25 SEP 2017: Many who travel to the Loire Valley in France go to visit the fabulous royal Chateaux such as Chenonceau, Chambord, Chinon and Villandry with its stunning Renaissance garden. Others seek out the delicious wines that spring from vineyards following the length of the 800 kilometre Loire River. To encourage those visitors over 350 wine cellars have signed up to promote wine tourism. These cellars have come up with ingenious schemes to expand the wine experience beyond the tasting room.

The Loire is France’s third biggest producer of AOC (appellation d’origine contrôlée) wines with 50 different Loire Valley appellations and denominations. This vast area which stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to the depths of Berry-Nivernais in central France, is home to 3,000 growers, wine cooperatives and merchants. White wines dominate, but it’s also France’s largest producer of AOC sparkling wines outside of Champagne and makes killer pinot noir and cabernet franc reds.

On my recent trip to this wine region I found all kinds of activities to appeal to all ages and interests from escape games and hikes through vineyards to interactive art shows. The first weekend of September offers “Vignes, Vins, Randos” which are hikes through the vineyards and into the cellars of winemakers. In 2017, the 14th edition of this event, 15 different walks were available in different areas of the Loire. About 10,000 people took part.

I went on the Saumur-Brut Fines Bulles walk, a four hour, nine kilometre jaunt that took participants through the village of Saumur and the surrounding vineyards into the deep, cool cellars of La Cave de Grenelle, Caves Gratien-Meyer and others. It started with music and a sparkling wine tasting above the village. Along the way we could refresh with more bubbly. What a great way to drink and walk it off at the same time.

There were also accessibility trails and shorter trails for those with kids so I saw whole families including babies in strollers and elderly with canes joining in the fun (though the underage got grape juice not wine). My Saumur-Brut walk had an English led one that departed at 1:30pm while the French groups departed every 20 minutes. This kept the number of people arriving at each winery at the same time to a reasonable size. www.vvr-valdeloire.fr

In the Anjou area just south of Angers I went by horse-drawn carriage through the vineyards with a stop for a wine tasting organized by Domaine Le Petit Clocher. At the historic Chateau de la Ragotière the Couillaud family treated my group to a very tasty family style lunch and tasting of their outstanding Muscadet wines. At Domaine Saint-Pierre I dined on fresh local fish at La Table du Square restaurant overlooking the vines. Chef Julien Tharreau’s cooking was magnifique and the tasting of wines of Les Caves de la Loire, most informative.

Perhaps the most unusual winey activity was in Chinon at the winery of Pierre and Bertrand Couly. Bertrand’s son Vincent created an Escape Game “Oenologique”. In this game four of us were locked in a room with an hour to escape by unlocking a series of locks. The clues to find the keys and lock combinations were based on wine but included math and word challenges, playing cards, maps, weights, use of blue lights, secret doors and much more. We failed miserably – though we were somewhat heartened to learn that only 15% of participants so far had escaped within the hour.

At other wineries, art was in the forefront. Ackerman built in 1811 is one of the oldest cellars in Saumur. My visit here started in the boutique designed in a modern elegant manner to reflect the elements of a wine barrel. Then I went on a three-part trip in which the winery’s troglodyte cellars played a major role. As I entered the deep limestone tunnels, my first stop was for a short video of the history of the foundation of the house by Baptiste Ackerman.

When I proceeded further into the tunnels, spectacular art installations unveiled themselves. A video work of Bertrand Gadenne, a huge inventive creation out of plastic wine cartons by Vincent Mauger, a magical light display of Julien Salaud and much more. After the art came ancient table games similar to shuffle board and pinball which I tried my hand at with much better success than the Escape Game.

The third stopover featured a view over the Loire River and informative plaques on the grape varieties and soil. This all ended of course in the tasting room for a sip or two of their great bubblies. www.visite.ackerman.fr

Monmousseau, another great Loire sparkling wine producer, is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage site. Just a few minutes’ drive from Chenonceaux village, it is home to one of the largest limestone caves in Touraine.

The visit started from a balcony overlooking the Cher River (the left tributary to the Loire) with a view of the famous “Valley of the Kings”. From there I entered the historic limestone tunnels which featured at this point in time the art of Cedric Guillermo. This included drawings and sculptures created on the walls to give a retrospective of the work of the quarrymen and stone cutters who dug out the tunnels.

Throughout the tour were light tapestries by Reno and Na/Da who were inspired by the techniques used to create stained glass. The whole tour was magical. www.monmousseau.com

The Loire is famous for its troglodyte dwellings and you can not only visit them, but you can stay in some. More about that and other parts of the Loire in my next column.