The Wine Tour we went on

To see what one of the tours was like we were invited to try one for ourselves. As the day arranged also happened to be a day the teachers at school were on strike our children came with us.

First of all we started off with a red wine and went to a Saumur Champigny cave. This was fascinating as you went down a steep slope into an enormous cave carved from the local 'tuffeau' stone. The cave was several hundred years old and had lots of oak barrels where the wine was fermenting and there were stacks of bottles from years gone by. The owner showed us around and we saw the old vats where the grapes were squeezed and some of the old bottles with a type of fungus growing on them because of the atmosphere in the cave. Afterwards we were invited to taste some of the wine which was superb and we left with a few bottles.

We then drove through the vineyards and learned some of the history of wine in the Loire region and also about some of the famous local people past and present. The next cave we went to was the other side of Chinon and here we were to try a rose and a white. The rose was a dry one, the sweeter ones are from the region towards Angers, and was really nice, but the white was unbelievable, a Chardonnay with a very distinct oak taste which was almost as clear as water. Needless to say we left with some of these bottles.

The final cave we went to was back towards Chinon. We parked in a small yard between a house and a barn and then crossed the road into what looked like a small shop. After meeting the girl in the shop she switched on a light and a tunnel lined with oak barrels and wine bottles was illuminated as it went into the hillside. As we walked down this tunnel another tunnel went off to the side and it was also lined with barrels and bottles. There were a few more similar tunnels all carved out of the hillside. We went into a small circular cave with a large table in the middle where the workers used to meet each day to eat their lunch and taste the wine. Nowadays it is a place to taste the rose. We then went further and came to a tasting area where we tried some very nice Chinon reds. Yet again we left with a few bottles.

We can only say that the tour was very informative, very interesting and in our view well worth taking. The tour can be tailored to your own likes and dislikes but it is probably wise to arrange before coming here so that arrangements can be made with the cave owners for them to be there to show you around.