Piet’s wine and dine society ‘Het Derde Glas’ had planned a major trip for 2025: ‘Le Tour de France du Vin Electrique’, a drive around the whole of France in an electric car, visiting various wine regions. As always with 6 busy people scheduling proved difficult, and a major compromise was reached: the journey was shortened to a 2 day visit to the Loire valley, a repeat of part of their 2016 trip (loire-and-champagne.html).
On Wednesday morning Piet picked up Frits and Sybren at The Hague central station, and they drove to Tours, south of Paris. Passing Paris along the clogged Boulevard Périphérique was a slow adventure, with many motorbike drivers risking their lives passing the traffic jam between all the cars. Tours proved to be a nice student city on the Loire river, and a good starting point for the wine trip.
Thursday morning they drove to Bernard Baudry in Chinon, also visited in 2016, and one of the best producers of red Loire wines, made from Cabernet Franc grapes. They produce wines in the same manner for each of the various vineyards, allowing you to taste the difference in terroir, ranging from muddy floodplain to the slopes of a limestone hill. The next stop was near Bourgueil at Domaine Breton, who had a non-descript tasting room in an industrial estate. They were efficiently served by a highly pregnant lady, before driving an hour east to Montlouis sur Loire for lunch. This proved a challenge as this small town was deserted, and the only restaurant was full, so they ended up at the local take-away pizzeria. Just down the road was Domaine de la Taille aux Loups, which was visited in 2021 (bordeaux.html). They produce white wine (dry and sweet) from that area, and excellent red wines from Bourgueil, then named Domaine de la Butte. The tasting was done in their garden, in beautiful spring weather. Two hours further east they ended up in the hilltop village of Sancerre, in a run-down, smelly hotel, with a great location overlooking the vineyards. Let’s say its potential is not fully used! Here they were joined by Paul, who drove his electric car from Italy that day. The evening was spent wining & dining in the great La Tour restaurant, in the middle of the village.
Friday was planned to taste Sancerre white and red, and Pouilly Fume white wines, made of Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir grapes. This is a small appellation in the eastern Loire region, and they started at Pinard of Bué, just outside Sancerre. Many wines were tasted, to demonstrate the different terroirs and years of harvest. This was followed by an electric tour of the countryside, crossing the Loire into Pouilly, and a stop at Masson-Blondelet for a quick taste of Pouilly Fume; the reference to the smoky taste is apparently linked to the large amount of flint in the terroir, but difficult to recognise. After lunch on the Sancerre village square the last stop of the tour was at Daniel Chotard, that was reached following a steep, unpaved vineyard track that was recommended by Google Maps. Mr Chotard started by proudly showing his little corkscrew museum, which was followed by an extensive tasting of many wines, with a challenge to keep track of the subtle differences in taste.
They left for Brie Comte Robert and arrived in a large industrial estate on the east of Paris, having survived the Friday afternoon rush hour. Luckily there was an excellent restaurant in this concrete jungle, La Fabrique, at walking distance (this was obviously planned). After solving some difficulties charging the electric car in the morning an easy drive back to Utrecht and The Hague rounded off this trip. And as always, the proof of the pudding is in the tasting…..
Sunrise over the Loire river, Tours
In the new cellar of Bernard Baudry
Explaining the different terroirs of the Baudry vineyards
Discussing tasting notes at Breton
More tasting, in the garden of Taille aux Loups
The first Sancerre tasting with Pinard
Refilling the glasses at Pinard
Monsieur Chotard in his corkscrew museum
Wine tasting is hard work (and not a holiday!)
The beautiful hilltop village of Sancerre
