We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: when we travel, we enjoy seeing the big cities and totally encourage others to do the same. After all, there really isn’t any place like Paris other than, well, Paris. At the same time, we also encourage folks to get out of the cities and see the rest of the country. Could you imagine someone coming to the US on vacation and only seeing New York City? Lots of cool stuff, sure, but what about everything else?!
One of the reasons we like getting out of the city is it lets us find smaller, local companies that give us a completely different experience and perspective on things, even things we *thought* we already knew. Case in point: our new friends at the Château de Minière winery in the Loire Valley of France.
All Day and Nothing to Do
If you’ve been reading along about our most recent adventure throughout France, you’ll know one of the areas we visited was Tours, a few hours almost directly south of Paris in the Loire Valley (you can read about our incredible hotel in Tours here). We had a few days in Tours with not much planned and, as we were in France, it seemed appropriate to find a winery to visit and…do…winery things. Naturally, I picked up my phone and headed to Google for a quick search. Turns out we were close to a few wineries, and by ‘a few’ I mean a ton. Gosh, how to pick?
The Hidden Gem
As I scrolled through the results looking for something unique, I stumbled across Château de Minière. What initially seemed to be just another winery quickly became something super interesting and, eventually, a really neat wine experience.
In looking over their website (and TripAdvisor reviews, obviously), we learned the Château wasn’t far from where we were staying, only about a 30-minute drive through the rolling French countryside of the Loire Valley. There’s worse ways to spend a half hour, right? As the name of the vineyard suggests, the property boasts an impressive château that was built back in the 15th century. What was once a family home on a fortified farm (yes, evidently that’s a thing when you take your wine as seriously as the French) is now available as an Air BnB. How cool is that? Seriously, go look at the pictures.
Buildings aside, we also learned the vineyard has been women-owned for the better part of two centuries, that the vineyard is certified organic, and it’s making impressive strides in the field of biodynamics. Not sure what that means? Yeah, me either, but was curious to learn more. Oh, and did I mention there was wine? Need we say more? Obviously, they had our interest, so off to the car we went.
A Neat Learning Experience
After arriving at the winery, we were a little concerned: there was only one other car in the parking lot. In fairness, it’s a very small operation, with an even smaller parking lot, so maybe it wasn’t fair to expect it to be full. It also might have been a little early for a wine tasting – stop judging, we were on vacation and about to have a learning experience. And remember: grapes are a fruit, just like strawberries, which are appropriate for breakfast, right? Right. In any case, bolstered by the confidence from our last wine experience in Champagne, we pulled in and headed for the main building.
Over the next few hours, we learned that it’s fairly uncommon for a winery to be totally women-owned. It’s also not common for wineries in this part of the world to be organic. What makes it complicated is that what one winery does impacts the wineries around it. So, one winery can go through the effort of using organic methods, but if their neighbor to the North is spraying pesticides all day… All that’s to say, being able to get their organic certification was a really big deal for them (and, of course, the environment).
We also learned about a process they call biodynamics. In a nutshell, this means letting nature do most of the hard work to grow their grapes. For example, they grow grass between the rows of vines, which is in stark contrast to the carefully-manicured lanes we saw at every other winery. They had also recently started keeping bees to ensure proper pollination of their grape vines. Our host also told us about the use of more traditional farming methods that encourage more wildlife and insects on the property. You know, letting nature do what it does best. Very neat.
This isn’t to suggest their method of farming is easy. Quite the opposite, in fact. They’re still at the mercy of the climate and environment. And, because they aren’t spraying pesticides, that does mean they lose some of their crop to disease and pests. However, the wine they produce is really good, and because it’s more environmentally friendly, we felt better about drinking it. Or maybe that was the effect of the wine… Either way, it was good all-around.
The Wine
That’s all fine and well, but what about the wine? We’re happy to say that all this time, expense, and work translates into some pretty amazing wines. Before our tour, we tasted somewhere around eight of the Château’s wines and all were very good. The whites were crisp and fruity, but not overly sweet. The reds were deep, juicy, and velvety. We even tasted a wine that had been aged 40 years (!) that was rich, smooth, and sweet. Very different from most of the wines we’ve tasted. Obviously we brought some home AND we figured out we can order a few of their wines online. Loire Valley to Missouri! #winning
Along the way our host did what hosts always do: explained what was in each wine, how long it had aged, what we should be tasting, and so on. But what was new for us was, after talking about each wine, she’d turn around and point – yes, literally point – to the group of vines that produced the grapes (most were the ubiquitous Cabernet-Franc varietal) that went into the wine we were drinking. So cool! And all this for €15 per person, about $16 for our US friends.
Go Explore!
In the end, we had a great time learning new things, supporting a small local business, and, yes, drinking some tasty wines. So remember: the next time you go out for an adventure, see if you can find the unknown, or at least the lesser-known. Odds are you’ll be glad you did, you’ll help support a small business which is always a good choice, and you might even learn something new to share with your friends and family. Even if none of that happens, you still might get to enjoy a glass of wine with some new friends, which is still pretty cool.
