Howdy wine pals. I’m off camping in the Loire Valley in a couple of weeks. If you know of any decent producers / wine shops in the area please let me know. I’m allowed to bring 24 bottles of wine and 12 sparkling home to the U.K. and I feel it’s my duty to max out my allocation!
by elzzic
8 Comments
I would love to hear more about this whole trip/plan in general! Sounds amazing.
If you’re popping by Clissons visit Cave Amphore.
Other than that I recomend the Raisin app as you don’t say exactly where you are going. I’ve found a couple of very good cavistes and bars there.
If you’re going westwards, Domaine de Bellevue, Jean-Baptiste Hardy, Domaine de l’Ecu are my favourite producers of Muscadet.
Loire Valley is pretty big!
Chinon is a beautiful town, like something out of a fairytale.
Couple of producers I visited and loved:
Vigneau Chevreau (Vouvray)
Domaine Yannick Amirault (Bourgueil)
If you go near the St Nicolas de Bourgueil area, my advice would be domaine du Mortier. Really nice bio wines, very fruitty and complex. https://www.domainedumortier.fr/
And in Chinon i would add domaine Pascal Lambert, one of the most interesting of the region. https://chinonlambertbio.com
Have a nice trip !
In Bougeuil try to see the Caslot family at Dom de la Chevalerie
Have you had a look at the app Raisin?
If we speak natural wine in the Loire Valley two areas are very exciting : Cheverny – Cher Valley and Anjou Noir, and the rest if globally overated.
The first is in the South of Blois, you will find historic winemakers that were close to Lapierre and Chauvet : Clos du Tue Boeuf, Villemade, Venier and other very good winemakers like Courtois and Morantin, and many more ! In Blois and around you will find the bottles and good restaurants, you will find them in raisin !
Anjou Noir is more about young talented and radical winemakers and a good tradition of small vineyards on a very special terroir. There you will get the best chenin in the world at a very good price ! Try la Roche aux Moines, les vignes de Babass, Jerome Saurigny or Richard Leroy. In Angers you got a booming dining scene and around in the Layon too. You should try Gribiche in Angers or Canon Canon in Rochefort, where all those guys hang out !
And if you want to take wine with you go to la halle des gourmets in Angers. Patrick has been one of the first guy selling natural wine in France and every producer in the Loire is keeping an allocation for his shop, it is just the way it is
The harvest will be around the beginning of September so not the best time to visit vineyards but if you ask kindly and maybe help out harvesting you might be lucky enough to hang out in cellars and see the process
I live there and I’m assistant winemaker in the natural wine scene so I know a bit about it 😉
Cheverny in the east near Blois.
Heaps of incredible bio bio and you can visit Chambord at the same time.
Saint-Lauren is a cute town too.
These are more table wine producers, so it’s cheaper, but fuck is their Gamay and Pinot fucking lovely and their white blend is akin to a succulent Chinese meal.
Sancerre-ish sav and Chardonnay blends are the fucking bomb. Less acidity and a bit more meaty. But yum.