La Touche

Whether you’re a connoisseur or a beginner the Loire Valley, and particularly this part of the Loire Valley, has a wealth of excellent and reasonably priced wines just waiting to be tasted.

Vineyards, Local and Not Quite So Local

Visiting vineyards is good fun. Bourgueil, St Nicholas de Bourgueil, Saumur and Saumur Champigny are all AOC wine appellations within very easy driving distance. Vouvray, Montlouis, Layon and perhaps even Sancerre are also within a weekend’s excursion from la Touche. Our favourite ones so far are:

Bourgueil

Pierre-Jacques Druet at Benais to the north east of Bourgueil itself. Ask for a dégustation (tasting). He loves his wine and speaks wonderful ‘Maurice Chevalier’ English. It’s an experience not to be missed taking anything between one and two hours. Telephone first (from an English mobile 00 33 6 09 73 49 09) and mention our names we know him well. In the view of many, Pierre-Jaques is the top vinter in the appellation.

Rosé and reds

Audebert et Fils on the road going south out of Bourgueil – In our view also a good vintner in the appellation, who also sells wine box – le baginbox in French would you believe!

Rosé and Reds

Lamé, Delisle, Boucard in Ingrandes, just east of Benais

Reds and maybe a rose

The last two will also let you taste but they don’t make such a thing of it. It’s just so you know which wine to buy.

In Bourgueil there is a Maison des Vins where they sell a selection of wines from many of the Bourgueil vintners.

Saumur / Saumur Champigny

Langlois Château just west of Saumur on the road going out south of the river. Good whites and reds and a very reasonable fizz.

Château du Hureau in Champigny, which is just east of Saumur on the road south of the river. Very good reds, whites and a rosé.

Le Cave des Vignerons de Saumur at St Cyr en Bourg – this is a collection of winemakers getting together to sell their wine all pretty good – they also do bag-in-the-box wines. (Did you know that the French for Bag-in-the box is Bag in box!)

The Layon Region

The vintners of Layon make beautiful sweet and lemony white wines called Coteaux de Layon. The best, again in our view, is Domaine de Juchepie by Monsieur. Oosterlinck it rivals even the best Sauternes. TEL : 02.41.54.33.47 Mr Oosterlinck is Belgian and passionate about his wine. He speaks fluent English

Vineyards That Are A Bit Further Away From La Touche

Along the north side of the river Loire to the east of Tours is Vouvray – lovely dry and not so dry whites. We think the best vintner is Huet (pronounced Huette).
Just across the river from Vouvray is Montlouis with similar dry and sweeter wines to Vouvray. The best one, in our view, is Domaine Deletang.
But there are many many more and we expect you’ll want to explore. So if you find something special please let us know.

Filed under: wine on March 14th, 2008