Tour De France Tasting

[THE GAMBLER]

Hey guys, long time lurker first time poster here.

Perhaps a bit rude to be asking for advice in first post but was wondering if anyone could give some suggestions for a Tour De France tasting.

By the looks of the map you could follow the route of the riders and come up with a pretty good tour of the main French Wine Regions. If anyone has any specific wines they think I should try I would love to hear about them.

The route I was thinking of taking was

1. Champagne
2. Loire
3. Chablis
4. Burgendey
5. Beaujolais
6. Cote de Rhone
7. Provence/Bandol
8. Languedoc Roussillon
9. Bordeaux
10. Cognac

[monghead]

Where to start?

I guess an approximate budget for this bonanza would be good...

Cheers,

monghead.

[sparky]

Gambler, I did the Tour de France (& Spain & Italy) wine challenge last year, and must get organised for this year's Francophile extravaganza.

My strategy was to load up with a range of stuff that I'd never drunk before, arm myself with a decent wine book or two, turn on the telly and settle in. Whatever you get, you're bound to learn from the experience and I reckon it does add to the wine experience if you can see the local countryside on the telly from the SBS chopper while you're drinking

The trouble I had last year was finding all the wonderful recommendations I was given, so maybe hop into your favourite on-line retailer or bottle-o that has a decent range of imports and just start shopping.

Don't forget to post tasting notes now you've got started...

[Davo]

You left off the Gin and Beer to start with but

Some pretty fair cheeses to be sourced from those regions, as well as local dishes to go with the wine of your choice.

[Red Smurf]

Hey Gambler,
Being a mad Tour fan myself, having hung up the bike a long time ago now though, im glad this thread is up and running.
I really enjoyed reading your threads on it Sparky and am keen this year to 'drink Le Tour'
The Tour passes through some amazing wine growing regions this year, the finale being the time trial from Bordeaux to Pauillac where the tour is won or lost. What better way to watch this stage than with a bottle of Bordeaux, or 2, in hand and enjoy the scenery.
On the wine, as monghead said, it really depends on budget but your list of regions looks good. I would just change 2 must do's.
1. Beer from holand first stage. (Pelgrim if you can get it.)
2. The traditional Champagne to toast the leader of the tour at the start of the last stage. Then get into the Cognac!

Cheers,
Smurf

[sparky]

OK, here's my starting regional plan for my TdF dozen:

1 Champers
1 Chablis
2 Burgs
1 Beaujolais - not thrilled about this one, but that's probably my ignorance showing
2 Rhone
1 Roussillon
1 Languedoc
2 Bordeaux
1 Loire

Many Berocca and yes, some decent Belgian dark beer to start with.

I'll let you know how I get on..

[Red Smurf]

The Prologue of the tour was unfortunately wet but what do you expect from Rotterdam.
An awesome display of power by the swiss rider Fabian Cancellara taking the win and the Maillot Jaune.

For me though no wine or beer with the tour yet as we had our winesyd tasting group during the day with about 17 bottles polished off so by 2am when the tour started I had had enough!

My list this year though is...
Beer
2 Champers
1 Pouilly Fume
1 Jura ( if I can find one.) any help of where I can get a Jura wine anyone?
1 Maconnais
2 Rhone
1 Languedoc
2 South West
2 Bordeaux

and go Mick Rogers

Cheers,
Smurf