Touring french wine regions

[I'm Thirsty]

I'm off to France in about 2 weeks and i'm looking for a bit of infomation from anyone who has toured the french wine regions.

I'm definatly planning on spending some time around Bordeaux and Champagne but apart from that I plan on just seeing what takes my fancy when I get there.

So the question is does anyone know of any lesser known producers that you think are a must visit while im over there? Also anything else you think is a must see while im there, i'm going for the wine but I suppose I might spend some time without a glass in my hand.

[Ian S]

No experience myself, but quite a few useful threads on the wine-pages.com forum in UK.

regards

Ian

[marsalla]

For me Bordeaux is one of the least interesting parts of France. For wine, and diversity of food, culture etc, the drive from Montpellier, (languedoc), through Avignon, up through the Northern Rhone, into Burgundy then up to Champagne is hard to beat. If in a car you can cover the ground quick on the highway, or take the country roads for a quieter look. Lovely drive.

[I'm Thirsty]

Thanks for the info guys it's much appreciated.

[Paradox]

I'm off to France in about 2 weeks and i'm looking for a bit of infomation from anyone who has toured the french wine regions.

I'm definatly planning on spending some time around Bordeaux and Champagne but apart from that I plan on just seeing what takes my fancy when I get there.

Hmm, I don't know how helpful this will be as my opinions of winetasting France have changed over the years, and I now avoid any formal wine tasting days. At least when I have travelled 1988, 1993-6, & 2006, France is not nearly so well set up for visiting vineyards unannounced and tasting several wines. Australians are quite spoiled by the class of service and range of wines available at the cellar door in SA and Vic.

I have actually more enjoyed seeing the geography and topography of the land, than visiting cellar doors (with a few exceptions.) And eating local food while drinking local wines is much more fun IMO.

My favourites would be visiting the champagne caves, and the drive up through the northern Rhone and and especially the Burgundy areas.

I preferred Epernay to Reims, and loved the tour through the Moet et Chandon caves. The Loire is very nice, with plenty of attractions as well as enough wineries to be of interest, and a range of wines I don't see often in NZ.

The south of France is pretty hit and miss - although a huge amount of wine is made here there is not a great deal of commercial wine tourism, and the wines available for tasting can be quite limited and of varying quality.

Chateauneuf-de-Pape is a lovely town with available tastings, and the drive through the northern Rhone is very interesting.

Beaune is my favourite wine town and one I would always go back to. The Marche Aux Vins is fun to visit to see a range of producers. But what I liked most was the drive through the burgundy villages, and near the Saone river, and seeing all those famous names - Vosne-Romanee, Nuits St George, Echezeaux, Gevrey-Chambertin. We stopped at the Romanee-Conti vineyard - just a small hill really, and walked up through the wines. Not sure if it was allowed but 'twas lovely. The beaujolais and chablis areas are also interesting, and the food in Burgundy is very good.

I'd avoid Bordeaux (well the city at least) although St Emilion is pretty.

Overall I have derived more pleasure from seeing where the wines were grown - the land, colours, towns and people, than tasting what wines were available at the cellar/winery. Now when I open some French wine I get taken back to lovely memories of France and food and towns, which makes the wine even more enjoyable.

Cheers
Rob

[El Josho]

St Emillion was very pretty, but some of the merchants were a bit pushy and the whole booking in advance to see a chateau seemed odd to someone used to just rolling up to a Cellar Door and going my hardest. I also noticed a slight defensiveness when the locals found out that I was Australian.

If you do go to Bordeaux, a stop off in Cognac is worth it. The big houses generally run a good show with tour/tasting magaed rather decently.

[Wayno]

Burgundy/Beaune sensational but don't expect access to the cellars without prior agreement / knowledge / connections. That said, fantastic experiences regardless, with great eating, bike riding, sight seeing and general atmosphere. And the cheeses... and the traditional Burgundian foodstuffs - coq au vin, the rankly delicious cheeses, etc etc etc...

[JDSJDS]

Lots of 'drop in' possibilities in the southern Rhone, Alsace, Chablis and the Loire. Not many in Burgundy and Champagne.

Alsace is gorgeous, and the food is amazing (though France in general is pretty awesome!). I love the southern Rhone too.

[I'm Thirsty]

Thanks again guys this has definatly given me some more ideas. I will have to remember to keep track of it all while im over there and post a few tasting notes when I get back.

[Ratcatcher]

I was in France twice in the 90's when I really just had a passing interest in wine. We stopped in Bordeaux and Beaune and Epernay & Reims.

What I didn't realise until several years later after getting more interested and watching lots of wine shows on Austar is that you have to go to the villages, not the main towns or cities for the more interesting experiences. Or at least that's what Oz & Jancis keep telling me.

Having said that the day in Beaune was really good and we had dinner in a fantastic restaurant which was actually down in an underground cellar.

[Duncan]

Alsace is gorgeous, and the food is amazing (though France in general is pretty awesome!). I love the southern Rhone too.

We were amazed at how gorgeous Alsace is (lae September 2006), it's the best wine touring I've done outside Australia. As other have pointed out, much of France is not well set up for cellar door tasting, and Bordeaux is perhaps the worst. Gourmet Traveller Wine June/July 2007 has an article on that region. By comparison, Champagne is much easier. Worth brushing up on the French for recent vintages and a few other key words as it will work wonders.

Cheers, Duncan

[Mike]

I went on a tour organised by David & Lynne Hammond you can get hold of them on 00 33 (0) 3 85 49 51 34 and they have a website http://www.burgundydiscovery.com

They take small groups (in my case four of us) around a select number of small producers in their Landrover.

It is hard to visit small vineyards as there is not a lot of infrastructure as there is say, Bordeaux.

They are an English couple and hence are able to translate and mediate between you and the producer. As you drive from place to place they give you a detailed history of every aspect of the viniculture, something up until that point had found quite impenetrable.

Over the course of a day we traveled the length of the Burgundy and visited a good cross-section of vineyards. You are able to taste the range or wine and ask questions of the winemaker.

We had a lovely lunch and at the end of the tour were taken to a boutique where we were able to purchase wine from the producers we had met during the day.

Overall it was good value for money and we were privy to a world that we would otherwise have found it hard to access.



This is my good lady at Domaine Bouzerand-DuJardin in Monthélie, one of the many cellars we visited.