Great Events in the Loire Valley 2014

Here are some events that you might want to see during your visit to the Loire Valley this year. I'll add to the list as the season progresses but for the time being here are a few of our favourites :

Livre et Vin - Bouvet Ladubay 13th April

Fete du Thoureil - 27th April Annual boat festival along the Loire and the first of the season is held in Le Thoureil

On the water in Le Thoureil for the Fete

Fete de la Batellerie - 24th May Chinon

La Sterne moored up in front of the Chinon Chateau

Anjou Velo Vintage -  28-29th June Saumur Come and join the fun you can hire a vintage bike and enter the circuit in vintage costume. It's great fun!

Pushing the bikes up hill !

Zaz plays at Avoine Blues - 6th July Local to the area and fabulous in concert Zaz returns to play this year at the Blues Festival in Avoine near Chinon

Zaz in Concert

Bastille Day - 14th July Fireworks and Celebrations in Saumur


Carrousel de Saumur - 19-20th July Cadre Noir Performance of the wonderful horses

Le Puy Notre Dame Retro Grand Prix - 26- 27th July 

Vintage cars on their drive past La Grande Maison

Grande Table de Saumur Champigny - 6-7th August For two nights in Saumur we have the largest restaurant in the world. With wine supplied courteousy of the winemakers of the Saumur Champigny region.

The largest table in the world in Saumur

Aubigné sur Layon - Fete du Vin Art Music and Gastronomy - 31st August Serving the first sampling of the Coteaux du Layon in this pretty Layon village. Music, art, literature plus great food and wine.

Serving the Coteaux Du Layon

Fete de Vins Festivin - Saumur 6-14th September

Jacky Ripoche of Les Noades at Festivini

Fete de Vendanges - 28th September The annual hand harvest at the Chateau of Saumur

Olivier Coussin brought his horse and cart to help the harvest

Ar(t) Cheval -  26th October to the 9th November at the Centre Contemporain Bouvet Ladubay

12 More Things To Do in the Loire Valley Around Saumur

A couple of weeks ago I promised I would find you "12 More Tips for Things to do in the Loire Valley" around Saumur from La Grande Maison. So here they are! Enjoy...

1. Take a ride on Le Grand Elephant at Les Machines des Isles in Nantes

2. See the hand harvest at the Chateau of Saumur around the end of September

3. Visit a riverside 'Guinguette' like this one on the island of Béhuard
for traditional Friture de Loire

4. Go to the beautiful Chateau at Montreuil-Bellay for a walk around the magnificent gardens

5. Interested in art then the Contemporary Art Gallery at Bouvet Ladubay is for you

6. Enough of wine tasting then how about a liquer at the Combier Distillery?

7. Angel or Demon everyone likes to visit the tomb of Leonardo da Vinci at the Chateau in Amboise

8. Chinon is not far either for all things Rabelais & this amazing statue of Joan of Arc


9. The fairytale castle of Rigny Ussé will bring out the sleeping beauty in you

10. Get clean at the most amazing homemade soap shop at Domaine de Mestré


11. A little dressage at the Equitation Centre in Saumur

12. ...and home for a wine tasting in the pigeon tower at La Grande Maison with one of our local winemakers

Phew! So much to do and so little time. Don't underestimate just how much there is to see and do here. It is worth taking a little more time out than you think to explore this area. It's a rich tapestry of history, food, wine & vines, culture & traditions. If any of these ideas appeal to you then make sure you ask for more details during your stay here at La Grande Maison ... a biéntot as there will be more to come over the next few weeks so don't forget to check back.

News from the Chinon Wine Press

So little time to write these days as we are busy running our Wine Tours and preparing fabulous Wine Sampling Supper for our guests here at La Grande Maison. Thought I would quickly share with you some of the photos from the Salon des Vins in Chinon last weekend.

60 of Chinon's finest winemakers came into the town and offered tastings of their wines from stalls dotted around the village. Each little wine outpost came with music and food to sample. A superb way to discover the town and it's wines.

Bernard Baudry 2008 and 2007

We were excited to be able to taste many of the newly bottled 2008 Chinon's from the likes of some of our personal favourites, Bernard Baudry, Olga Raffault, Charles Pain and Laure Dozon.

Laure Dozon also produces a Chinon Blanc

Olga Raffault Chinon 2006

Tasting notes will no doubt follow for those of you who are interested. Just need to sharpen my pencil first!

Appreciating Cabernet Franc

Opened a bottle of Les Varennes du Grand Clos 2004 from Charles Joguet (Chinon) with dinner the other evening and how well worth the 5 year wait it was! Dark rich black cherry robe, you can almost smell the cherries. An oppulent mouthfull of red fruit with soft tannins and surprise bursts of caramel going on in the background. This in my humble opinion is how a real single varietal French wine should taste. C'est magnifique!

It was at this moment and in tasting this delicious wine that I realised the difficulties the 'general consumer' has in fully appreciating Cabernet Franc. Now 2004 is young for a good Chinon. In fact it is recommended to drink 2012 but it's now 2009 and folks you just don't want to wait. In general the up to the counter wine tasting public are given 2007 / 08 wines to taste and to be honest without food this is a tricky task. The assertive tannins can sometimes mask the rich plummy fruit that this rich stand-alone varietal has to offer. As wine professionals our job is to educate the consumer to be patient.


It is not necessary to worship at the shrine of the £4.99$ supermarket plonk that has been mass produced, filled with fruit flavourings and tankered from the otherside of the world. Take a little time out to think about what you are drinking, how it has been produced and who has produced it. Here's an idea. Buy a good case whilst you are in the Loire Valley on your Wine Tour- taste one when you get home with a menu to match - lay the other bottles down and repeat the same exercise each year for the next five years. Invite friends and compare notes you will see the results for yourselves. Good luck and hopefully you will start to understand a little about good French wine.

Sunset over the vines at La Grande Maison

A Wine Renaissance in Angers

Our friends Francoise and Phillipe Gourdon at La Tour Grise invited us to an exceptional wine tasting today. We made new friends, discovered new winemakers and tasted some early release 2006 wines (still too young to review).

Held at the Grenier St Jean in Angers the “Renaissance des AOC” are a group of winemakers from all over France that adhere to a chart of quality that controls the method of agriculture. They don’t claim (as a group) to be organic or biodynamic but no pesticides are used, only organic composts, all products used are natural and there is no use of chemicals.

That is only stage one however. To progress to stage two you must also harvest by hand, have a natural fermentation i.e. use no chemicals in the fermentation and manually select future vines and respect the biodiversity. The results are evident in the clarity and natural nature of all the wines we tasted.

I’ll only mention a few of note here that we got excited about:

La Ferme de la Sansonniere – Marc Angeli Anjou

2005 Coteaux de Houet – Wow ! Amber in colour. Partially fermented with the grapes dried out by over maturation i.e no botrytis (raisins passerillage) . Luscious but with a good acidity.

Domaine Jo Pithon – Anjou

Tasted 4 of his 2005 Anjou whites, 2 coteaux du layon and a quart du chaume. All exceptional and definately a vineyard we’ll be spending more time at this year. Especially loved the gravelly minerality of the anjou whites and the marmalade sugar of the sweets. The 2005 Les Bonnes Blanche is to die for.

Chateau de Coulaine – Etienne & Pascale de Bonaventure Chinon

Oh goodness we’ve found a deliciously fruity chinon in the 2005 Cuvee Bonavenutre – black fuits and liquorice and not too high in alcohol at 12.5%

All the Chinon reds we tasted here were exceptional and will definitely be on en-route to Bourgueil.

Sebastien David – St Nicoals de Bourgueil

2005 Vin de Patrimoine – tons of blackcurrant fruit, high in alcohol and great length

The Confrerie of Chinon Winemakers

Sunday in Chinon and the perfect day for a parade. Now the French are good at parading at the best of times but there are none better than the Confrerie des Vignerons i.e. the Brotherhood of Winemakers. In order to qualify you need the following:

1. A Vineyard

2. Some wine

3. A red hat

4. A red cape

5. A carved wooden walking stick

6. The latter generally carved with a wine symbol e.g. some grapes, a bottle or in this instance the winemaker himself.

Take all members of the Conferie, add assorted banners, more capes and much jovial laughter and you have a parade. Heading in the direction of the Salle des Fetes and inevitably a large sunday lunch and plenty of Chinon wine.

Sunday is also the day for the riverside brocantes (antique fairs). Not to be missed especially for those with an eye for a bargain. You can enjoy a leisurely stroll along the river and then pop into the Cafe des Arts for a hand warming hot chocolate.

Back home but not before stopping off at the market in Montsoreau to buy cheeses.