Loire Valley itinerary

We recently headed to the Loire Valley on a hunt for wineries that could please the discerning palates of our guests, not to mention delight their eyes as well!

The Loire region is a rather large department two hours south of Paris and to the west of Burgundy, in central France.

It is spanned by the Loire river, the longest in France and is mostly famous for its magnificent castles of which there are over 300. 

Some of these are world famous Renaissance residences, such as Chenonceaux, Amboise ( where Leonardo da Vinci is buried), Chaumont and Chevergny. 

Others are equally magnificent and also have over the top gardens such as the Chateau de Villandry or the charming smaller l’Islette. 

These are in themselves a good reason for a trip to that part of the world and there are plenty of ways to travel to them including cycling on the very well appointed paths that criss-cross the whole region. 

Left: Loire Valley – houses in tours. Right: Chateau de Chenonceaux.

However the Loire also has a thriving wine tradition. The whites are the most famous but there are also some very interesting reds emerging, with the help of our usual suspect, Climate Change.

Sancerre and Poully Fumé are of course the wines that have gained most traction. They are, together with Burgundian Chardonnays, probably the most famous French whites. They are made exclusively with Sauvignon Blanc grapes, whilst the much smaller production of red is exclusively Pinot Noir.

We tasted some of the very best Sancerres available by the wine makers Vincent Pinard, Domaine Vacheron, Cotat and the amusing, smiley Vincent Gaudry. 

One might be surprised by the small family run operations but it is worth noting that Sancerre wines do not come cheap and the extremely elusive Sancerre Clos de la Neore by Edmond Vatan ranks in the hundreds of dollars

The next most famous Loire grape is the white Chenin blanc which is present in the central areas of the region, around Tours.

Vouvray, Amboise, Chevergny, Cour Chevergny and Chinon are all wine areas of Touraine the area round Tours.

The countryside around the little town of Chinon yields some excellent reds, made from Cabernet Franc grapes, which can keep for a long time, will surprise even connoisseurs and are very much up and coming. We tasted the produce of three of the best wineries: Philippe Alliet, Charles Joguet, and Bernard Baudry and further towards Cheverny the relatively new winery with excellent products Bonnigal-Bodet.

As relief for our livers, between one tasting and another we headed to the pretty town of Tours with its wooden beamed houses and imposing cathedral. We visited the Musee du Compagnonage, a one of a kind museum dedicated to arts and crafts at their highest level with magnificent objects on display from shoes, to upholstery and even locks! 

Decidedly an unusual and amusing visit.

Left: Leonardo da Vinci’s tomb at Amboise. Right: Chateau de Villandry’s garden.

Many stunning small villages are dotted around the Loire Valley, including Sancerre, Apremont Sur Allier (voted amongst the pretties villages in France), and Chinon are all worthy of note.

For classical music lovers (which as you probably all know we are) we made a dash to Georges Sand’s house in Nohant Vic. For those who do not know, notwithstanding her name, Georges Sand was in fact a woman (Aurore Dupin). Her novels which she wrote under pseudonym were all the rage in the mid 19th century but above all, for 9 years she was the partner of Frederick Chopin. Her house, where so many intellectuals gathered (from Flaubert, to Turgenev and Delacroix the painter) in the middle of the Loire countryside has been left exactly as it was and is worth a visit ,as eerily one can still almost sense the spirits of the great men and women who gathered there in the peace and tranquillity of that rural corner of France. 

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