Remembering a trip to France as spring brings to mind wines of the Loire Valley
Mary Earl
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One April in Paris, I rented a car with castles, gardens and, of course, wine on my itinerary. I headed south to roam the Loire Valley, touring castles, sipping white wines and wandering around gorgeous gardens.
There are a dozen or so chateaux built during the Renaissance and Classical periods. They were the summer residences of princes and kings and their wives and many mistresses. And they’re exceptionally majestic – the chateaux that is. There are also a few from earlier centuries in a more modest style. One historic abbey, Fontevrault, built in 1099, is majestic in a very different way.
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The best white wines to buy for Christmas 2020
From bargain bottles to something special for the big day, these are the bottles to buy for your Christmas festivities Tis the season.
A couple of months ago I was talking to a wine merchant about its Christmas wine hampers. “You might want to rename the party one…” I suggested.
One of the many tricky things about this year has been the inability to plan, but it’s clear parties are off the agenda.
And on the agenda? Treating ourselves to a few good bottles, perhaps. Because even if we don’t yet know where we’ll be for Christmas or who we’ll be spending it with, we do know that no one is going to be trying to quench the thirst of the 5,000 from the rapidly depleting contents of their kitchen fridge.
The best white wines to buy for Christmas 2020 telegraph.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from telegraph.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.