schiller-wine: Cellar Tour and Tasting at Domaine Carême in Vernou-sur-Brenne, AOP Vouvray

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.

Following:

Cellar Tour and Tasting at Domaine Pichot, Vouvray, Touraine, with Louis Pichot - Loire Valley 2025 by ombiasy WineTours

we went to Domaine Carême in Vernou-sur-Brenne, AOP Vouvray. Vincent Carême was our host. We started with a visit of the wine making facilities in the old cellar, followed by a tasting through the entire portfolio.

Loire 2025 by ombiasy WineTours led by Annette Schiller

Annette Schiller in her announcement: What comes to your mind when you hear ‘Loire Valley’? Of course images of glorious Châteaux pop up in your mind. Yes that is true and we will visit some iconic château and dig deep into France’s history. However, during this wine tour we also discover a magnificent, but often overlooked French wine region and one of the most exciting best kept secrets of excellent, high quality wines at very reasonable prices. The Loire Valley wine region is a vast area and consists of several distinct wine regions, each with its own characteristic grapes, appellations, and wine style. We take you on a journey from the Atlantic Ocean to the Auvergne mountains to explore this unique region. We learn to appreciate “Sancerre”, "Pouilly-Fumé", “Vouvray", “Chinon”, as well as many other not so familiar appellations.

Domaine Carême in Vernou-sur-Brenne, AOP Vouvray

Situated in the heart of Vouvray, Domaine Carême is the mastermind of the young and dynamic Carême couple. The estate currently spans 37 acres with different blocks spread over three villages: Vouvray, Vernou-sur-Brenne and Noizay. Most of the blocks are on steep slopes overlooking the Loire valley with two of them, Le Clos (meaning an enclosed vineyard) and Le Peu Morier, being vinified separately to express their unique terroirs. All of Domaine Carême's wines are certified organic from 2010 onwards by Ecocert.

This is one of the top domains in Vouvray. The vineyards have the classic Vouvray terroir: limestone bedrock and superficial flint (Silex in French), and some limestone mixed with fine clay.

Winedoctor - Vincent Carême

Although this is now a significant domaine in Vouvray, it is not one with a lengthy or convoluted story. This in itself is very exciting, because it means that, like Catherine Champalou, Bernard Fouquet and one or two others who have gone before him, Vincent Carême is – for all intents and purposes – a first-generation vigneron. To be clear, I know all three are in fact the sons or daughters of vignerons, sometimes (in the case of Catherine and her husband Didier) they have been born to a long line of vignerons, but it was Bernard (now retired, of course), Catherine and Vincent who put down the deepest roots, tended their vines in the most conscientious manner, and – this is the important bit – really made their mark on the appellation.

When I meet up with Vincent Carême to taste the latest vintage I imagine that it might feel a little like it felt to those Loire enthusiasts discovering Bernard’s and Catherine’s wines for the first time thirty-plus years ago, when they burst onto the Vouvray scene with a slew of fabulous wines from the 1989 and 1990 vintages. Back then there was a realisation that with their arrival the Vouvray landscape had changed, and that it was no longer just a matter of what the Huet and Foreau families (at the time, both domaines remained in family ownership, today this is only true of Foreau) were up too. There were not one but several new players now at the table, players who might not hold all the vineyard trump cards but nevertheless seemed to be winning plenty of tricks.

More than a few years have now passed since my first meeting with Vincent Carême and my original encounter with his wines. Within a few years I thought of Vincent as a poster child for a new, 21st-century wave of change that was sweeping through Vouvray, an appellation that had perhaps rested on its laurels a little too long, in contrast to the wind of change seen in Montlouis, led by Jacky Blot and François Chidaine. Across the appellation, in the central commune of Vouvray but also in Vernou-sur-Brenne, Noizay, Chançay and elsewhere, new and next-generation vignerons were taking the helm, and many looked to Vincent for guidance and direction. This is partly a reflection of the teaching position he holds at the Lycée Agricole et Viticole d’Amboise, but it is also a reflection of his commitment outside the classroom, in the vineyards and cellars.

Arriving