Vineyard visits and terrace tastings: our favourite gîtes in the Loire
Sawday's Expert
5 min read
The beauty of staying in a gîte in a wine area is the chance it gives you to plan your week, slowly getting familiar with the terrain as you pop out to visit vineyards and form an understanding of the local wine’s characteristics. The Chinon area for example has deposits of both clay and sand, which make the wines vastly different, even though the famous reds are all made from one single variety, Cabernet Franc. Who would not enjoy to start an evening with the tasting of a selection of regional wines, taking notes and doing blind tests, followed up by a hearty dinner cooked in the gîte’s kitchen.
Our France expert, Nicky deBouille, has selected some of her favourite wines and five gîtes to help you explore the Loire.
‘To my great delight the world is now learning the word ‘Crémant’ – the word the Champagne lobby allowed producers of Methode Champenoise to use to describe their sparkling wines. It is remarkably good value, at between €6 and €12 a bottle. Saumur, in the Loire, produces some of France’s best Crémant. It’s fun to do a blind Crémant vs Champagne tasting – comparing notes about flavour, bubble quality, density and zing – and seeing which bottle gets the most positive notes. You don’t need to be a wine connoisseur to enjoy a bubbly tasting!
Read on for some of my favourite Loire gîtes for wine.’
Discover all of our Gîtes in the Loire Valley here >
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