MUST-KNOW TIPS FOR VISITING A WINERY IN FRANCE

Let's talk about visiting a winery in France and what to expect. I'm sharing my top tips for doing winery tours in France in the Loire Valley, Bordeaux, or anywhere. There's some information you may want to familiarize yourself with regarding winery hours, best practices, and more to know before you go.

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Salut! I'm Diane, an American who has lived in France since 2012 and the creator of the blog/YouTube channel Oui In France. My channel's focus is "Everyday French life and beyond." I make videos on French culture topics, France vs. US culture comparisons, food, travel, language, and give you my thoughts about what it's like living in France as an American in the Loire Valley. Thanks for being here and if you enjoy this sort of thing, please share with friends and subscribe!

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[jml]

We visited a cider farm in Normandy, not wine, but just as interesting and tasty.

[vividesiles]

Really interesting, i'm French but never tried wine, I don't really drink, but seems fun to do a tour

[annaburch]

We went to a winery in a cave near Les Beaux and it was super fun!! I spoke enough to translate for my grape-growing husband and we all laughed at our funny hand signals between broken French and English. In the end, its all for the love of wine and having that in common makes fast friends.

[bils]

In Beaune we visited Patriarche for a large experience (bought a case) and visited a small father/daughter owned winery in Pommard, Moissenet Bonnard. When we arrived she was filling an order for a local, literally bottling on demand. We then had a personal tasting in her cellar. We bought a case and had it shipped. Would love a primer on intl shipping, and combining across multiple wineries to save costs.
Driving around Bourgogne was amazing.

[amfrance]

I organised a wine tour in Burgundy in 2019 when I was Treasurer of the Wine and Spirits Club at HEC Paris. I highly recommend calling ahead and making advance booking, as well has having a designated driver. In our case I rented a full-sized bus.😅 French fluency also helps, but isn't always needed, as a lot of wineries export, and so are set up for the international crowd, i.e. they speak English.

[JeremyFurzer]

Great tips especially the one about visiting small wineries. Editorial fun fact at 8:05 in the video you are actually showing a picture of Quail’s Gate Winery in the Okanagan Valley, British Columbia.

[anthonyl.]

I grew up in Bordeaux... I do not know anything about wine....but everytime i come back to Bordeaux, i must do a visit to St Émilion village...it's a so nice place...quite crowdy in summer, but a must if you are visiting south West of France

[lirazbehira]

Domaine Rabiega in Southern France last year. Such a little jam. We had a private tour with one of the owners who happened to be a chef, Yohan Adell. Got personally signed cookery book and few bottles of wine. The roses are splendid for french summer and not only. Highly recommend the restaurant. And the place. And the overall experience. Thanks for the wine luggage tip!

[roberttradd]

Always love your videos thank you for sharing your experiences 🙏

[Rachel-rsjn]

I definitely need that Coravin in my life!! I have a liver condition that makes it a bad idea to drink more than a small glass at a time, more than 1-2 times a week, and even if he wanted to my fiancé couldn't finish the rest of the bottle if I had to open a new one each time. I've only been buying the small bottles because of this. 😭We weren't planning on having a registry for our wedding but maybe we will just to put the Coravin on it. 😛

[skorpikion]

Have you ever visited Alsace's wineries? It is almost only small businesses, and there is a quite large diversity of wines.

[numanuma]

My family and I visited champagne back in march and it was amazing. We had to book the tours early. We got to do three tasting with two tours. I use a Coravin all the time for tastings for learning. Would love to the Loire valley and more wine regions in Italy. I found your channel searching for videos on Vouvray.

[tom-cooks]

Coravin is such a game changer! Revolutionary stuff!
Great video and love the Loire valley and its very diverse wines :)

[peppertree]

Wine, mmmm. Thanks for the Coravin tip! Never heard of it. I have a client that often gives me bottles of wine (wonderful lady) even after several talks of how I can't drink them, even over a few days, & most goes to waste. I should invest in Coravin! (Though other people enjoy receiving the re-gifted bottles)!

[christianc]

Diane, ne jetez pas une bouteille abandonnée, faites en du vinaigre. Ne dites pas que le Crémant et le Champagne sont identiques (surtout à moi qui suis champenois), il y a une différence : le TERROIR. Certes un bon crémant vaut largement un mauvais champagne, les cépages sont les mêmes, la méthode est la même, mais la terre de Champagne n'est pas la terre des autres régions. Or ce qui fait les caractéristiques d'un vin c'est son terroir.
Sinon vos conseils sont excellents pour découvrir nos vignobles quand on y connait rien au départ. Certains français devraient s'en inspirer.
Un conseil perso pour vos compatriotes : ne mettez pas de glaçons dans le vin, ce n'est pas un vulgaire soda. Mettez le blanc et le rosé au frais dans le réfrigérateur, le rouge dans une pièce pas trop chaude. Des glaçons dans le vin, mais c'est criminel !
Et n'oubliez pas, avec modération.

[Wolf-ifbt]

Hi Diane. May I ask a question which I hope won't be too personal ? I'm french and I was wondering where in the US your accent comes from. I'm working on improving my oral comprehension and among all english speaking contents I'm listening to every day, you're the person I can understand the most, with no subtitles and with no efforts. Love your contents.

[burgundy]

Thank you so much for the added recommendation. I will visit France for the first time to visit the relatives of my bf. I have no idea about wineries in France. I just know I want to go to one. I want to have wine and cheese tasting =))))

[kibaanazuka]

I haven’t visited wineries in France but visited a couple small wineries in the Tuscan Coast and Emilia-Romagna and they were wonderful with great wine tastings.

Depending on the winery they may be able to ship wine back home for you. I'd only recommend this if you'll be sending home multiple bottlea, 5-6 bottles I'd say minimum to make it worth the cost of shipping.

[margaretspalding]

This was excellent, thank you. My sister in law and I are staying in Tours July12-15 and will definitely check out Le tasting room. Any other great things to see and do in Tours? We do not have a car but would like to visit local wineries. My go to wine at home is Cremant and I tell everyone. This is why we are visiting Loire Valley

[anthonyl.]

Another comment and a small story.
Once I was in St emilion and I sat in a restaurant, for a beer ( yes beer not wine !)on a very hot day, and overheard an English speaking guy complaining about his meal. He was complaining that the chicken leg he got can't be a chicken leg.
I understood that he had chosen, in the English menu: chicken in wine.... in the French menu it was written: Coq au vin (rooster in wine).😄😄😄😄😄