After lunch on Wednesday, we took a drive to Vouvray, a town and wine region in the Loire valley known for its sparkling wines. We went to a winery that offered free guided tours of the wine cellar, located in a maze of trogolyte caves (originally quarrys for limestone used to build many of the expensive Chateaus in the region). The cave/cellar was over 2 miles and housed over 4,000,000 bottles of wine. We learned all about "Method Tradiocional", which is the method used to put bubbles in the wine and was invented in Champagne. We also got a chance to sample several of the sparkling and still Vouvray wines and were very impressed with the difference to sparkling wines we're used to back in the U.S. These wines are all made from Chenin Blanc grapes and have a very different flavor to Napa Valley white wines.
For dinner, we made reservations at a fancy restaurant located in a 4 star hotel in Amboise. We enjoyed a 4 hour 9 course meal and shared a few bottles of wine throughout the evening. The food was exquisite and the experience was something we will all remember for a long time. The entire meal with wine totalled less than 70 Euro per person (unbelievable!). We will be digesting our meal for the next couple of days, but it was well worth it.
Today, we are headed to St. Emilion via Cognac, where we will stop for a Cognac tasting at Hennessy.
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