Wine
(map courtesy of The Wine Society & McHale Ward Associates)
The Loire Valley is one of the best wine growing areas in France, stretching from Sancerre in the east, through Vouvray, Chinon, Bourgeuil, and Saumur around Tours, to Anjou and the city of Angers and beyond. Here you can find fine whites (Sancerre, Pouilly Fumé, Vouvray), deep reds (Saumur Champigny, Chinon, Bourgeuil), and pretty much everything in between. You can find wines to suit every occasion and every wallet. You might like to read more about it on a site dedicated to the wine growing regions of the Loire valley. There is also more information with a different focus here.
Much closer to La Grange are the caves of Père Auguste in Civray-de-Touraine where you can taste the wines on offer and buy his wines direct from the chais (place where wine is made). There are pictures on the walls of the original Père Auguste. The last time we were there his son was still active in the business and delighted to talk about his father.
A little further away, close to Amboise, are the caves of Xavier Frissant. I can’t recall now how we came across his wines, probably at a wine fair, but we now visit him quite regularly. He also has contacts with the south of France and once a year he arranges for apricots to be brought up from the south and sold at his premises - they are excellent and we use them for our apricot jam.
We find that the "coopératives" are a good place to learn about, taste, and buy, the wine of the area. These are organisations which are owned by the smaller growers in the region and to which they send their grapes to be pressed and vinified. We have found those in Vouvray and Saumur Champigny to be especially worth a visit, and many of our guests have been very pleased with the wines from the Gourmandière at Francueil which is very close. Then, armed with an overview and some names and addresses, you can can visit the individual independent wine growers / makers.
It is also possible to buy wine in "vrac", essentially in bulk. Sometimes the vintner is able to sell you a plastic container to put it in, but really the idea is for you to bring your own container and then bottle it yourself - or not, of course, it all depends on how fast you drink it!
The local white wine is usually made from sauvignon blanc. The local red can be more varied: gamay is traditional, as is côt, but generally the local reds are blends of grape sorts.
It is also quite possible to buy very drinkable wines from the supermarkets. Don't expect to find the big names and big price tags (although the bigger supermarkets sometimes offer those as well) but if you are prepared to experiment it is quite easy to buy good and interesting wines - usually with a local bias - at very reasonable prices.
If you would like a wider choice than "just" the Loire, then there are some good caves which offer wines from throughout France. The one we tend to go to is Les Belles Caves.