Reserved about 1 week in advance. A warm welcome and helpful, informative guidance on the wines tasted. Although officially only three wines were open, once it became clear we knew Huet's wines and were going to purchase more, further tasting samples were generously offered.

Knowing this to be a well-respected producer, whose owner passed away this summer, we had high expectations and brought sympathy to the visit. Alas, the wines were mainly quite disappointing, almost all of them smelling alarmingly “natural”—i.e. faulty, with esters and/or yeast aromas, sometimes bordering on fecal “barnyard”, and the sense that a secondary fermentation in bottle could happen sooner or later. No disrespect intended, but these are honest TNs based on what we were presented with in the glass…

Having received a tip at Domaine Huet that M. Jarry, a well-respected local winemaker, retired some time ago, has stocks of old vintages available to sell, of course we went straight over. And indeed, his list starts with 1959 and includes most of the stellar Loire vintages since (1964… 1989…) at very reasonable prices. Despite us arriving without an appointment, M. Jarry received us gracefully, retiring at one point to deal with a professional call, during which his charming wife helped us purchase wines from 1959, 1964 and 1989. A concluding walk through the (now inactive) troglodyte cellar, hewn about 100 metres into the hill, lined with 12-litre monster bottles and stacks of more standard formats, made the visit even more memorable.

This is listed on Moulin Touchais' website as the place to buy their wines locally, and indeed they had a great selection going back to 1959. The samples of 1989 and 1995 we tasted were in deplorable condition, so stale the bottles had probably been standing around for longer than "just over a week", and are recorded here solely to help direct potential customers to this retail source, and warn that tasting there may be an adventure...

I admit travelling to Ch. Soucherie with a positive bias and high expectations, having experienced very fine bottles of Soucherie Coteaux de Layon 1959 in 2005 and again in 2010. There has been considerable investment here in recent years, converting to organic viticulture (now certified) and fitting out modern cellars with stainless steel, big Austrian oak fuder, 500l French oak barrels and culty Italian amorphae. The wines we tried justified all this work, and seemed fairly priced. The friendly, professional reception and thorough explanations at the tasting room, in excellent English, reinforced my impression that this is an estate with ambition, one to watch.

Just passing through to stock up at Diebolt-Valois in Cramant and Paul Bara in Bouzy (where we decided not to taste this time).

A rollercoaster ride (mainly) though the Michelin-listed (not necessarily starred) restaurants of the region, with a few local recommendations. Nothing really outstanding, alas, but a couple of good meals to compensate for a lot of barely competent cooking, several close encounters with deep-frozen, convenience or simply inferior produce, and a couple of truly abysmal service experiences in a near-Fawlty Towers league of consumer misery. The conformity to a presumed canon of taste is particularly depressing: every menu offered sea bass, rare duck breast and beetroot variations. OK, if there's a choice, but the trend is towards fixed menus, and eating similarly prepared sea bass and duck breast in 3 different towns 3 nights running does get boring, especially at a gourmet price point, not to mention with the whole aspirational theatre of waiting (too long), and suffering didactic explanations of the dishes served (always too verbose), not to mention some ghastly wine "pairings" by incompetent sommeliers.