Loire Valley Uncorked - Wine Tastings & Wine Tours — Local services in Saumur

We had previously been to wine tastings with Gerald and had always found them to be enjoyable and informative. We were delighted to hear that he was now proud owner of Domaine Beaumont with his wife Sarah-Jane, so we had no hesitation making a detour to see it for ourselves. We stayed in the one of the newly refurbished rooms which are all very well appointed and, appropriately named after grape varieties. We were given a guided tour of the vines, set beautifully in the quaint village of Distré just outside Saumur. The wine tasting takes place in the renovated troglodyte caves, which adds to the experience. Gerald is passionate about wine, winemaking and the Loire Valley in general, all of which makes for knowledge that he is eager to share. The tasting starts with the reds, then on to white and ends with sparkling. We tasted 8 different wines in total and Gerald explained how each was made and what made them all different. We enjoyed all the wines, but managed to agree on our favourites to bring home. The prices are very reasonable for the quality but there is never any pressure to buy. It is great finally to see Gerald as winemaker in his own domaine and to be producing his best wines yet in bottles...

Having stayed with Sarah-Jane & Gerald a few years back and sampling some of Geralds wine, we couldn’t pass within 20 mins of their new abode without saying hello and sampling more wine, and we were in for a treat. As you enter Domain Beaumont’s gates, you enter the most beautiful grounds surrounded by vines as far as the eye can see. We took a quick peek into the various accommodation that has been lovingly restored before taking a tour of their vineyard, wine cellar and troglodyte caves which house many barrels of wine. And of course, the best bit, the wine tasting. Gerald talks passionately and knowledgeably about each wine sampled, and there were a lot. We went from beautiful reds, to delicious whites to finishing with some fizz. We learnt how each wine was made, the different qualities and structures and finally the nose and taste. We had purposely left some room in the boot of the car to buy a few bottles and it ended up being a few boxes. There is no heavy sales pitch, but having sampled such lovely wine, we were keen to take away a few favourites to savour when we weren’t driving. This experience is a true gem and one we can whole heartedly recommend. We can’t wait for the...

This is our third wine tasting at Domaine Beaumont and it was a joy to taste their extensive range of new wines in the company of the winemaker himself, Gérald Beaumont. The ambience of the caves and Gérald’s knowledge and charisma made it educational and at the same time really good fun. All of the reds, whites and sparkle had bags of character and we loved them all. The fun of wine tasting with Gérald in the atmospheric caves took the experience to another level. So much so that is was difficult to choose what wines not to buy. There was no pressure whatsoever to purchase, but we had trouble deciding how many bottles of each to buy. We are glad we didn’t hold back and now have several cases of Gérald’s fabulous wines to enjoy at home.

Thank you so much to Gérald and Sarah-Jane for sharing their wine making passion with us and reinvigorating our love of Loire Valley wine at its very best.

We wholeheartedly recommend a visit to this beautiful Domaine.

Sue...