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The Loire Tour 2025 by ombiasy WineTours took place from Sunday, October 5 to Thursday, October 16, 2025. The tour started in Nantes and ended in Sancerre, with a bus transfer and lunch in Paris. There were 9 of us including Annette and myself.
3 participants posted comprehensively on Facebook about the tour, including David Miller. This posting on schiller-wine combines all the individual postings of David, typically 3 to 5 per day.
Saturday, October 4, 2025
And so it begins. I arrived in Nantes, France, on October 4, a day early for my tour of the Loire Valley, ran into friends who were also on the tour, and had lunch with them .
Saturday night I had dinner with friends at the Michelin Bib Gourmand-rated restaurant Oceanide: I had eggs poached in olive oil with a chanterelle sauce, an excellent piece of dorado, and assorted sorbets. Wine was involved.
Sunday, October 5, 2025
On Sunday, October 5, we began our tour of Loire Valley wineries in Nantes. I was out earlier exploring the Place Graslin near our hotel, and the nearby park with its eccentric sculpture. As a group we explored the older part of town, including the Passage Pomeraye, the arcade that was the super mall of its day. We saw the fountain where the allegorical statues have been removed for conservation and replaced with resin figures of actual living people in Nantes. We saw one of only ten surviving timber-framed houses left in the old city. We ended up at the restored palace of the dukes of Brittany.
On Sunday evening our small group of tourists had our inaugural dinner at the iconic Brasserie La Cigale in Nantes: I had poached trout, the best snails I’d ever had, a wonderful filet of rockfish with potato puree strangely colored with squid ink, and a chocolate something. Wine was involved. A great start to the trip.
Monday, October 6, 2025
We began our tastings in earnest on Monday morning, October 6, a beautiful fall day in the country outside Nantes. We arrived at Maison Chereau Carre, a producer of muscadet, and looked at the facilities. The tank room and some other areas are lit by chandeliers made of grapevine roots. The barrel room had topical stained glass windows and I had my first sighting of St. Vincent, the patron saint of winemakers. The tasting was held in an older building; it was chilly enough that morning that the proprietor had lit a fire—and we needed it.
This is Rabelais country, and the barrel room at Maison Chereau Carre was decorated with Gargantua and other characters as bases for grapevine-root light fixtures. The beams to the ceiling had a lot of very intricate wood carving at either end.
We had lunch at a place on the way to Angers; the best dish was a “risotto” of black rice with shrimp and squid. There was another St. Vincent sighting at the next winery, Domaine Gadais.
We arrived Monday evening in Angers, where the Hotel d’Anjou retains a lot of flourishes from earlier days, like this small elevator.
We had a very good dinner at Restaurant Les Petits Pres. I had a shrimp appetizer, a very good piece of salmon, and a dessert that looked like a Granny Smith apple trying to wear a chocolate bowler hat—it was very tasty.
Tuesday, October 7, 2025
Tuesday morning, October 7, began bright and early with a trip to the country and a tasting at Domaine Loïc Mahé. The French countryside on a d’y like this is a wonderful place. The last roses of the year were still blooming; the harvest is in and fermentation is under way.
Our second tasting on Tuesday, October 7, was at Domaine Chateau des Vaults in Savennières. This involved a long arduous hike through the woods to look at their grapes; I was hard put to keep up. After we got back to the manor we had a tasting in the old family library. The woods surrounding the property are largely oak and chestnut, and the acorns and nuts have attracted an army of wild boars that have been very destructive; they were bold enough to come up to the house and root in the front lawn.
We had lunch in the picturesque village of Bouchemaine, then had the afternoon free to tour the Chateau d’Angers, whose high towers dominated the river and trade for centuries.
The Chateau d’Angers now houses the remaining panels of the Tapestry of the Apocalypse, which recounts the Book of Revelation in pictorial form. It once was in one piece—it’s still looong…
I had dinner on Tuesday evening on my own at a little place near the hotel—a slice of an allegedly house-made terrine of foie gras and what I can only describe as a pork loin fricasse, both very good. A small amount of wine was involved.
Wednesday, October 8, 2025
We checked out of our hotel in Angers early on Wednesday morning, October 8, and started out on our way to Saumur, with four tastings along the way—tough work, but somebody’s got to do it. Our first stop was at the very modest premises of Domaine Vincendeau in Rochefort-sur-Loire in Anjou, where Liv Vincendeau is making very appealing sparkling wine. Since we were in an agricultural area, there was a sign forbidding parking that might block tractors. I really liked the wines.
Here’s the whole crew with the winemaker as we finished up our visit at Domaine Vincendeau. Credit for the group selfie goes to Susan Dailey.
Here’s an instructive comparison. The first photo is of the Loire riverbank before our 0930 tasting October 8 at Domaine Vincendeau; the second photo was taken in the same spot an hour later. In the first photo, the fog is so thick you can’t see the water, let alone the opposite shore. In the second photo, the fog has burned off and you can see swans swimming in the clear water. I put it to you: If this isn’t scientific proof that wine makes everything better, I don’t know what is.
Our second tasting on Wednesday, October 8, was at the new kid on the block, Domaine Belargus, much of whose grapes grow in a lovely nature preserve. I enjoyed their chenin blanc- focused white wines.
Our
third stop Wednesday morning, October 8, segued into lunch. Domaine de
la Soucherie in Beaulieu-sur-Loire. This is a beautiful old estate where
they’re making a wide variety of wines that we sampled outside on the
sunny terrace with charcuterie and cheese.
Our fourth and last tasting on Wednesday, October 8, was at Chateau de Parnay in Saumur-Champigny. This was the first wine tasting I’ve been to where I’ve had to wear a hard hat ( and a hair net, but let’s not dwell on that) for part of the tour. This part of the Loire Valley has many caves cut into the hillsides that started as quarries but then had a second life as dwellings, space for winemaking, etc. The owners are trying to use some of the old space for a new enterprise, perhaps involving a hotel. We were starting to get into red wine country, in this car Cabernet franc. The property has a unique “clos” with interior walls; we had to hike a long way to see it.
After checking into our hotel in Saumur, we had dinner that evening at the Michelin Bib Gourmand-rated Restaurant L’ Alchimiste. It was a long schlep from the hotel across the river but worth the hike. I started with figs roasted in a purse of smoked ham, followed that with a piece of pollock, and finished with poached pears and sweet stuff. Wine was involved. The walk back seemed to be much shorter.
Our hotel, the Hotel Mercure Bords de Loire in Saumur, is right on the Loire riverbank.
Thursday, October 9, 2025
We started Thursday morning, October 9, with a visit to the Royal Abbey of Fontevraud. There was a monastic community here, presided over by an abbess, for hundreds of years. After the revolution and secularization, it underwent changes and was put to different uses, at one point serving as a prison. Restoration has been going on, but it is a shell of what it once was.
We had lunch on Thursday, October 9, at a restaurant on the grounds of the Chateau de Saumur, the huge pile that overlooks the city. I ordered chicken salad, thinking I’d get something light. It turned out to be two fried chicken breasts on a bed of greens, not quite what I had in mind. I didn’t have time to see much more than the exterior of the chateau itself.
Our first tasting after lunch was at Domaine Clotilde Legrand; she is making wines in Saumur Champigny. It was another lovely fall day, and I walked around the ancient enclosed field on the property. They are replanting some vines; these stumps will be dried and probably burned.
Lunch on October 11 was at restaurant Le Favori, a Michelin single-starred new place built in the Sologne Forest not far from Cheverny. We started with small bites and a sparkling Vouvray; followed that with an appetizer of smoked sturgeon, potatoes, and watercress with a still Vouvray; they brought some of the best bread ever, three loaves for nine people and there wasn’t a crumb left; then had a piece of John Dory with artichokes and a Romantin, wine from a grape I’d never heard of; next was chicken and eggplant and a Loire red; and everything was topped off by a dessert of figs, walnuts, and goat milk ice cream. We somehow managed to finish the petits fours they brought—I skipped the orange pumpkin ones. A remarkable experience.
After that lunch I found it necessary to take a walk around the grounds, which were lovely.
Greetings from Cheverny!
We spent the afternoon of October 11 at the Chateau de Chambord, another big building devoid of much furnishing. There were some relics from the days when the kings would hunt here, and several important works of art like the mosaic by Ghirlandaio from 1496, but I’ve decided I’m not big on chateaux
We finally got back to the hotel Saturday evening to find that it had been taken over by a large group of French classic car enthusiasts, who had come to Amboise for a show on Sunday. Some marques I’d never heard of, like Panhard et Levassor. Old French cars can look just as strange as any, I guess.
Sunday, October 12, 2025
On Sunday morning, October 12, we went to see Leonardo da Vinci’s house. In the early 1500s, the French king, Francois I, was a major fanboy, and offered Leonardo a position at court, a house and servants, and a pile of money to move from Milan to Amboise, the site of the French court at the time. Leonardo packed up his stuff, including the *Mona Lisa*, and set off on muleback over the Alps. It took him three months to get there, and he spent the last three years of his life near Amboise. His dwelling is very well preserved: You can see his chambers and his death bed, but I was amazed to find that his atelier has been re-created, with his actual notebooks and brushes he actually used on display. The grounds even look like northern Italy, with yews reaching for the sky. Well worth the trip.
After touring Leonardo da Vinci’s house we had lunch at La Croix Blanche near Veuves. I liked this Michelin Bib Gourmand restaurant at least as much as I liked Le Favori the previous day. Great bread rolls, tasty mushroom appetizer, and a very tasty piece of monkfish, but the piece de resistance was the cheese cart. It was great—the whole meal was great. I really liked the house-made gelato; others got soufflés and had them set on fire at table. Not me. I want everything to be incinerated before it comes out of the kitchen.
Monday, October 13, 2025
After lunch on Sunday, October 12, I decided to take the rest of the day off, ate little, drank little, and went to bed early, so I was ready for our two tastings on Monday, October 13. We first went to Domaine Pichot in Vouvray and had a nice tasting there. Then we went to Domaine Vincent Carême, only to find no one there. It was like boarding the *Mary Celeste*: doors unlocked, dishes on the table, clothes on chairs, and not a soul in the house or office or winery. We were about to leave when a surprised M. Carême showed up and gave us a tour of his rustic winery, where fermentation was in full swing, and a tasting, which was interesting.
We spent the afternoon of October 13 at the Chateau de Chenonceau, one of the most attractive chateaux of the Loire Valley. The current structure dates from the mid-1500s and is closely associated with Catherine de Medici, who was at one point regent of France. She was responsible for the ballroom with the checkered floor that became a French army hospital during the First World War. Thousands of lives were saved there. The chateau has more furnishings than the others we’d seen, and the grounds were park-like.
Dinner on the evening of October 13 was at the restaurant Le Parvis in Amboise. I tried to keep it fairly simple: some grilled shrimp and salad to start, then a small steak and frites. The steak was tasty, but a bit chewy.
Tuesday, October 14, 2025
We said good-bye to Amboise early on the morning of October 14 and started out for Sancerre, much further to the east. Later in the morning we stopped at Domaine Henri Pelle, near Morogues, for a visit and tasting. On our hike out to the vineyards we were accosted by a flock of very large and angry geese, who are there to keep down pests and grass and warn of intruders. They were intimidating, but finally kept their distance, while making a hell of a racket. At the top of the hill we were met by a flock of sullen sheep, responsible for trimming grass and fertilizing everything in sight, making it necessary to watch your step. The French countryside there was lovely, much further along into autumn than it was to the west. We had a very interesting tasting of their range of wines. I got a chance to examine one of the new tractors they use in the vineyards.
We continued to head east towards Sancerre after our first tasting in Morogues October 14. We stopped for lunch at the restaurant Au Bon Laboreur in Menetou-Ratel. It’s always encouraging when entering a simple roadside establishment like that one to find a US$500K Ferrari Purosangue parked illegally by the front door—sort of validates your choice (I figured the owner was the guy my age with the twenty-something blonde hanging onto every word and the rest of him. His entourage drove much less impressive cars, mostly Porsches). The minute I got inside and smelled the kitchen, I knew it was going to be a good lunch. I started with meaty snails and continued with the local wild boar sausage with potato purée and onion gravy, perfect for a cool autumn afternoon. I had something for dessert, too. A small amount of wine was involved.
After lunch on October 14, we continued to head towards Sancerre, stopping at the new, modern facilities of Vignobles Berthier for a visit and tasting. The winery is very impressive, with new buildings and lots of new equipment, somewhat eclectic. This country is where chenin blanc for whites starts to give way to Sauvignon blanc, and the red grapes from Cabernet franc to Pinot noir. Berthier makes an impressive range of wines.
We finally reached Sancerre on the afternoon of October 14 and checked into our hotel, Le Panoramique. This is the panoramique view from my room…
Wednesday, October 15, 2025
We started the cold, damp morning of Wednesday, October 15, with a visit and tasting at Domaine Alphonse Mellot in Sancerre. The current M. Mellot is the 19th generation of his family to make wine. The winery is largely underground in the most bewildering maze of tunnels I’ve seen in touring like this. I was just following M. Mellot through the maze and we came upon a room with a large metal sculpture of a rhinoceros guarding the barrels. When I asked him why it was there, he said his wife wouldn’t let him keep it in the house… Work was going on apace. We had a very nice tasting in their new kitchen; the wines were good.
We made a quick stop at Domaine Depaporte in Sancerre before lunch on Wednesday, October 15.
Lunch on Wednesday, October 15, was in the outskirts of Sancerre at Au P’tit Goûter. The place was simple, the food was very good. I had some of their pate, a pork steak with frites, and a crème brûlée.
Our last visit and tasting on Wednesday, October 15–the last of the trip—was at Domaine Regis Minet in Pouilly-sur-Loire, where the appellation is Pouilly Fumé. We got to taste samples of the very young wine from the tanks before sitting down to try their very impressive whites.
Our last dinner for the tour was held in Sancerre on the evening of October 15 at Le Clos de Maréchal. It was a private dinner; the restaurant was closed that evening and the brilliant young chef was also the sommelier, the waiter, and the busboy. It was chilly, but there was a fire going next to us. We started with some good bread and a compound butter. This was followed by a creamy mushroom soup with a poached egg and ham chips. The main dish was a confit beef ( I think it was brisket) served on puréed squash with turnips, sunflower seeds, and pickled mustard seeds; it was one of the richest things I’ve ever eaten. There was a small selection of local cheeses, and for dessert—for those who weren’t overwhelmed by that point—there was panna cotta with apple compote. Wine was very definitely involved. I was very glad for the walk back to the hotel in the cold night air.
Thursday, october 16, 2025
We boarded our bus on Thursday morning, October 16, and left Sancerre for Paris, arriving around lunchtime for our farewell lunch at the brasserie La Coupole in Montmartre. Seafood seemed to be the order of the day. I had a simple shrimp salad with avocado, but some opted for the huge plateaus of shellfish. I was the only one to order skate wing; mussels and frites was a big favorite among the others. I had a chocolate something for dessert. The last time I was here, several years ago, La Coupole seemed to be just phoning it in, perhaps still suffering a post-Covid hangover, but they certainly seem to be back on their game, serving good food in a great atmosphere. We all said our goodbyes and went our separate ways.
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