Morning drinking in Saumur

When I lived in NYC, visitors were always surprised to learn I hadn’t been to the Statue of Liberty since I was a kid and had never done the Empire State building tour even though all the tourist attractions were right under my nose. I guess when you live somewhere, you get stuck in your routine and don’t go out of your way to see all the sights. Now living in the Loire Valley, I take full advantage of seeing the sights and since my dad was here, we knew we wanted to spend a day in Saumur and explore the area’s wineries.

So last Tuesday we did…. go!

Morning drinking in Saumur France

I try not to imbibe too often before noon, but my dad was here so it’s a special occasion. We set out around 9 a.m. for Saumur and were excited to take advantage of the beautiful day and sample some of the area’s wines.

Dagny was also very excited. She has this bad habit of humping my legs while she’s on my lap in the car. She doesn’t do it to anyone else (or other dogs), but will start humping me out of nowhere. We tell her no and get her to stop, but I don’t understand where it’s coming from. She’s female and very submissive. Maybe she’s trying to tell me she’s in charge? No idea. Does your female dog hump you? Any idea why she does this? Enough of that. Let’s get on with it.

First up? Langlois-Chateau in the nearby town of Saint-Hilaire-Saint-Florent. They were kind enough to do a private tour in English and the tour kicked off with an overview of the winemaking process. Interesting fact? Black grapes can actually make white wines. Then we went up to see the vines and how the wine is actually made inside the production area. We finished our visit with a tour of the cave and the obligatory tasting.

After the third wine, I figured it was time to start using the crachoir (spittoon).

They kindly reimbursed the tour fee since we bought several bottles of wine.

Then we were on our way to Louis de Grenelle…

After a stroll around the center of Saumur and a quick lunch, we headed over to Louis De Grenelle, a family house that’s been in Saumur since 1859. I first tasted their Crémant de Loire at the Salon de Gastronomie in Saumur a few months ago and knew I wanted to go back to visit the winery when I had the chance. Today was that day. A producer of a variety of wines (w/their sparkling varieties being my fave), our visit to Louis de Grenelle did not disappoint and we tasted about six or seven before heading home.

Even if you don’t love wine, the winemaking process is interesting to learn about and I highly recommend taking a tour if you’re ever in the area. If you don’t have a car and don’t know where to go, do a tour with Le Tasting Room. Before I moved out here, my family and I did a tour with Le Tasting Room (in the Angers area) and I can’t recommend Nigel and Kathy enough.

Of course, it’s hard to leave empty handed… so we didn’t. 😉

Have you tasted any good wines lately?