December 4, 2025 — 2:00am
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Got itThis story is part of Traveller’s Best of Europe holiday guide. See all stories.
Even as a prisoner of war, Gaston Huet thought about wine. The Frenchman was captured by German forces in Calais in 1940, and held in a POW camp for five long years.
During that time the winemaker smuggled wines from around France into the camp, where he staged clandestine tasting sessions for his fellow prisoners. It saved everyone’s sanity, though particularly Huet’s.
Eventually the camp was liberated and Huet had to walk home to his overgrown, untended vineyard in Vouvray. He would later become that village’s mayor. And he would develop, over 55 patient years, one of France’s premier wine labels.
Tasting room at Domaine Huet – L’Échansonne in the Loire Valley.Alamy Stock Photo
You can assume Gaston himself had a hand in chipping away the rock to form what is now the great cellar at Domaine Huet, where I stand with a glass of his finest work by my side. This network of tunnels and caves was all created the old-fashioned way, with hammer and chisel, and with meticulous care – just as the wine is.
Domaine Huet is an outlier really, a famed producer in a region that has largely escaped the world’s attention. This is the Loire Valley, an area of central France known for its chateaux and its riverside idyll, a one-time summer refuge for French royalty and Parisian nobility.
It has not, however, been known for the quality of its wine, certainly not in the same way as flagship regions such as Burgundy and Bordeaux, where just a location on a label will command a massive price tag. Names like Domaine Vincent Careme and Patrick Baudouin don’t roll off the tongue like Chateau Margaux or Domaine de la Romanee-Conti.
A vineyard at Domaine Vincent Careme winery, Loire Valley.
That’s great news for me though, because I probably wouldn’t be invited into the Margaux cave for an exclusive tasting, but I am here at Domaine Huet.
Sarah Hwang is doing the pouring today. She’s American, and the co-owner of the domaine, so this is a serious tasting. She works the room – or rather, cave – introducing the wines, all chenin blancs ranging from dry to semi-sweet to sweet, chatting to the drinkers, coolly letting the product do the bulk of the work.
These wines are incredible, the heritage of Gaston Huet in a glass. The balance, the complexity, the minerality, the fruit. You can see how they’ve reached icon status. And you can understand that we should be talking more about the Loire.
This French wine region is a sleeper hit, an unlikely hero. The Loire Valley is less known than many of its French, Spanish and Italian neighbours, but it’s also more affordable, more accessible, and its food and wine scene brings perfect depth to the experience of visiting such a gorgeous, historic area.
Vineyard-covered hills of Sancerre, France.iStock
It’s a large region too, a long, crooked finger of riverbanks and mineral-rich soil that follows the course of the Loire River, past cities such as Tours, Angers and Nantes, though also smaller, charming towns like Saumur, Sancerre, Chinon and Azay-le-Rideau.
The wine here is made from grape varieties that aren’t as readily appreciated as the likes of chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon, though deserving of respect: a local Loire drop will most likely be chenin blanc or cabernet franc, though there’s gamay out there, and well-known sauvignon blanc from Sancerre. A few of these wines command sky-high price tags, though many, if not most, are incredibly affordable for the quality.
Medieval fortress Château d’Angers in Angers, France.Getty Images
My wine-and-dine journey in the Loire Valley begins in Angers, a city that’s a microcosm of modern-day France, a mix of classic French history and the buzz of the students and migrants who now give Angers its colour.
This city is the capital of Anjou, a subregion of Loire Valley wine known for its chenin blanc. A trick for first-timers here is to realise that you will never see the words “Loire Valley” on a wine label: instead you will see the more niche and descriptive subregion, the likes of Anjou, Saumur, Chinon, Vouvray and Sancerre. Each has distinctive character, and classic grape varietals.
Angers bar and restaurant Barco Vino is permanently docked on the River Maine.
If you want to drink local in Angers, then, you look for Anjou, and you do that in a wine bar such as Barco Vino, set on the rooftop of a barge tied to the banks of the Maine River. Or you call into Le Mail Restaurant, a chic though relaxed diner with excellent local food and an impressive cellar of Anjou wines, in particular a few selections from cult producer Patrick Baudouin that you will have trouble finding anywhere else.
From Angers you can also skip the middleman, however, and visit local wineries to taste direct from the grower and maker.
Near the village of Savennieres, Loic Mahe is a legendary producer who uses clay amphorae and sandstone eggs to enhance the minerality of chenin blanc. Just south of Angers, meanwhile, Domaine de Haute Perche offers a laidback cellar door where visitors can work their way through chenin blancs and gamays until they can take no more.
Chateau de Saumur, a historic castle in the heart of wine country.Getty Images
From Angers I’m making my way along the banks of the Loire heading east, upriver, into the heart of wine country. Saumur is a gorgeous riverside village with a justifiably famous chateau. A little further east, Abbaye Royale de Fontevraud is a sprawling 12th-century monastery complex that features a range of historic architectural styles, not to mention the grave of King Richard the Lionheart.
Travel east for a few more minutes and you reach Chinon, a town of only 8000 people, and yet one with a rich history featuring some of Europe’s most famous names.
Explore the paved streets here and you are walking in the footsteps of Joan of Arc: in Chinon the 17-year-old met the future King Charles VII of France to acknowledge him as the rightful heir to the throne, a meeting that would set in motion events that ended the Hundred Years’ War.
The historic town of Chinon on the Vienne River.iStock
England’s King Henry II once held court in Chinon. France’s King Louis XII spent time here. The chateau was a royal residence until the 16th century.
Now, though, there’s wine. And food. Unlike much of the Loire, this is predominantly red-wine country, cabernet francs that work well with the excellent steaks at L’Ardoise, or the filet de boeuf at Les Annees 30.
But then we move on, past the city of Tours, with its riverside bars heaving with locals enjoying long summer evenings, and on to Vouvray, the jewel in the Loire Valley crown. This is the home of Domaine Bredif and Domaine Vincent Careme, legends among lovers of chenin blanc, though still approachable and affordable for those just dipping their toes in.
This is also the home of Domaine Huet, founded almost 100 years ago by Gaston Huet and his father, now in the hands of the Hwang family.
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It doesn’t look much from the front: just a modest building on the outskirts of the village, giving no hint that underneath lies a warren of hand-dug tunnels and caverns, where thousands of bottles of sparkling wine are still aged in wooden racks and “riddled”, or turned, by hand, and where some of the world’s finest semi-sweet and sweet chenin blancs are quietly resting until they will be released to the world; the product of obsession.
THE DETAILS
Stay
The Loire Valley offers numerous opportunities to stay in historic, beautiful venues. In Angers, Chateau des Forges (lechateaudesforges.fr) is a 19th-century mansion with rooms from $180 a night. In Saumur, Hotel Anne d’Anjou (hotel-anneanjou.com) is set in an 18th-century mansion, from $176 a night. And just outside Tours, Chateau d’Artigny is luxurious but affordable, from $269 a night (chateauartigny.com).
Eat + drink
Domaine Huet offers several “open days” each year, during which visitors can tour the estate and its cellars and taste recent vintages. Other times, a cellar door shop is open on site. See domainehuet.com. Domaine de Haute Perche offers a range of tours and tastings from Monday to Saturday – see domainehauteperche.com. For more information on restaurants and wineries and more in the Loire Valley, see france.fr
The writer travelled as a guest of InterLoire. See vinsdeloire.fr
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Ben Groundwater is a Sydney-based travel writer, columnist, broadcaster, author and occasional tour guide with more than 25 years’ experience in media, and a lifetime of experience traversing the globe. He specialises in food and wine – writing about it, as well as consuming it – and at any given moment in time Ben is probably thinking about either ramen in Tokyo, pintxos in San Sebastian, or carbonara in Rome. Follow him on Instagram @bengroundwaterConnect via email.Traveller GuidesFrom our partners
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