April 22, 2026 • 38 mins
Known as the "Royal Valley," the Loire is home to historic castles and lush gardens built by members of the monarchy and nobility to escape the summer heat of the cities. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site that stretches across north central France from the Atlantic Ocean to the peaks of the Massif Central. The Loire Valley is the third largest wine region in France. Discover the diverse range of food-friendly Loire white, rosé, red, sparkling and sweet wines and appellations to explore.
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Fearless Fabulous You Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Media (www.talk4media.com), Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.
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(00:20):
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Speaker 2 (00:21):
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Speaker 3 (00:42):
Hello and welcome to Fearless Fabulous.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
You.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
I am your host, Melanie Young, and it is Happy
Earth Day. Recycle, reuse, reclaim, and repurpose. Birthday is our
day to protect Earth, but we should be doing that
all year round. I'll be airing on my Facebook page
(01:08):
some of my best shows dealing with environment wonderful people
who are reusing and repurposing items to create new things.
So check it out on Fearless Fabulous Melanie Young in
my Facebook page. I'll be airing a few shows. But
today we're going on a trip because I'm in the mood.
(01:28):
It's springtime in it's April, and gosh, what do you
want to do more than anything in April is get
away and have a spring flaing, right, I know I do.
I'm so lucky because I live in New Orleans and
the weather is perfect. But I have a lot of
friends who are a beast and up in the Northwest
and wherever it's still chili. So we're going to take
you away to a place that I've been a few aprils.
(01:51):
I've been to April and Paris a few times, and
why because I was in route to a beautiful wine
region called the Laoire Valley. So what we're going to
do today have a springtime in the Laire Valley, and
I'm going to take you to one of my favorite
wine regions in France. And people always ask, what's your
favorite rhine region to visit in France? Well, I like
them all, but one of the easiest to get to
(02:12):
and one of the most beautiful and diverse is the
Laire Valley. I have been there I think three or
four times on organized trips, once with an importer, and
I've been to most of the regions. Love the wines,
and we're going to talk about that and why you
should visit and what wine is to drink at home.
(02:33):
So first of all, the Laire Valley is known as
the Royal Valley because it has beautiful chateaus and gardens.
That's what it's known for. It's also called the garden Valley.
Many members of the monarchy and the nobility in Paris
and other major cities would have their country retreats there.
So all along the river, the Loire River, you'll see
(02:57):
amazing castles like Chenisu, Chateau de Saumur and many and
you can visit these and I highly recommend it. In fact,
there's a lot of tour groups that do biking trips
because it's an easy biking area. In addition to chateau,
there's also caves like Trogoldyke caves that people lived in
and you can actually rent and stay in those as well.
(03:19):
So you can literally see chateaus, incredible castles, and then
you can see Troglodyke caves. It's kind of very diverse.
Speaking of diverse, it is the third the Wild Valley
is the third largest wine region in France, and I
think it's the most diverse. Why because you get this
incredible range of wines and it's unique because many if
(03:43):
you look at a lot of wine maps. It's really interesting.
A lot of them are on the river because rivers
create these amazing alluvial soils. They're also in the mountains
because mountain soils are really great. But alluvial soils with
river debris and particles are very good for cultivating vines.
In most areas, some are sandier, some are rockier. It
(04:06):
just varies on the region. The Luis Valley is I
think the longest river in France. It's silty, so it's
not gonna you'll see barges, but you're not going to
see heavy ships and stuff. As I said, you can
navigate it with tourist boats like light bar light boats,
(04:28):
or along bicycles. But what's interesting about it is many
wine regions. Most wine regions actually run north to south. Okay,
so the Rhone Valley north to south, Burgundy north to south,
Bordeaux north to south, all sasts north the south. I
just covered the major regions in France. The wah is
(04:51):
east to west. That makes it really unique, and I
think that also contributes to this amazing diversity of wines.
It's just too from Paris. Take the TJVA you're there,
so it's really easy, done in a couple of times.
It's a really pretty, really pretty train trip. When we
(05:11):
were there, we saw the rape seed, the yellow fields
that were the canola. They call it rape seed in Bloom.
It just all farmland. It's just beautiful, and there's a
lot of farmland in the Las Valley. There's some key
cities as well, but really is rolling farmlands, chateaus, just bucolic.
So it's a great trip and visit and I highly
(05:32):
recommend it. I'm gonna talk to you about the wines
and the regions and the differences so that you can
choose where you may want to visit or choose the
kind of wine you want to drink. So interesting fact.
Another one, the Laarre Valley is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
(05:54):
It stretches one hundred and seventy miles across the heart
of France. We're talking about north central France, so it's
in more northerly region, as I said, south of Paris,
north of Provence, and it's home to eighty seven Appalachians,
including AOC which is one designation of very high and
(06:16):
winds in ITGP which allows a little more flexibility. And
the wine's created the landscape is very diverse, and many
of the wine producers are small, family owned, multi generational
family own. They call them vignerons, real dirt under the
fingernail farmers. We've met so many of them. A lot
of them do live in beautiful chateaus, but they're still
(06:38):
dirt under your finger farmers. It's amazing. A couple of
other things. What makes In addition to the River which
has this amazing alluvial soil, it also is part of
the Massif Central, this giant rocky plain that cuts through
central France and goes up to Burgundy, and these amazing
(07:01):
limestone soils. Rocky soils create these wines with amazing acidity.
What is acidity, It's an incredible Christmas. It's that zip
zing Christmas that lipsmacking mouthfeel when you have a wonderful
white wine, for example, or a sparklay wine. And also minerality.
(07:22):
Minerality is that stony, earthy, herbaceousness that you get that
complements the fruit. So you get a lot of that
because of this Massy Central has these amazing limestone soils
and some are chalky and they go right on up
to Burgundy and Champagne which is known for the same
soils and those similar beautiful wines. The soils are super old.
(07:47):
They date back, you know, to the cave days. There
are caves. Interesting, About twenty percent of the producers in
the Lamar are organic and they would probably be twenty
thirty b all one hundred percent organic and green certified.
So this is also an area that Birthday really respects
(08:10):
the land and when you go there, you'll see it.
It is beautiful, it is clean. It makes you want
to breathe makes you want to get on a bike,
it makes you want to get your hike and shoes on,
and we were able to do that when we visited.
We did all sorts of fun things on our organized trip.
We were there with the region of the Wah Valley wines.
(08:32):
You can go to the Wah Valley Wine website and
it's really helpful. And you're planning a trip, so again
we're talking about unique because it's east to west or
west to east, depending which way are going for our
little trip, I'm going to take you. Let's say you
(08:53):
came back down and you went you went down to Paris,
and let's say you land maybe in the coast, No
uncle straight down straight down some major cities. You may
want to visit Orleans, as in the Native Orleans and
Joan of Arc was there. It's one of the major
centers of of the Las Valley. Further to the west
(09:19):
is not near the coast where I've been. There's a
city of Tours and she no a lot of beautiful cities,
with Orleons probably being the capital. So we're going to
start east to west, all right, So let me just
get my notes to east to west, because I haven't
west to east in my notes. You're gonna love it
(09:39):
because the Upper Loire, which is where the massive central
is furthest to the east of most central in France,
is also where you're going to find some of the
greatest sauvignon blancs of the world. Now you may say
I'm not big on Savian blanc. I don't like the grassiness,
blah blah blah. Well you haven't had Upper Las Valley
(10:00):
salvignon blanc. Okay, so what should you know? Have you
ever had something called Sonsere is the salvignon blanc of
the Laire Valley and it is going to be crisp,
not too pineapply not too it's gonna have gooseberry and
(10:23):
grapefruit and a lot of minerality because of that rocky
soils I talked about. It's going to be dry, It's
going to go great with shellfish and seafood. You're gonna
love it. Sansea is probably one of the fastest growing,
most popular wines according to many wine directors at restaurants
that we interview. Uh, if you know, it's completely different
(10:46):
from like a New Zealand Salvion blanc, which is very
unique and I think has a lot of kiwi in it.
Chilean Salveon blocs to me have a little more fruit driven,
citrus fruit driven pineapple for me, as Sonsere is dry,
crisp goose spurry, a hint of lime, and a little
flint in stone characteristics. In fact, there's a special area.
(11:07):
There's like three or four areas in the Upper Laua
known for producing Sauvignon blancs, and each is located a
little closer to or further away from the Luas Valley
and of course has its own appellation and unique micro climate.
Because you could literally go somewhere in a wine country
and walk across the street and it could have a
(11:29):
different microclimate. It's kind of cool. So if you've ever
heard of the word, the name of a wine called
poule fu may not pule fusa, pula fu may so
it is also a sauvignon blanc, a style of sauvignon
blanc from the Upper Loire in the eastern part of
the lawa valley. Fu may means smoky, Okay, smoky, and
(11:54):
it's because these wines have a little flintier gun, you know,
flintier character teristic to him. So if you like that
Hindu smoke, really dry and crisp with the hint of smoke,
you're gonna love poule fume. Those are the two most
famous wines of the area, with another being Menoton Solon
and uh just all three. Minutetou Salon is another famous
(12:19):
wine of the Upper Loire Eastern noir. So this is
an area that's really about first and foremost sauvignon blanc
and really good when some of the best in the world. Okay,
you can also find some wonderful sparkling wines, so this
is important to know about the La Valley. It is
one of the largest producers of method Champagne wis sparkling
(12:42):
wine outside of Champagne where it can be called Champagne
and they are fabulous. It is actually its own aop
protected an area of protected origin and Cramont de Loire.
You can get them for under twenty dollars in a store.
(13:02):
They can be made with different grapes, where Champagne has
to be made with very specific grapes know Noire, Chardonnay, Mounier,
but in the Wire it could be made with other grapes.
So you can find some amazing sparkling wines white rose,
dry to sweet, really fabulous and it is one of
the largest producers of sparkling wine outside of Champagne, so
(13:26):
really great to check out. So you can also get
some of those as well when you're in the Eastern Wire.
So this is an area that is great to visit.
What do you have with sansee you have oysters, shellfish,
salads and something else that this region is really well
known for, which is these amazingly tangy goat cheeses. Yeah,
(13:48):
this is cheese Central. Unfortunately I didn't go on a
cheese trip. I went on a wine trip, so I
ate a lot of cheese, but I can't tell you
a lot about them, but if you can ask at
your local cheese and I do suggest if you live
in an area where you're lucky enough to have a cheesemonger,
but friend them and say I'd like to try some
goat cheeses from the war again. You can reach the
(14:09):
Larre in about two hours. The eastern part where we
still are is known for its sunseyers, and it's also
known for its amazing goat cheeses. It's just I'm getting
hungry just talking about so I don't know about you.
So then we're going to move into the central War area,
where David and I have spent quite a bit of time.
(14:31):
It's the largest area of the war and has probably
some of the most highest concentration of castles. It's also
where I actually flew an airplane. Right. I was on
a trip and we were taking an aerial view of
all the vineyards, and the pilot said, would you like
to fly the plane? And I was like, yeah, I
(14:52):
go almost I've never done that before, and I actually
got to fly the plane. I was a little scared
because I'm not a pilot, but he was there sitting
next to him when we flew over the beautiful landscape
and vineyards and saw incredible castles. And if you have
a chance to take an aerial tour, uh do it.
What is cool is we actually took a VW bus tour.
There's a company. I'll have to get the name of it,
(15:14):
but they do VW bus tours of the Loar and
it was a lot of fun, really a lot of fun.
So the central Loiir is divided into two areas. Closer
to the Eastern Noire is an area called Touring t
o u r Ai n E. And like the Eastern Noir,
(15:37):
it's known for its sauvignon blancs. They're going to be
somewhat a little different. My computer's froze. I'll just have
to work on my notes. As is mainly salvignon blanc.
But you can also find some Shennon, which is a
big another white grape in this region. And you will
also find a wine that is distinctly h from the
(16:02):
Loir and only from the war called vouvray v o
u v r y Vouvray. I have here a book
I highly recommend it. It's called the Wine Bible. It's
by the great writer Karen McNeil, and she's a great
writer and a great speaker. I want to read something
(16:22):
to you because I was reading up on the Loir
in preparation for this show. She says, A vouvray. I've
just got to bear with me while I get my
little post it note unposted. She says, one white appellation
of the Middle War is well known world over. Vouvray
(16:43):
is made from one hundred percent Shennon block, which I'll
speak about shortly. No other place in the world produces
Shennon blocks that are so gossamer, richly favored and honeyed
even when dry. Din't you just love that vouvray is
(17:04):
made of. And Shennon is the main white great variety
of the Central War. So Sauvignon blanc you'll see in
the Central Lare, but you'll see it's dominant in the
Eastern Lore and the Central Lare. It's all about Shennon
blanc and the best Sorry, South Africa, they make it there.
(17:24):
It's big there. But the best Shennon blocks in the world,
I think, are from the Loire Valley, and they crisp,
they're so refreshing on the palette. They have that greate acidity.
They're not flinty like or gooseberry ish like sauvignon blanc.
They have more fruit character fruit characteristics, but dry, and
(17:46):
they make beautiful wines, including vouvray and amazing sparkling Vouvray.
There's a producer called alasand Momsieu and he makes some
of the best sparkling Fouvray ever tasted. We actually had
him as a guest on our show after he visited
his winery with his importer Cassella Perry Fee. Really some
(18:08):
of the best shenon blancs and vouvar. He's a vouvet producer,
so vouv right is sheen and blanc some of the
best sparkling I've ever had. Now, Vouvein can be tricky
because it's it can run from very dry to semi dry,
which is more residual sugar. And I've actually been to
Vouvray dinners where we're served exclusive vue and tasted the
(18:30):
spectrum from very very starting with sparkling to dry to
semi dry. So if you're in a restaurant, or if
you're in a retail store and you're shopping food, very
asked about that and ask if it's a dry or
demi sacker off dry wine, because they're very different and
(18:53):
you may not want off dry, you may want dry,
but they have very high asses. They're going to be incredible,
cresp very refreshing, and this is going to be a
little confusing for you. So the terms are a little
confusing here. Unlike champagne bouvray, here's Karen can be dry,
so it's known as seck not brute because broot champagne
(19:18):
is dry, and second champagne is the sugar medium dry,
demisec medium sweet called mulu and medium dry, which is
the main style. So ask what style of fouvree is
if you're shopping because you want to get one that
you like, or actually go try a bunch of them
(19:40):
with a dinner party. It's a lot of fun and
I like some of the sweeter ones there. They're just
they're really good with Asian food when they have a
little bit more residual sugar. And what's nice about that
is if you've ever had let's say, goervertz remeinor reasling
with little more residual sugar, or in this case bouve
(20:01):
ray with a really spicy Cajun or who Nan Chinese.
It is a perfect pairing. Spice loves a little bit
of residual sugar. It's really great, So try that. So
we've now talked about Vouvray in Turin, which is going
to be so blanc. Now you're probably wondering, Oh, let
(20:26):
me just finish, so Shannon. So the next region over
is a and some more two other huge regions Central Law,
Centralir with a large range of wines. I'm going to
finish up with the white, moved to rose and then
red because you're probably wondering, what about the red wines? Well,
(20:47):
we'regainn there because there's some amazing ones in the Central
War Okay, so uh, some wine regions to know, other
wine regions to know in this Central War Aous okay
Anjou is one of two areas in the Central amazing
range of grapes as well, very well known for its rosees.
(21:10):
Rose Donjous is very very famous. And again these rosees
can go from very dry to very too sweet, so
there's a beautiful range. I would highly recommend giving them
a dry. Just over half the wine produced in the
(21:30):
Andres similar area is rose, so beautiful rosees. Give them
a try, and the grape that is used is predominantly
Cabernet sauvignon. So now we're moving into some red wine territory.
The red wine. The main red grapes that you will
find in this area Cabernet savignon, Cabernet franc malbec, which
(21:56):
is known as cute and grill you in smaller amounts.
These are all in the middle of the war and
they're terrific. So rosees. I would recommend a rose don joux,
but there are other roses as well. I've tasted so
many rosees in this area and they're really terrific. Again,
this is an area known for the sparkling wines the
(22:18):
commands so as the own aop in the Central Noire.
Try them. They're fabulous. The other notable wines of this
area that you should know the reds. Okay, there's an
area called some More sau m you are Champagne. It
(22:40):
makes some of the best Cabernet francs I've had, which
are also used in the sparkling wines. Most of the
wines in this area are single variety, which means there's
not blends. There is it like two percent of three percent,
but most are single variety. That's very important to note.
The main red gray PPEs that you should know. As
(23:02):
I said, you've got Cabernet franc, Caberny Sauvignon, will you,
and Caught which is melt back, and another area so
somewhere Champagne is a special appellation known for its Caberny
franc terrific. I've had dinners. We had dinner with many
(23:24):
of the producers twice and they're all family owned and terrific,
and you can get a lot of them in the
United States. But you got to look and look for
s A U m U R some more. That's what
you're going to see more than Champagne some more. Another
appellation area that you should know that does wonderful cabinate
franc is she noan Okay, there's this is important. There's
(23:45):
Shannon c h E n I N, which is a
white grape varietal and dominant in the Central war for
its amazing high acid, incredibly refreshing white wines. And then
there's sin On c h I N O N. And
these are Cabinet fronc wine dominant wines and they're terrific
(24:06):
and they're going to be in the Turin area of
the Central Wir. So those are just some terms to
know and wines to look for. I think I get
excited when I see a cabinet franc from the wir.
I get excited when I see a cabinet franc from Virginia,
also another great region. Another if you're into sweet wines,
(24:31):
the Law Valley has one of the few gone clue
designation sweet wines. It's called oh help me with this person,
quote des Champ quote courte spelled by courte like a
quarter of milk. It's spelled court du champ c h
a U n E. These are prized sweet wines and
(24:53):
they're only made in this area. And if you can
in a grind clue mainz, they're the highest quality, if
you could. I literally went to a welcome event when
we were in the Loire Valley and they had a
table of these, and I was like, I've been running
to over there and they're really good. You may think that,
you know, I don't call sweet wines dessert wines. Why
(25:15):
because I think many sweet wines go with other savory
items like foie gras, like blue cheese, like really spicy, spicy,
spicy dishes. They're not just to pair with dessert. In fact,
I actually don't like personally sweet wines with dessert. It's
(25:37):
just too much sweet on sweet. I like sweet and savory.
So I love just having a glass of dessert wine
as my dessert, or maybe with a little bit of chocolate,
but more likely some wonderful blue cheese. I like that.
Tang so Calte de cham is unique to the Loire
and another great wine to try. Now I learned, and
(26:04):
I did not have a tarta ten, and I don't
recall having a tart tarta tan in the lar when
I went, but I had so many great meals I
can't remember. There were so many. But Karen McNeil also knows.
I love this book, The Wine Bible, because it's about wine,
but it's also about the region and the stories, and
she writes one of the most famous rustic desserts of France,
(26:30):
tart to ten, originated in the Teuran region, which we
talked about for Sauvignon blancs and also she know the
Teuran region. So what is tarta tan. It's an upside
down caramelized apple tart, especially of France, created in the
nineteenth century by two sisters or a hotel, and Karen
(26:53):
says that Tarta tan is the perfect compliment to the
gorgeously sweet, lightly honey dessert wine. She calls it the
dessert wine cut deschamp. Okay, so she recommends it with
Tarta tan and she calls it a dessert wine. I
still say it can go with some savory items as well,
But Carte de Champ is a specialty of this area,
(27:15):
as is Chart to ten perfect pairing. What else can
I tell you about the Central oh another area and
very special because it's its own designated appellation and super
super special. It's called seven Year s A v E
(27:37):
n n I E r e s. It is a
sub appellation. I know, it's its own appalation, excuse me.
Within the larger area, and it's known for some of
the best world class shennon blancs ever, with one being
the Coola des Serrant. Very famous and if you can
(27:59):
find and afford it, it's about one hundred dollars a bottle.
Get it because it's very special seven Year. Like I said,
there's regular shenons, there's the food rays made from shennons,
and then there's seven years. One writer called this wine,
which is from the middle of r It's a very
(28:20):
dry white wine, cerebral. I've never known a wine to
be cerebral, but apparently if you it's what they call
in Italy a meditative wine. What does that mean. It's
a wine you just want to sit in savor. You
don't want to drink it too fast, you want to
think about it. The wines are this way because there's
(28:43):
a lot of volcanic shists in this areas. I said earlier,
there's the massive central A lot of it was formed
through volcanic erosion over the millennium, so you're going to
get all the shist and limestone rocks, and that creates
this amazing acidity and minerality in the wines. I only
(29:05):
can't say enough positive a few things about these wines.
I really love it and I can't wait to go back.
There's so much to learn, you know. People always say,
do you ever get tired of going to one region
or another? No, because there's always so much to learn.
There's always a new producer to meet, there's always a
new vintage to try, there's always au dishes to taste,
and this is the third largest wine region of France.
(29:30):
It's never it's never enough. I can't wait to go back.
I hope i'm invited. I would go on vacation though,
I mean it's not just the word trat. I always
go on vacation. So the central law is war is
the middle of war. They call it. It's Chateause Central.
You'll so many famous chateaus. If you can get on
a wine tour, do it. I think that's probably the
(29:52):
easiest way because you don't want to be driving around.
Like I said, there's book tours. I mean there's bike
tours as well. I'm not big on bike tours because
if you're drinking, if you really want to stay on
a bike, I like just good old fashioned tours, van tours,
and I know there's a great one out there that
does VW buses. I just can't remember the name of it,
but we did. It was so much fun, all right.
(30:15):
I'd linger in the Central Wire a little bit more.
But we're going to go to the far wild wild West,
and it really is the wild wild West. The main
area this is the wild West is in It's the
Atlantic Ocean. Part of the war. Remember east to west
so the end of the Larre Valley is the Atlantic Ocean.
(30:39):
It's rough, it's cold, you get a lot of ocean breezes.
It's oyster country. You're going to get I actually we
actually got to go out with an oyster farmer. Waded
out and got to get fresh oysters and have them
with the wine of this area, the specialty which is
called Muska Day. Muska Day is the name of the wine.
(31:02):
It is made only in the Western Loire, in the
pay Not area, so the region is called pay Pays
Country Not as the main city in this region, which
is a fairly large ish region. It's not as large
as the Central Loire, which is really large. As I said,
(31:24):
it's really the two areas. But ant is a beautiful
region just south of Brittany, with its own unique food.
I had some amazing clips and it's a beautiful area
and a beautiful castle again, more castles and fortresses because
it was on the oceans. You're gonna get fortresses. Muska
Day is a very dry, crisp white wine. Again, this area,
(31:51):
the Law Valley, is well known for its white wines.
It's very white dominant, but it has some amazing reds
as well. And of course the Kremon's are incredible. Musca
day is made from one specific grape variety called melon,
like a melon burgona. Burgonia means Burgundy, but it's the
melon to Burgunia. It is a neutral grape, very high acid.
(32:15):
It's sometimes splendid with small amounts, small permittable amounts of
chardonnay to kind of round it out. Uh. And it
also in certain areas sub appellations of this region is
age to rest. They call it surly. What does that mean?
It rests on its Uh, It's it's stirred in the
(32:39):
in the yeasts are stirred up, and it rests on
the lee's which waits called surlee. And what that does
when a wine ages on lee or surly, it rounds
out and softens the wine. You'll see that a lot
in Burgundy, and you'll see that in Champagne. It surely
means it rests on the yeast, which softens the wine
(33:01):
and gets a toast your quality. Not quite like barrels
where you get the vanilla and whatnot, but it's just
much softer, surely, and it usually it's a couple of months.
Muska day sever Man is wine to the rest and
Muscady Surly are all beautiful wines. You can find them
fairly inexpensively here in the United States. They go great
(33:25):
with seafood right and that tangy goat cheese from the
other those tangy goat cheeses. I like Musca Day. I
think they're probably the most affordable of the Laura Valley wines,
and you can get all sorts of them. So that's
the main wine of this area. You can also find
(33:45):
another grape that I happen to like a lot. It's
also well known in the Langa doc Russalone area called
peak Pool. Peak Pool, I think it's got another name.
See what the name is. It's got another name here.
I don't see it peak Pool. It's got another name,
and it slipped me right now. But it's another fun
(34:08):
crisp wine to try. That's white again. This is white
Wine Central. What else is going to tell you? So
if you want to go to Not, you take the
train to Not. We did that as well. The cities
are beautiful there on some of them are most of
them tributaries of the Loire. A lot of ruins, a
(34:30):
lot of really good food and definitely worth visiting. It's
like I said, it's two hours from Paris, so why
wouldn't you go if you want to go to the country.
I mean, you know, it's pleasant. April was still crisp
in the air, but the gardens were blooming. May perfect,
June perfect. I would think that July probably gets hot,
(34:53):
because it gets hot everywhere in Europe these days, but
I would recommend it peak pool. So the term for
peak pool in the Loire.
Speaker 4 (35:05):
Is fullche f o l l e blanche, b l
a and ch It's you know, every region has a
name for a specific grape, so in.
Speaker 3 (35:18):
The Loire peak pools pau blanche and londonak growthly is peakpool.
Malback is mail back in southwestern France, but it's caught
everywhere else, or malback in Argentina is caught in the lair,
and so you get different ones. You can also find
other red grapes like gamet and pino and noir toward
the central Noir and to the east they're also lovely,
(35:42):
so you get a nice range of reds. I still
think that the Cabiny France are the standouts. So again
the Lois sense of place is to wrap this up,
it is in the north central part of France, two
hours from Paris, an easy train ride main cities or
not to the far.
Speaker 5 (36:01):
West Tours and Orleans to the east, and she known
as another nice little town.
Speaker 3 (36:12):
There's lovely little towns along the way. Some of the
most famous castles are Chinaso, Chateau de Sumur, many of them,
and I wish I could do a castle tour. I
always end up on wine tours. There are many tour
groups to check out. I like Laire Valley wines just
for general information, but there are some wonderful itineraries that
(36:34):
you can find as well, so consider it when you're
planning a trip. I would think it'd be really fun
to go in the spring, but I would also recommend
going in the early fall and probably around harvest. I
think that'd be like incredible. I think that's probably my
favorite time to go to Europe is September October, but
(36:56):
you know, you go when you can.
Speaker 4 (36:57):
Right.
Speaker 3 (37:00):
That's going to wrap up this show on the Lois Valley.
I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you go out
to your local retailer and say, hey, I want to
try some wines from the La Valley. What do you
have check them out on the restaurant menus. They're very,
very food friendly and versatile, which I like. So you've
been listening to Fearless Fabulous you with Melanie Young, I
(37:23):
want you to go, expand your horizons and your palate
and take the trip, drink the sip, eat the food.
Don't say no I can't, oh no, I shouldn't. Just
do it. Life short so you have a choice and
live life anyway you want. Remember it's just a journey
with it. We all are going to the same ending,
(37:45):
So enjoy the journey and choose to live life on
your terms and not on terms set by anybody else.
And always choose fearless and fabulous. Follow me at Melanie Fabulous,
check out my step stack at Melanie Fabulous. Let me
hear from you at Melanie Fabulous page on Facebook or Instagram.
And if you go to the war, I want to
(38:06):
hear about it, share your pictures with me. Thank you,
The topics and opinions expressed on the following show are
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(00:20):
be directed to those show hosts.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Thank you for choosing W four WN Radio.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Hello and welcome to Fearless Fabulous.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
You.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
I am your host, Melanie Young, and it is Happy
Earth Day. Recycle, reuse, reclaim, and repurpose. Birthday is our
day to protect Earth, but we should be doing that
all year round. I'll be airing on my Facebook page
(01:08):
some of my best shows dealing with environment wonderful people
who are reusing and repurposing items to create new things.
So check it out on Fearless Fabulous Melanie Young in
my Facebook page. I'll be airing a few shows. But
today we're going on a trip because I'm in the mood.
(01:28):
It's springtime in it's April, and gosh, what do you
want to do more than anything in April is get
away and have a spring flaing, right, I know I do.
I'm so lucky because I live in New Orleans and
the weather is perfect. But I have a lot of
friends who are a beast and up in the Northwest
and wherever it's still chili. So we're going to take
you away to a place that I've been a few aprils.
(01:51):
I've been to April and Paris a few times, and
why because I was in route to a beautiful wine
region called the Laoire Valley. So what we're going to
do today have a springtime in the Laire Valley, and
I'm going to take you to one of my favorite
wine regions in France. And people always ask, what's your
favorite rhine region to visit in France? Well, I like
them all, but one of the easiest to get to
(02:12):
and one of the most beautiful and diverse is the
Laire Valley. I have been there I think three or
four times on organized trips, once with an importer, and
I've been to most of the regions. Love the wines,
and we're going to talk about that and why you
should visit and what wine is to drink at home.
(02:33):
So first of all, the Laire Valley is known as
the Royal Valley because it has beautiful chateaus and gardens.
That's what it's known for. It's also called the garden Valley.
Many members of the monarchy and the nobility in Paris
and other major cities would have their country retreats there.
So all along the river, the Loire River, you'll see
(02:57):
amazing castles like Chenisu, Chateau de Saumur and many and
you can visit these and I highly recommend it. In fact,
there's a lot of tour groups that do biking trips
because it's an easy biking area. In addition to chateau,
there's also caves like Trogoldyke caves that people lived in
and you can actually rent and stay in those as well.
(03:19):
So you can literally see chateaus, incredible castles, and then
you can see Troglodyke caves. It's kind of very diverse.
Speaking of diverse, it is the third the Wild Valley
is the third largest wine region in France, and I
think it's the most diverse. Why because you get this
incredible range of wines and it's unique because many if
(03:43):
you look at a lot of wine maps. It's really interesting.
A lot of them are on the river because rivers
create these amazing alluvial soils. They're also in the mountains
because mountain soils are really great. But alluvial soils with
river debris and particles are very good for cultivating vines.
In most areas, some are sandier, some are rockier. It
(04:06):
just varies on the region. The Luis Valley is I
think the longest river in France. It's silty, so it's
not gonna you'll see barges, but you're not going to
see heavy ships and stuff. As I said, you can
navigate it with tourist boats like light bar light boats,
(04:28):
or along bicycles. But what's interesting about it is many
wine regions. Most wine regions actually run north to south. Okay,
so the Rhone Valley north to south, Burgundy north to south,
Bordeaux north to south, all sasts north the south. I
just covered the major regions in France. The wah is
(04:51):
east to west. That makes it really unique, and I
think that also contributes to this amazing diversity of wines.
It's just too from Paris. Take the TJVA you're there,
so it's really easy, done in a couple of times.
It's a really pretty, really pretty train trip. When we
(05:11):
were there, we saw the rape seed, the yellow fields
that were the canola. They call it rape seed in Bloom.
It just all farmland. It's just beautiful, and there's a
lot of farmland in the Las Valley. There's some key
cities as well, but really is rolling farmlands, chateaus, just bucolic.
So it's a great trip and visit and I highly
(05:32):
recommend it. I'm gonna talk to you about the wines
and the regions and the differences so that you can
choose where you may want to visit or choose the
kind of wine you want to drink. So interesting fact.
Another one, the Laarre Valley is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
(05:54):
It stretches one hundred and seventy miles across the heart
of France. We're talking about north central France, so it's
in more northerly region, as I said, south of Paris,
north of Provence, and it's home to eighty seven Appalachians,
including AOC which is one designation of very high and
(06:16):
winds in ITGP which allows a little more flexibility. And
the wine's created the landscape is very diverse, and many
of the wine producers are small, family owned, multi generational
family own. They call them vignerons, real dirt under the
fingernail farmers. We've met so many of them. A lot
of them do live in beautiful chateaus, but they're still
(06:38):
dirt under your finger farmers. It's amazing. A couple of
other things. What makes In addition to the River which
has this amazing alluvial soil, it also is part of
the Massif Central, this giant rocky plain that cuts through
central France and goes up to Burgundy, and these amazing
(07:01):
limestone soils. Rocky soils create these wines with amazing acidity.
What is acidity, It's an incredible Christmas. It's that zip
zing Christmas that lipsmacking mouthfeel when you have a wonderful
white wine, for example, or a sparklay wine. And also minerality.
(07:22):
Minerality is that stony, earthy, herbaceousness that you get that
complements the fruit. So you get a lot of that
because of this Massy Central has these amazing limestone soils
and some are chalky and they go right on up
to Burgundy and Champagne which is known for the same
soils and those similar beautiful wines. The soils are super old.
(07:47):
They date back, you know, to the cave days. There
are caves. Interesting, About twenty percent of the producers in
the Lamar are organic and they would probably be twenty
thirty b all one hundred percent organic and green certified.
So this is also an area that Birthday really respects
(08:10):
the land and when you go there, you'll see it.
It is beautiful, it is clean. It makes you want
to breathe makes you want to get on a bike,
it makes you want to get your hike and shoes on,
and we were able to do that when we visited.
We did all sorts of fun things on our organized trip.
We were there with the region of the Wah Valley wines.
(08:32):
You can go to the Wah Valley Wine website and
it's really helpful. And you're planning a trip, so again
we're talking about unique because it's east to west or
west to east, depending which way are going for our
little trip, I'm going to take you. Let's say you
(08:53):
came back down and you went you went down to Paris,
and let's say you land maybe in the coast, No
uncle straight down straight down some major cities. You may
want to visit Orleans, as in the Native Orleans and
Joan of Arc was there. It's one of the major
centers of of the Las Valley. Further to the west
(09:19):
is not near the coast where I've been. There's a
city of Tours and she no a lot of beautiful cities,
with Orleons probably being the capital. So we're going to
start east to west, all right, So let me just
get my notes to east to west, because I haven't
west to east in my notes. You're gonna love it
(09:39):
because the Upper Loire, which is where the massive central
is furthest to the east of most central in France,
is also where you're going to find some of the
greatest sauvignon blancs of the world. Now you may say
I'm not big on Savian blanc. I don't like the grassiness,
blah blah blah. Well you haven't had Upper Las Valley
(10:00):
salvignon blanc. Okay, so what should you know? Have you
ever had something called Sonsere is the salvignon blanc of
the Laire Valley and it is going to be crisp,
not too pineapply not too it's gonna have gooseberry and
(10:23):
grapefruit and a lot of minerality because of that rocky
soils I talked about. It's going to be dry, It's
going to go great with shellfish and seafood. You're gonna
love it. Sansea is probably one of the fastest growing,
most popular wines according to many wine directors at restaurants
that we interview. Uh, if you know, it's completely different
(10:46):
from like a New Zealand Salvion blanc, which is very
unique and I think has a lot of kiwi in it.
Chilean Salveon blocs to me have a little more fruit driven,
citrus fruit driven pineapple for me, as Sonsere is dry,
crisp goose spurry, a hint of lime, and a little
flint in stone characteristics. In fact, there's a special area.
(11:07):
There's like three or four areas in the Upper Laua
known for producing Sauvignon blancs, and each is located a
little closer to or further away from the Luas Valley
and of course has its own appellation and unique micro climate.
Because you could literally go somewhere in a wine country
and walk across the street and it could have a
(11:29):
different microclimate. It's kind of cool. So if you've ever
heard of the word, the name of a wine called
poule fu may not pule fusa, pula fu may so
it is also a sauvignon blanc, a style of sauvignon
blanc from the Upper Loire in the eastern part of
the lawa valley. Fu may means smoky, Okay, smoky, and
(11:54):
it's because these wines have a little flintier gun, you know,
flintier character teristic to him. So if you like that
Hindu smoke, really dry and crisp with the hint of smoke,
you're gonna love poule fume. Those are the two most
famous wines of the area, with another being Menoton Solon
and uh just all three. Minutetou Salon is another famous
(12:19):
wine of the Upper Loire Eastern noir. So this is
an area that's really about first and foremost sauvignon blanc
and really good when some of the best in the world. Okay,
you can also find some wonderful sparkling wines, so this
is important to know about the La Valley. It is
one of the largest producers of method Champagne wis sparkling
(12:42):
wine outside of Champagne where it can be called Champagne
and they are fabulous. It is actually its own aop
protected an area of protected origin and Cramont de Loire.
You can get them for under twenty dollars in a store.
(13:02):
They can be made with different grapes, where Champagne has
to be made with very specific grapes know Noire, Chardonnay, Mounier,
but in the Wire it could be made with other grapes.
So you can find some amazing sparkling wines white rose,
dry to sweet, really fabulous and it is one of
the largest producers of sparkling wine outside of Champagne, so
(13:26):
really great to check out. So you can also get
some of those as well when you're in the Eastern Wire.
So this is an area that is great to visit.
What do you have with sansee you have oysters, shellfish,
salads and something else that this region is really well
known for, which is these amazingly tangy goat cheeses. Yeah,
(13:48):
this is cheese Central. Unfortunately I didn't go on a
cheese trip. I went on a wine trip, so I
ate a lot of cheese, but I can't tell you
a lot about them, but if you can ask at
your local cheese and I do suggest if you live
in an area where you're lucky enough to have a cheesemonger,
but friend them and say I'd like to try some
goat cheeses from the war again. You can reach the
(14:09):
Larre in about two hours. The eastern part where we
still are is known for its sunseyers, and it's also
known for its amazing goat cheeses. It's just I'm getting
hungry just talking about so I don't know about you.
So then we're going to move into the central War area,
where David and I have spent quite a bit of time.
(14:31):
It's the largest area of the war and has probably
some of the most highest concentration of castles. It's also
where I actually flew an airplane. Right. I was on
a trip and we were taking an aerial view of
all the vineyards, and the pilot said, would you like
to fly the plane? And I was like, yeah, I
(14:52):
go almost I've never done that before, and I actually
got to fly the plane. I was a little scared
because I'm not a pilot, but he was there sitting
next to him when we flew over the beautiful landscape
and vineyards and saw incredible castles. And if you have
a chance to take an aerial tour, uh do it.
What is cool is we actually took a VW bus tour.
There's a company. I'll have to get the name of it,
(15:14):
but they do VW bus tours of the Loar and
it was a lot of fun, really a lot of fun.
So the central Loiir is divided into two areas. Closer
to the Eastern Noire is an area called Touring t
o u r Ai n E. And like the Eastern Noir,
(15:37):
it's known for its sauvignon blancs. They're going to be
somewhat a little different. My computer's froze. I'll just have
to work on my notes. As is mainly salvignon blanc.
But you can also find some Shennon, which is a
big another white grape in this region. And you will
also find a wine that is distinctly h from the
(16:02):
Loir and only from the war called vouvray v o
u v r y Vouvray. I have here a book
I highly recommend it. It's called the Wine Bible. It's
by the great writer Karen McNeil, and she's a great
writer and a great speaker. I want to read something
(16:22):
to you because I was reading up on the Loir
in preparation for this show. She says, A vouvray. I've
just got to bear with me while I get my
little post it note unposted. She says, one white appellation
of the Middle War is well known world over. Vouvray
(16:43):
is made from one hundred percent Shennon block, which I'll
speak about shortly. No other place in the world produces
Shennon blocks that are so gossamer, richly favored and honeyed
even when dry. Din't you just love that vouvray is
(17:04):
made of. And Shennon is the main white great variety
of the Central War. So Sauvignon blanc you'll see in
the Central Lare, but you'll see it's dominant in the
Eastern Lore and the Central Lare. It's all about Shennon
blanc and the best Sorry, South Africa, they make it there.
(17:24):
It's big there. But the best Shennon blocks in the world,
I think, are from the Loire Valley, and they crisp,
they're so refreshing on the palette. They have that greate acidity.
They're not flinty like or gooseberry ish like sauvignon blanc.
They have more fruit character fruit characteristics, but dry, and
(17:46):
they make beautiful wines, including vouvray and amazing sparkling Vouvray.
There's a producer called alasand Momsieu and he makes some
of the best sparkling Fouvray ever tasted. We actually had
him as a guest on our show after he visited
his winery with his importer Cassella Perry Fee. Really some
(18:08):
of the best shenon blancs and vouvar. He's a vouvet producer,
so vouv right is sheen and blanc some of the
best sparkling I've ever had. Now, Vouvein can be tricky
because it's it can run from very dry to semi dry,
which is more residual sugar. And I've actually been to
Vouvray dinners where we're served exclusive vue and tasted the
(18:30):
spectrum from very very starting with sparkling to dry to
semi dry. So if you're in a restaurant, or if
you're in a retail store and you're shopping food, very
asked about that and ask if it's a dry or
demi sacker off dry wine, because they're very different and
(18:53):
you may not want off dry, you may want dry,
but they have very high asses. They're going to be incredible,
cresp very refreshing, and this is going to be a
little confusing for you. So the terms are a little
confusing here. Unlike champagne bouvray, here's Karen can be dry,
so it's known as seck not brute because broot champagne
(19:18):
is dry, and second champagne is the sugar medium dry,
demisec medium sweet called mulu and medium dry, which is
the main style. So ask what style of fouvree is
if you're shopping because you want to get one that
you like, or actually go try a bunch of them
(19:40):
with a dinner party. It's a lot of fun and
I like some of the sweeter ones there. They're just
they're really good with Asian food when they have a
little bit more residual sugar. And what's nice about that
is if you've ever had let's say, goervertz remeinor reasling
with little more residual sugar, or in this case bouve
(20:01):
ray with a really spicy Cajun or who Nan Chinese.
It is a perfect pairing. Spice loves a little bit
of residual sugar. It's really great, So try that. So
we've now talked about Vouvray in Turin, which is going
to be so blanc. Now you're probably wondering, Oh, let
(20:26):
me just finish, so Shannon. So the next region over
is a and some more two other huge regions Central Law,
Centralir with a large range of wines. I'm going to
finish up with the white, moved to rose and then
red because you're probably wondering, what about the red wines? Well,
(20:47):
we'regainn there because there's some amazing ones in the Central
War Okay, so uh, some wine regions to know, other
wine regions to know in this Central War Aous okay
Anjou is one of two areas in the Central amazing
range of grapes as well, very well known for its rosees.
(21:10):
Rose Donjous is very very famous. And again these rosees
can go from very dry to very too sweet, so
there's a beautiful range. I would highly recommend giving them
a dry. Just over half the wine produced in the
(21:30):
Andres similar area is rose, so beautiful rosees. Give them
a try, and the grape that is used is predominantly
Cabernet sauvignon. So now we're moving into some red wine territory.
The red wine. The main red grapes that you will
find in this area Cabernet savignon, Cabernet franc malbec, which
(21:56):
is known as cute and grill you in smaller amounts.
These are all in the middle of the war and
they're terrific. So rosees. I would recommend a rose don joux,
but there are other roses as well. I've tasted so
many rosees in this area and they're really terrific. Again,
this is an area known for the sparkling wines the
(22:18):
commands so as the own aop in the Central Noire.
Try them. They're fabulous. The other notable wines of this
area that you should know the reds. Okay, there's an
area called some More sau m you are Champagne. It
(22:40):
makes some of the best Cabernet francs I've had, which
are also used in the sparkling wines. Most of the
wines in this area are single variety, which means there's
not blends. There is it like two percent of three percent,
but most are single variety. That's very important to note.
The main red gray PPEs that you should know. As
(23:02):
I said, you've got Cabernet franc, Caberny Sauvignon, will you,
and Caught which is melt back, and another area so
somewhere Champagne is a special appellation known for its Caberny
franc terrific. I've had dinners. We had dinner with many
(23:24):
of the producers twice and they're all family owned and terrific,
and you can get a lot of them in the
United States. But you got to look and look for
s A U m U R some more. That's what
you're going to see more than Champagne some more. Another
appellation area that you should know that does wonderful cabinate
franc is she noan Okay, there's this is important. There's
(23:45):
Shannon c h E n I N, which is a
white grape varietal and dominant in the Central war for
its amazing high acid, incredibly refreshing white wines. And then
there's sin On c h I N O N. And
these are Cabinet fronc wine dominant wines and they're terrific
(24:06):
and they're going to be in the Turin area of
the Central Wir. So those are just some terms to
know and wines to look for. I think I get
excited when I see a cabinet franc from the wir.
I get excited when I see a cabinet franc from Virginia,
also another great region. Another if you're into sweet wines,
(24:31):
the Law Valley has one of the few gone clue
designation sweet wines. It's called oh help me with this person,
quote des Champ quote courte spelled by courte like a
quarter of milk. It's spelled court du champ c h
a U n E. These are prized sweet wines and
(24:53):
they're only made in this area. And if you can
in a grind clue mainz, they're the highest quality, if
you could. I literally went to a welcome event when
we were in the Loire Valley and they had a
table of these, and I was like, I've been running
to over there and they're really good. You may think that,
you know, I don't call sweet wines dessert wines. Why
(25:15):
because I think many sweet wines go with other savory
items like foie gras, like blue cheese, like really spicy, spicy,
spicy dishes. They're not just to pair with dessert. In fact,
I actually don't like personally sweet wines with dessert. It's
(25:37):
just too much sweet on sweet. I like sweet and savory.
So I love just having a glass of dessert wine
as my dessert, or maybe with a little bit of chocolate,
but more likely some wonderful blue cheese. I like that.
Tang so Calte de cham is unique to the Loire
and another great wine to try. Now I learned, and
(26:04):
I did not have a tarta ten, and I don't
recall having a tart tarta tan in the lar when
I went, but I had so many great meals I
can't remember. There were so many. But Karen McNeil also knows.
I love this book, The Wine Bible, because it's about wine,
but it's also about the region and the stories, and
she writes one of the most famous rustic desserts of France,
(26:30):
tart to ten, originated in the Teuran region, which we
talked about for Sauvignon blancs and also she know the
Teuran region. So what is tarta tan. It's an upside
down caramelized apple tart, especially of France, created in the
nineteenth century by two sisters or a hotel, and Karen
(26:53):
says that Tarta tan is the perfect compliment to the
gorgeously sweet, lightly honey dessert wine. She calls it the
dessert wine cut deschamp. Okay, so she recommends it with
Tarta tan and she calls it a dessert wine. I
still say it can go with some savory items as well,
But Carte de Champ is a specialty of this area,
(27:15):
as is Chart to ten perfect pairing. What else can
I tell you about the Central oh another area and
very special because it's its own designated appellation and super
super special. It's called seven Year s A v E
(27:37):
n n I E r e s. It is a
sub appellation. I know, it's its own appalation, excuse me.
Within the larger area, and it's known for some of
the best world class shennon blancs ever, with one being
the Coola des Serrant. Very famous and if you can
(27:59):
find and afford it, it's about one hundred dollars a bottle.
Get it because it's very special seven Year. Like I said,
there's regular shenons, there's the food rays made from shennons,
and then there's seven years. One writer called this wine,
which is from the middle of r It's a very
(28:20):
dry white wine, cerebral. I've never known a wine to
be cerebral, but apparently if you it's what they call
in Italy a meditative wine. What does that mean. It's
a wine you just want to sit in savor. You
don't want to drink it too fast, you want to
think about it. The wines are this way because there's
(28:43):
a lot of volcanic shists in this areas. I said earlier,
there's the massive central A lot of it was formed
through volcanic erosion over the millennium, so you're going to
get all the shist and limestone rocks, and that creates
this amazing acidity and minerality in the wines. I only
(29:05):
can't say enough positive a few things about these wines.
I really love it and I can't wait to go back.
There's so much to learn, you know. People always say,
do you ever get tired of going to one region
or another? No, because there's always so much to learn.
There's always a new producer to meet, there's always a
new vintage to try, there's always au dishes to taste,
and this is the third largest wine region of France.
(29:30):
It's never it's never enough. I can't wait to go back.
I hope i'm invited. I would go on vacation though,
I mean it's not just the word trat. I always
go on vacation. So the central law is war is
the middle of war. They call it. It's Chateause Central.
You'll so many famous chateaus. If you can get on
a wine tour, do it. I think that's probably the
(29:52):
easiest way because you don't want to be driving around.
Like I said, there's book tours. I mean there's bike
tours as well. I'm not big on bike tours because
if you're drinking, if you really want to stay on
a bike, I like just good old fashioned tours, van tours,
and I know there's a great one out there that
does VW buses. I just can't remember the name of it,
but we did. It was so much fun, all right.
(30:15):
I'd linger in the Central Wire a little bit more.
But we're going to go to the far wild wild West,
and it really is the wild wild West. The main
area this is the wild West is in It's the
Atlantic Ocean. Part of the war. Remember east to west
so the end of the Larre Valley is the Atlantic Ocean.
(30:39):
It's rough, it's cold, you get a lot of ocean breezes.
It's oyster country. You're going to get I actually we
actually got to go out with an oyster farmer. Waded
out and got to get fresh oysters and have them
with the wine of this area, the specialty which is
called Muska Day. Muska Day is the name of the wine.
(31:02):
It is made only in the Western Loire, in the
pay Not area, so the region is called pay Pays
Country Not as the main city in this region, which
is a fairly large ish region. It's not as large
as the Central Loire, which is really large. As I said,
(31:24):
it's really the two areas. But ant is a beautiful
region just south of Brittany, with its own unique food.
I had some amazing clips and it's a beautiful area
and a beautiful castle again, more castles and fortresses because
it was on the oceans. You're gonna get fortresses. Muska
Day is a very dry, crisp white wine. Again, this area,
(31:51):
the Law Valley, is well known for its white wines.
It's very white dominant, but it has some amazing reds
as well. And of course the Kremon's are incredible. Musca
day is made from one specific grape variety called melon,
like a melon burgona. Burgonia means Burgundy, but it's the
melon to Burgunia. It is a neutral grape, very high acid.
(32:15):
It's sometimes splendid with small amounts, small permittable amounts of
chardonnay to kind of round it out. Uh. And it
also in certain areas sub appellations of this region is
age to rest. They call it surly. What does that mean?
It rests on its Uh, It's it's stirred in the
(32:39):
in the yeasts are stirred up, and it rests on
the lee's which waits called surlee. And what that does
when a wine ages on lee or surly, it rounds
out and softens the wine. You'll see that a lot
in Burgundy, and you'll see that in Champagne. It surely
means it rests on the yeast, which softens the wine
(33:01):
and gets a toast your quality. Not quite like barrels
where you get the vanilla and whatnot, but it's just
much softer, surely, and it usually it's a couple of months.
Muska day sever Man is wine to the rest and
Muscady Surly are all beautiful wines. You can find them
fairly inexpensively here in the United States. They go great
(33:25):
with seafood right and that tangy goat cheese from the
other those tangy goat cheeses. I like Musca Day. I
think they're probably the most affordable of the Laura Valley wines,
and you can get all sorts of them. So that's
the main wine of this area. You can also find
(33:45):
another grape that I happen to like a lot. It's
also well known in the Langa doc Russalone area called
peak Pool. Peak Pool, I think it's got another name.
See what the name is. It's got another name here.
I don't see it peak Pool. It's got another name,
and it slipped me right now. But it's another fun
(34:08):
crisp wine to try. That's white again. This is white
Wine Central. What else is going to tell you? So
if you want to go to Not, you take the
train to Not. We did that as well. The cities
are beautiful there on some of them are most of
them tributaries of the Loire. A lot of ruins, a
(34:30):
lot of really good food and definitely worth visiting. It's
like I said, it's two hours from Paris, so why
wouldn't you go if you want to go to the country.
I mean, you know, it's pleasant. April was still crisp
in the air, but the gardens were blooming. May perfect,
June perfect. I would think that July probably gets hot,
(34:53):
because it gets hot everywhere in Europe these days, but
I would recommend it peak pool. So the term for
peak pool in the Loire.
Speaker 4 (35:05):
Is fullche f o l l e blanche, b l
a and ch It's you know, every region has a
name for a specific grape, so in.
Speaker 3 (35:18):
The Loire peak pools pau blanche and londonak growthly is peakpool.
Malback is mail back in southwestern France, but it's caught
everywhere else, or malback in Argentina is caught in the lair,
and so you get different ones. You can also find
other red grapes like gamet and pino and noir toward
the central Noir and to the east they're also lovely,
(35:42):
so you get a nice range of reds. I still
think that the Cabiny France are the standouts. So again
the Lois sense of place is to wrap this up,
it is in the north central part of France, two
hours from Paris, an easy train ride main cities or
not to the far.
Speaker 5 (36:01):
West Tours and Orleans to the east, and she known
as another nice little town.
Speaker 3 (36:12):
There's lovely little towns along the way. Some of the
most famous castles are Chinaso, Chateau de Sumur, many of them,
and I wish I could do a castle tour. I
always end up on wine tours. There are many tour
groups to check out. I like Laire Valley wines just
for general information, but there are some wonderful itineraries that
(36:34):
you can find as well, so consider it when you're
planning a trip. I would think it'd be really fun
to go in the spring, but I would also recommend
going in the early fall and probably around harvest. I
think that'd be like incredible. I think that's probably my
favorite time to go to Europe is September October, but
(36:56):
you know, you go when you can.
Speaker 4 (36:57):
Right.
Speaker 3 (37:00):
That's going to wrap up this show on the Lois Valley.
I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you go out
to your local retailer and say, hey, I want to
try some wines from the La Valley. What do you
have check them out on the restaurant menus. They're very,
very food friendly and versatile, which I like. So you've
been listening to Fearless Fabulous you with Melanie Young, I
(37:23):
want you to go, expand your horizons and your palate
and take the trip, drink the sip, eat the food.
Don't say no I can't, oh no, I shouldn't. Just
do it. Life short so you have a choice and
live life anyway you want. Remember it's just a journey
with it. We all are going to the same ending,
(37:45):
So enjoy the journey and choose to live life on
your terms and not on terms set by anybody else.
And always choose fearless and fabulous. Follow me at Melanie Fabulous,
check out my step stack at Melanie Fabulous. Let me
hear from you at Melanie Fabulous page on Facebook or Instagram.
And if you go to the war, I want to
(38:06):
hear about it, share your pictures with me. Thank you,
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