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Wine tasting at the producteur or vineyard in France can be a very pleasant and rewarding experience. As distinct from much of the New World stuff we see, there are a lot of relatively small independant producers in France who are genuinely passionate about their product, and as such  welcome to receive visitors and offer their products for degustation. Unfortunately there are rogues and vagabonds everywhere, so where to go for your tastings needs a bit of common sense.

In general , the classic regions of Bourgogne, Bordeaux, St Emilion, and Champagne have a wealthy following, so there are opportunities for tasting, but they are harder to find for your average punter. For a first venture, better to potter around say Macon, or Bergerac, Cahors, Loire or the regions  of the south west and east. Here you will get the massive conglomerates who churn out europlonk but in amongst there are still some small estates who are producing fine examples of their region

In Bourgogne, the easiest and safest approach is the one mentioned above in Beaune, where there are caves under the city, I think Bouchard Pere et Fils is one. You pay around 8€ per person, to get a souvenir "tastevin" and the freedom to wander round the caves at your leisure and taste around 10 to 15 wines of varying price upto about £40 per bottle. In your own time , and with no hastle. Again as has been said, you can spit, but the non driver could be possitively legless if they so chose. At the end of the tour, you are not obliged to buy anything, and though many Brits find this strange, it is a French thing that of course you would want the opportunity to appreciate wine, not necessariliy to buy there and then, and a good tip if you do visit a vineyard on holiday is to ask for a lead to their distributors in UK, and to say that you have the rest of your holiday in a tent etc so it would be uncomplimentary to their product to subject it to temps of 25 deg. best to wait till you get back to UK. That response is usually met with an approving "Of course". If you want to push the boat out when you are in Beaune visit the shop of Moillard in the centre. there you will see bottle costing 1000's€  bought apparently by Japanese visitors, but if you ask them for somehing to drink now, they can offer quality appellations of say 5 yrs old at "reasonable" price (10 € ish) for that special last night away.

Out on the road, you will be faced with adverts for degustation, and my own rule of thumb is to say that the bigger the advert the more interested the guy is in selling rather than producing quality which sells itself. Not always true, but it works for me.Again in Bougogne, the next region is Macon, and whilst it churns out its fair share of europlonk reds, the Macon Villages appellation has some fabulous whites. If you go to Clesse, or Vire for example there are small producers who will welcome you to their charming salles de degustation, present you with a selection of the wifes charcuterie or cheese, and give you a tasting of their selection. It helps if you have some French, but they are used to dealing with a cross section of Europeans, and as such they will find a way round any language problems

Whichever region you may be in, the "Cave Cooperative" again is a very French thing where local producteurs combine their products to produce an appellation product. the Cave is the joint marketing outlet, and is usually staffed by young people who are proficient in languages, and are well able to explain the particular features of their products. Not dissimilar to the local office de tourisme.

French supermarkets , even the major brands , tend to stock more regional products than UK like Tesco etc. So in Leclerc you will find a bigger selection of products which you will not find if you move to a different region. Individual labels means that you may get good , bad, or indifferent, but is n't that what it's all about ? and when you find what you like, stick with it. Pricewise, supermarket prices will start around 3/4€ per bottle, and can go up to even 100's€. Quality, you are in the land of diecerning wine drinkers, so if price does n't reflect quality they don't survive. Again as has been said above, if you see a wizened old codger with a 1/2 inch butt of a Gitanes and a trolley full of wine, go and get some, he's probably only just turned 40. yrs.

So not the ramblings of a wine snob, we have done our fair share of quaffing the cheapest and most bizarre label we could find, in disgusting quantities. But we have enjoyed visiting productuers in every possible region of France over the past 30 yrs and the memories of those visits, all so vastly different in character, are invaluable, and if you are inclined down that route, I would commend a book "the Wine Atlas of France" by Hugh Johnson and Hubrecht Duijker which has been my constant companiion

Happy slurpings

FM

Hi

We have had several holidays to France and like everyone else enjoy the good cheap wines the supermarkets have to offer. We try to have our own wine tasting evening back on the site after our meal.

We will have olives and cheese and local breads then start on our wines. We always start with the intention of remembering which we like so that we can purchase a few bottles before coming home, however by the end of the evening we like all of them anyway.

We've had some cracking evenings doing this, all of us really enjoying the whole concept of camping in France.

Quote: Originally posted by smudge1997 on 02/6/2011

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Hi

We have had several holidays to France and like everyone else enjoy the good cheap wines the supermarkets have to offer. We try to have our own wine tasting evening back on the site after our meal.

We will have olives and cheese and local breads then start on our wines. We always start with the intention of remembering which we like so that we can purchase a few bottles before coming home, however by the end of the evening we like all of them anyway.

We've had some cracking evenings doing this, all of us really enjoying the whole concept of camping in France.

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A proper French camping holiday, the correct way to really do it properly !

If you're going to and from the Vendee here are some places we've found at least as good value as supermarkets and perfectly happy to let you taste whatever you fancy.

 1 - South side of Alencon just off the A28

http://hauteclair.pagesperso-orange.fr/index.html

Greate value Loire valley whites

2 - Just off Angers ring road

http://www.wallop.fr/

Fantastic Rose

3 - Les Sables D'Olonne

http://www.caveduchateau85.com/

Aladdins cave from cheap to expensive - Just ask for help

4 - Mareuil sur Lay

http://www.mourat.com/

Producers of the "famous" owl wine that you'll find served in many of the local restaurants. It is the local wine called "fiefs vendeen" and the rose is lovely

They have a shop in the centre of the village of Mareuil-sur-Lay next to the river.

We always bring back at least a case and if you don't fancy the trip to Mareuil you can get it from La Cave du Chateau (see above)