Distillerie Combier — Local services in Saumur

We booked an English tour, but upon arrival at the distillery we were informed that the tour would need to be exclusively in French, as both French and English speaking guests had booked this time slot. It wasn’t clear why both languages couldn’t be spoken during the tour, or why preference was given towards native French speakers when we had booked an English tour. Fortunately the French guests were bi-lingual and told our guide that an English tour was fine for them. As it all worked out, still giving this tour five stars; but I would have been disappointed had the tour been in a language we didn’t understand.

The tour itself was fascinating — we learned a brief history of Combier, the liquors and syrups produced, and the process of distilling triple sec. The original stills from the late 1800s are still in use! Our guide, Elise, was friendly, informative and interesting. She spoke fluent English & French. The tasting was also fun — it included their 4 most famous liquors (which are excellent), and she also offered us a taste of 2 others we were interested in trying. The tastes were small (maybe 1.5-2 ounces across all 6 tastes in total), which allowed us to enjoy them all responsibly.

Overall, I’d highly recommend! The only thing that could have made this better was avoiding the initial confusion of our ‘English tour’ needing to be performed in French. While it all worked out (and Elise was kind enough to not charge us the 6€ fee as a result), I hope that Combier finds a way to ensure that all future guests get the tour in the language they...

Excellent products from the absinthes through the triple secs and fruity liqueurs. We went on the tour, which was very informative. As others have said, the tour is in french. If you don't speak French well enough to understand the tour (as we don't) you are given a book that explains what is being said, but, despite what you are told, this is not the same as what the guide says. While our French is not good enough to discern the details, it was clear that much more was added verbally. To be fair to our guide, I think she recognised this and started repeating the descriptions in (very good!) English after the French about half way through. While the tastings were small, this was appreciated by the driver in our group and our guide made it clear that we could have more afterwards, and while I would have personally preferred more, in hindsight, their approach is probably right. A minor complaint is that the opening hours vary significantly from advertised. It took us three attempts to actually get in as the "open all day 10h to 19h" turned into a note on the door saying "back at 13:30". Upon returning at 13:45, it had been changed to "back at 14:30". Also, they only give tours at certain times, so check the website (and maybe call beforehand) before visiting. Some annoyances around timings aside, definitely...

Very disappointed. As someone who works in the tourist industry, I am always on a look out for new things to recommend to our guests, so we decided to try the original triple sec distillery in France.

The website said that tours were in both English and French. Upon arrival we were informed that they are not.

Most of our group didn't speak French. We were handed a little pamphlet and told that the girl giving the tour says exactly the same thing. Which was not the case at all. I spent the entire tour translating what I could while following along.

The distillery visit lasted perhaps 15 minutes. The guide was very soft spoken and didn't bother to talk towards me, only including the native French speakers.

The tasting was just as quick. The tasting glasses were the size of a medicine/pill cup. We were given barely enough to cover the bottom of our glass with no way to rinse our glasses or cleanse our palettes between each tasting.

As a family who have visited many distilleries around the world, it was by far the worst tour we have ever experienced.

Not...