and garden cost and did not need a lecture on how to teach our neighbours in Paris not to throw loud parties.

Kate_W

We wished we’d had at least half a day to explore Amboise, but the wines of Bourgueil (www.terroir-france.com/region/loire_bourgueil) and M. Pierre Jacques Druet (www.thewinedoctor.com/loire/druet) were waiting for us down the road. Before I planned this trip, I had never heard of the appellation Bourgueil, which uses cabernet franc grapes exclusively to make very interesting red wines.

Mappy said it was a 70 minute drive, but we needed the full “30 minutes to get lost” allowance, as we criss-crossed back and forth across the river and bounced between the A10 and secondary roads. Finally, almost by accident, we found the route to the town of Benais and then the town itself. M Druet had advised me to call for directions and to confirm the time of our arrival, which I did but got his voice mail. We didn’t have a clue where in Benais to go, so I stopped at a tabac to ask for directions. The bartender, who would not have looked out of place working as a roadie for Dr Hook, very kindly drew a map and provided a very detailed explanation of how to find Domaine Druet. I had explained in advance that, as an English speaker, I always found French directions confusing, at least until I learned (almost a year after we moved to Paris) that “droite” (right – the “t” is pronounced) is not the same thing as “tout droit” (straight ahead – the “t” in droit is silent). Which explains why we often ended up going in circles for the first year. Consequently, the bartender very carefully stressed (with a chuckle shared by the other men at the bar) the difference between his droites and his tout droits as he explained the route.

The bartender’s directions were excellent and we pulled up at the winery only 10 minutes late. However, there was no sign of the proprietor. Encouragingly, though, we could see and hear a yappy Airedale in one of the buildings and so we figured someone would show up sooner or later. And, 5 minutes later, M Druet appeared, let Minou (the dog) out of the house and bid us to drive down to garage-like building at the bottom of the property where his wine-making equipment was located. We were then treated to the most interesting, generous and convivial wine-tasting experience of all time. M Druet spent two hours with us, showing us in detail his wine-making equipment and explaining how his processes differed from those used by others around him. And he did it all in very good English, for my dad’s benefit. As with our trips last summer, I think the winemakers enjoy explaining things to my dad, who is a retired chemical engineer who worked in the paper-making industry. He understands and is very interested in the processes and slight differences from winery to winery.

After showing us his wine-making equipment, M Druet then jumped in his car and asked us to follow him to his caves, which were about half a kilometre or so away. He told us the caves were first dug out of the cliffside more than 900 hundred years ago and are still used to store wine in barrels and bottles. It was earthy, mouldy, slightly spooky and completely wonderful. We spent more than an hour tasting the full range of his wines. He organised the tasting to highlight differences in the terroir (e.g. we tasted 2003 vintages from 3 different locations), age of the vines (some of the wines came from vines that were over 60 years old) and fermentation techniques. Interestingly, he uses oak barrels for some of his wines, but uses large barrels that are shaped and constructed with hot water rather than fire, so there is almost no oaky flavour and yet a very nice structure. At the end of the tasting session (we tried at least 7 of the wines he has for sale), he offered up two fur-covered half-bottles of wine, one from the early 1990s and one from 1986, neither of which was for sale. They were wonderful – too bad we couldn’t buy them.

At the end of our tasting session, we drove back to the winery and purchased some of the rosé wine he makes “to amuse himself” as well as two of his reds. We had already learned that rosés in France are not the unfashionable, bubble-gum concoctions (once) served up by some American winemakers to please palates raised on a diet of Coca Cola, but in fact can be very interesting, well-made wines that nicely balance red grape flavour with a lightness that suits summer meals. M Druet’s rosé didn’t disappoint and so we decided to stock up as it is unlikely to be available in the US.

As we left, my dad thanked M Druet and told him that the visit was the highlight of both of his trips to France. My husband and I also think that this might have been the best experience we’ve had in France so far. M Druet’s enthusiasm for his work, his desire to share his knowledge of winemaking and his generous investment of time on a Sunday afternoon represent, for us, the best of what France and French people have to offer.

Kate_W

I forgot to mention that our visit to Domaine Druet was bug-free

Because we’d spent so much time at with M Druet and had received such a thorough explication of the wines of Bourgeuil and Chinon, we decided to toss the rest of my schedule and simply make our way back to Paris, via secondary roads and perhaps with a detour for a castle or two. (I had planned for us to visit the Cave Touristique de Bourgeuil and also the wine shop operated by Couly-Dutheil at le Clos d’Echo.)

But first we needed lunch. We drove off, on the lookout for a) something to eat and/or b) one of the secondary roads that ran along either side of the Loire. I told the men that, while I would continue to navigate, I was too tired to make any decisions so it was up to them to decide where to eat and what to visit. Luckily, we saw not one, not two but three signs for an intriguingly named restaurant, Le Moulin Bleu (www.lemoulinbleu.com). By the time we’d passed the third sign, a quorum had formed and made a decision to detour up the hill to check out the windmill.

We arrived toward the end of what would ordinarily be the lunch service (14:15), but the owner was quite willing to seat us for lunch. Again, we had accidentally tripped over a great meal and we decided to make the most of it by having three courses (including, variously, snails, foie gras, langoustines, pigeon, rabbit, profiteroles, tarte tatin and a spectacular ice cream sundae). Service was warmly professional but leisurely, the view was great and we entertained ourselves by trying to decipher the increasingly tipsy French coming from a large table of guests who were celebrating a birthday and perhaps several other life events at the same time. We staggered out of the restaurant at 16:00, stopped for a photo opportunity (of the windmill, the view and the donkeys in the field below), ran for the car (well, I ran for the car - more bugs, unfortunately) and drove off more or less in the direction of Paris.

We managed to find one of the two Loire-hugging roads were looking for and so began to drive along, taking in the scenery along the way. I realised fairly soon, though, that if we wanted to visit one more castle, we needed to do it soon since some of them stop admitting visitors around 5 pm in June. We decided to visit the nearest on our map, Azay-le-Rideau, but alas arrived just a few minutes too late to enter the castle itself. We were allowed, however, to pay 3 euros each for the privilege of wandering around the gardens (taking in a view of the castle) for 45 minutes. Twenty minutes was about all I could stand in bug heaven, despite the distraction of some interesting birds. So, fairly soon, we were back in the car and en route back to Paris, this time on the fast A10.

All in all, it was a very satisfying weekend. If I had it to do over, I would allocate more time (at least two nights, preferably three) for the trip, read up a little more in advance on the history of the particular castles we planned to visit – and pack a bug hat. (I wouldn’t really wear a bug hat, but I might schedule a trip like this for late summer or early fall instead of June. Normal people who find bugs irritating but not petrifying will be slightly irritated but otherwise fine in June.)

If you are particularly interested in wine, I strongly recommend that you do as we did, which is to rent a car and make a few appointments in advance to visit some of the producers recommended in the Eyewitness Guide or by someone like the Winedoctor. If you ask when making the appointment, you can find out whether anyone is available who can speak English (if necessary). As we did, plan to spend 90 minutes at each winery (for Loire region wineries, you will need more like 2 hours in Bordeaux), expect to take 30 minutes to find the winery once you find the town and expect to take at least 15 minutes to find the town if you're exiting a highway. Two visits per half day is about all we can manage, so on a three day trip you might plan on 3 half days of wine-tasting and 3 half days of castle-hopping.

While it is possible to book a tour that includes visits to wine producers, I would not be surprised if a number of the tours would take you to places like the Cave de Producteurs or only the largest wineries (although a visit to Cluhy-Dutheil would fit into that category and would likely be a good experience). If you are booking a tour that includes winery visits, you might ask if they can tell you exactly which wineries you'll be visiting (or at least for some of the names). Then, you can research the names of the wineries (in a Hachette Guide if you're in France and near a bookshop) or on the internet if you're booking before you leave home for your trip.

For those of you who would like to read about our trip to Champagne last year, here is a link: http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34845706

Dukey

Kate,

Thank for the information about the Vieux Manoir and appreciate your taking the time to post this trip report.

Nerida

Hi Kate - thanks for the detailed report - we are staying in Amboise next week. The restaurant you referred to - L'Eclus - is it worth a visit? I have been to Amboise a few times and can't recall it. Do you mind giving me the details?

Thanks again
Nerida

swagman

Nerida

Also try Fleur de Lys, it's a stone's throw away from Le Vieux Manior.

Enjoy!

s

Kate_W

Hi Nerida:

L'Eclus was good for what it was: a restaurant with a simple menu, good quality food and cheerful decor. It is hard to find without directions because it's located in the interior courtyard of what I think used to be a leather curing factory. Gloria at Le Vieux Manoir gave us a map with the restaurant marked on it.

Some tables are set outside on the grass under the trees. We ate inside (note my bug phobia earlier in the trip report), which was a fairly large room, cheerfully but inexpensively decorated. Rather too much plastic (outside tables and chairs, and inside) for my taste. There seemed to be three women running the place, and they were over-taxed on a Friday night, so service was slow, but very friendly. Prices were good, although not cheap. I wouldn't recommend it for a special night out, but it suited us well because we'd had a rich lunch and had been wine-tasting all afternoon. It would be a good choice for families.

Mamaw

Kate

I Loved your post! I wish I could write with such flair and detail. My reports are full of typo's and blah blah blah. But Your's is a prize winner.

Hoping to be in France March 08, I hope to explore Loire Valley. I will be with approx. 40 French Students and will not be checking out any wineries, but a few chateaux. I will have some free time in the evening if all goes well, so I just may try one of the restaurants you did.

Thanks again....Theresa in Detroit.

Kate_W

Thanks, Theresa for your comments on my trip report. But you did make me go back and read it, and I find several typos. Clearly, my standards are slipping. (I used to work for a law firm where we joked that "Proofreading is a competitive sport". One of my jobs was to train and supervise the research and writing of newly qualified lawyers. I used to fine them quarters for any errors they made repeatedly. Now it looks like I'd be owing someone else some change.)

PS - I think you should sneak away from your tour group and go wine tasting. You could send them to Cheverny with a few Tintin books for the afternoon. (Apparently Cheverny is the model for the castle that appears in Tintin.)

suntravler

Kate....Very much enjoyed reading your report. I am thinking about a trip to Amboise for next year. Thanks.

lmsd76

Kate - I will be in Paris for about 7 days in September and then wanted to head over to one of the wine regions for about 3 days. I was leaning more towards Bordeaux, but after reading so many posts, I may be leaning more towards another one such as Loire Valley or Burgundy. What would you suggest since you have been to so many it seems? Also, there is a possibility I will not be returning to France so quickly, so given that, which is a MUST see?

Kate_W

Hi Imsd76:

I think the choice of wine region depends on a) how you plan to get around (rental car, guided tour, public transit?); b) how good your French is; c) how much you want to plan/organise in advance; d) what you want to to in combination with winery visits and e) last but not least, the kinds of wines you like.

Although we haven't visited all the regions, I think that the easiest places to "arrive, arrange a tour and taste quality wines" are probably Bordeaux, Burgundy (e.g. from a base in Beaune) and Champagne. A trip to Champagne would probably be the easiest place to go wine-tasting without a car and without even needing to take a tour outside the town where you'd stay, if you went either to Reims or Epernay. This is because the big champagne houses are situated in these towns and they offer very entertaining tours, some of which are more educational than others. Tours are often available in English as well as French. They are fun and somewhat glamourous, and you do get to see real cellars. You might want to book one or two visits in advance (while in Paris, before travelling) but you could do other visits almost as a walk-up. There would also be bus tours organised from either the tourist information centre or maison du vin that could be booked on arrival. Plan to spend at least 2 days / 1 night for such a trip.

Bordeaux would also be a good base from which you could book a tour of wineries. Unlike Champagne, though, there wouldn't be any wineries to visit in the city itself, although you could do tastings at the Maison du Vin (and even book a short wine-tasting course if you time the trip right). Bordeaux has fabulous reds and some excellent whites (Pessac-Leognan). I think that even if you were on a tour bus, you would get the chance to visit some very good quality wineries, with well-organised tours in English (or French). If your budget stretches to a splurge, you might also consider spending a night at Les Sources de Caudalie, a hotel/spa that is adjacent and related to an excellent winery, called Smith-Haute-Lafitte. So, you could taste wine and then have it massaged into your skin and then indulge in a great meal.

We have only managed to dip our toes into Burgundy (we just got back from a one-night trip to Dijon), so I can't offer as much advice as for Champagne and Bordeaux. However, the research I did also indicated that you could base yourself in one of the main cities or towns in the region (e.g. Beaune) and, while there, book a guided tour of wineries. If you have a car, you could spend a night in a city or town (like Beaune, Dijon or Lyon) and a night in a chateau.

I think that to get the most out of the Loire, you'd need to: a) rent a car; and b) do a fair bit of research to identify good wineries, particularly if you want to taste whites as well as reds. Also, some of the best-known whites of the Loire region (e.g. Sancerre, Pouilly-Fume) seem to be rather far away from the castles and chateaux that are the Loire Valley's other highlight. We tasted some rather mediocre whites in the area around Amboise and were lucky that our research turned up some of the best producers. I wouldn't be surprised if bus tours organised to visit Loire valley chateaux deliver you to the gates of some of the mass producers, rather than the top wineries. You'd want to make sure that if you booked a tour, it included some top quality wineries. But the Loire would probably be the best choice for someone who wanted to combine winery visits with other activities (e.g. visits to castles, etc).