Saumur wine tasting

Celebrating Zanny's birthday in Saumur! (A famous wine-growing city nearby Angers.) Instead of just going to the different domaines for dégustations, I thought it'd be fun to go to a winegrower's vineyard and see the vines and the process that goes along with it. And then the dégustation :)

  

So we walked around the vines and learned a little from Gérald, the manager's, fast rambling on grapes, vines and soils. It was cool to go down in the 5 mile cave under the vines where champagnes ferment for 18 months and are rotated in their bottles 3 times a day, as well as where other wines are stored. In these pictures you can see the limestone the vines grow on, which has a big effect on the wine (for more info ask Suzanne, she's supposed to remember that part;) Or see these links if you're curious... Vineyard soil types / Why limestone matters / Saumur wines

An old contraption for crushing grapes

 

Trying the bubbly... We learned to tap the glass on the table three times before the first sip- that way you can see the very fine tiny bulles make a tiny corkscrew up the middle of the glass, evidence of a quality bubbly wine.

 Driving past lots of vineyards back into the town of Saumur, below. The workers in the vines we learned all live within a 5 mile radius of the vineyard. That way the domaine doesn't have to feed them a three course lunch every day. In the past, everyone would have shared a big pot of whatever was on the menu that day, but laws have changed and now they would have to have individual servings of a starter, an entrée and dessert and blah blah blah. French bureaucracy. So Gérald said to avoid this, they have to employ people who live within a certain radius.

Another fascinating thing we learned from Gérald was about the caves that are all over the area. We passed some on the train and noticed that people have attached houses to them, or houses seem to be a part of mountain like walls. Well under one of the Louis, the poor country people who didn't feel any allegiance to the king, dug these underground caves to live in, and to hide from the rest of society in order to avoid paying taxes! Gérald found such a cave on his property and dug it out, finding a kitchen and more. Eventually he stopped digging because of another French law that changed and said that if you're aware of such a cave on your property and there's an issue with a road above it, or an accident on the road due to that cave, then you're liable. But before that, he said it had been so addicting, he'd wake up in the middle of the night and go dig out more of the cave and discover a lot of objects and rooms. So interesting!

We ordered a salad for lunch, which turned out to be a plate of lardons (a fancy word for bacon?) marinated for 48 hours. It wasn't exactly the light lunch we had envisioned but it sure was tasty. 

Pretty Saumur chateau overlooking the town and confluence of the Loire and the Thouet.