Activity Review: Sipping on Loire Valley Wine
Home to several distinct wine regions and many local wineries, Loire Valley is famous for fruity reds and dazzling whites and sparkling wines. During the beautiful summer months, these wines come to life! Because we were only visiting for 2-3 days, we wanted to visit a few vineyards and get a taste of Loire Valley!
Since we are based in Amboise, we had to stay near Amboise and Tours or the Middle Loire Region; thus, we could not visit the more famous Sancerre region.
Read our Loire Valley planning tips and tricks! Or, how we broke up the day by visiting the famous Chateau!
That did not stop us from visiting the popular Vouvray region! Thankfully, there are a few different options for wine tastings, from private vineyard tours to individual winery tasting. In the end, we chose the following….
Vignoble Alain Robert Wine Tasting
During my online research, I stumbled upon a true local gem. Shortly outside Tours, the Vignoble Alain Robert offers specialised and private tours if you book in advance. There are a few different options and we decided to go on the from vine to wine tour that includes a vineyard walk, cellar tour, and wine tasting for 40E. Finally, we had an expert tutor/guide in Miram!
As Miram told us, the Alain Robert winery and farm has always been here as long as the family has been in the valley. Then, in the 1970s, the area exploded as did the vineyard! In this particular area, there is one popular type of grape - chenin blanc - that produces a majority of their white wines. In a few of their vineyards, they also produce red wines that aren’t necessarily AOC.
Vineyard Walk
As part of the tour, we had a lovely 3km walk in their vineyard. Fortunately, the weather was perfect for our stroll through the vines! As we began our walk, we noticed a particular smell - it smells like fireworks! As Miram explained, there is a high percentage of flint in the soil! Miram explained that the flint adds an unique earthy flavor to the often fruity wines.
Another unique technique is the identification and splitting the vine rows between the various plots. Unlike other regions that I know, the entire vine row can be owned or rented. They then mark them on the front with special symbols! Quite unique!
An added bonus to this spectular sunny vineyard walk are the amazing views! It is so peaceful here and we are loving it!
Vintage Rock Cellar
One of the most unique features of the Loire Valley are the limestone rock cellars where most of the wineries store their wine or have turned into cellars. Used as houses, horse stalls, or even storage, these cellars have been transformed to the modern day economy. According to Miram, you can only dig a rock cellar for what you own above it, which makes sense! Inside the Alain Robert cellar, there are different tunnels of 28,000 and 42,000 bottles.
While they do have a normal warehouse to produce the majority of their wine, the rock cellar has their traditional and modern champagne method. The traditional method requires hand twisting the bottles by 1/4 each day while the modern method just does it for you! Regardless, the cellar is a glimpse into the unique history of Loire Valley wine!
The Tasting
Included in our tour, we had a great opportunity to taste 6-7 wines from sparkling to dessert wine. Plus, we also had a lovely little tasting board as well. Our favorites were the extra brut sparkling wine, a vintage white wine, and a fancy white bottle. Despite a very nice brand, all bottle prices were less than 20E.
Domaine Huet Winery
Classy
Located in the small village of Vouvray, Domaine Huet is a little bio-organic winery. Rather than yesterday’s visit to a vineyard, we went to the showroom and the room was very great! Based on first impressions, we thought this was going to be a great tasting.
For today’s tasting, we had 6 white wine tastings. For me, this meant I wouldn’t necessarily enjoy it because I prefer reds but when in the Loire Valley…
We started with a sparkling, that wasn’t my favorite sparkling and probably the least favorite of the day.
For the next four tastings, we had four different white wines that highlighted the differences in the soils. Because the Loire Valley has both the valley and the higher plateaus, the soil is very different! We ended with a dessert wine that capped our tasting with a letdown.
Overall, we were not that impressed with our tasting here. Not only were we out of our depths with the fancy wine and showroom, the wine wasn’t to our liking. However, if you like white wine, this could be the tasting for you!
Caves du Pere Augustine
After our spectacular visit to Chateau Chenonceuax, we visited the famous Caves of Father Augustine. Upon your arrival in the Chenonceaux village, we saw so many advertisements that it made it hard to pass up!
Once we arrived, we quickly realized that we were not the only ones with this genius idea. Originally, the caves were built for storage, particularly for horses and other farm equipment. Then, the family decided to try the wine business and the winery expanded into the caves. Nowadays, we are standing inside the caves where they once made the wine! Very cool!
Our tastings here were tiny portions, but we tried one of everything! I honestly cannot remember the types as the kind barista kept refilling our glasses. Our favorite was the French certified AOC wine so we purchased a bottle of their finest!
The UnChartered Summary
For the legend of Loire Valley wine, we felt that our wine trip was merely all right. While there were certainly great fruity and light flavors in white wine and the few red wines, it wasn’t awe inspiring as our Italy or other French trips. Since we may be returning to the Loire Valley for our summer home anyways, we will try again!
- The wine tour by Alain Robert is certainly worth it! From fantastic snacks to light and flavorful wines, we certainly enjoyed our time there!
- If you don’t want to drive or prefer the comforts of a nice wine bar, I highly recommend Chez Bruno Wine bar in Amboise! From great local wine selections to tasty snacks, Chez is one of the best in the entire Loire Valley!