Wine and Cheese Of Touraine
The food markets and vineyards of this fertile, affluent area of the Loire are famous. Chinon, Vouvray and Bourgueil have exceptional wines ; the early ripening of fruits and vegetables, including asparagus, makes it clear that this is a different climate to northern France. Vouvray is the appellation for one of the most delicious white wines of the Loire. A good vintage lives to be a hundred years old, can be sec , demi-sec or petillant (lightly sparkling) and is best from the grape of a single vineyard. The other two famous Touraine appellations are Chinon , with mostly red wines and also a few very dry whites, and Bourgueil , renowned for its long-maturing red wine, but also producing a few dry roses. Other appellations are St-Nicholas de Bourgueil , which - like its neighbour Bourgueil - is based exclusively on the Cabernet franc grape; Montlouis , with wines similar to Vouvray, which faces it across the Loire; and, with fewer pretensions but still some excellent wines, Touraine Amboise, Touraine and Touraine Azay-le-Rideau . To go with the wine, Touraine produces chevre ( goat's cheese ): the best of those cylindrical and speckled miniature building blocks that you see on market cheese stalls bear the name of Ste-Maure-de-Touraine, a small town 30km south of Tours. The appellation d'origine controlee for Ste-Maure-de-Touraine chevre covers a very wide area, stretching to the north bank of the Loire. The tourist offices of Tours, Amboise, Chinon, Bourgueil and Vouvray can provide addresses of farms. If you want to visit Ste-Maure itself and you haven't got wheels, the Richelieu bus from Tours passes through. Ste-Maure's tourist office (daily: March-Sept 10am-noon & 2.30-5.30pm; rest of year Mon-Fri 10am-noon & 2.30-4pm) on rue du Chateau can provide addresses for degustations , and the Friday market is well stocked. Cheese is celebrated on the first weekend in June with a Foire aux Fromages .
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