OUR TOUR DE FRANCE CASE IS HERE 6 delicious bottles from ‘Le route du Tour’ to enjoy whilst watching the race Vive Le Tour!

22nd June 2025

Intro

Forget your Football or the Cricket or the Tennis, when it comes to July, there is only one major sporting event to concentrate on and that of course, is the TOUR DE FRANCE!! Apart from being stunning, exciting, inhumanly tough and like a three week sporting soap opera with the athletes as actors, the Tour is an incredible context in which to discover and enjoy the wines of France. Yes, Il Giro d’Italia is beautiful and Italian wines are superb, (see this Year’s Giro case here) and naturally we love Spanish wine and the Vuelta (La Vuelta Case to follow in August) but the Tour is something extra special and let’s face it, the French started it all, it is still the number one cycle race in the world and the French still make the world’s best wine. France is also the spiritual homeland of Buon Vino. Although we started out as an Italian specialist, the founder’s (my) love of wine started in France and my passion for Cycling started at Le Tour, specifically the 1989 edition won by the American Greg Lemond by only 8 seconds ahead of the late, great French cycling Icon, Laurent Fignon, my first Cycling hero. Now the sun has arrived here in the UK and it finally feels like summer, we are super excited about settling down and watching the race and enjoying some stunning French natural wines. Looking at the route this time, we have again been creative with our selections and included some bottles which are the slightly left field rather than the obvious. There is also a real spread of bottle price range within each case with one white at over £40 but an average bottle price of a modest £25 so super high quality wine without being crushingly expensive.

France and its Wine…..

Although wine is now produced on every continent, the origins of great wine nearly always lead back to France. They are still number two in terms of annual production, with approx. 18% of all wine produced globally coming from within its borders. Italy is just ahead with 19%, they really do make a lot of Pinot Grigio and Prosecco! ‘Le Vin’ is probably the only word which every English speaker can say in French. When we think of the world’s most famous and expensive bottles, Chateau Lafite, Mouton Rothschild, Romanee Conti, they are all French. The most well-known grape varieties in the world which have become brands all have their origins in France. Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. These grapes, now planted everywhere, found their first home in the noble terroirs of The Loire, Burgundy, and Bordeaux. Almost every region of France has its own wine history, culture, and influence on the wider wine world. And every producer from every country who harbors the desire to produce a truly ‘Great Wine’ will likely be aiming for something close to a fine Burgundy.

For the natural wine lovers, France is also pretty much number one. Once again, the movement is likely to have started in France. Most people think it was in Beaujolais in the mid-80s with the famous pioneering winemakers known as the ‘Gang of Four’. Although some super delicious natural wine is coming out of Italy, Spain, and the rest, for sheer number of amazing producers, diversity, creativity, and simply gorgeous bottles, we would still just about put the French ahead.

Wine and the Tour de France

Like the Giro, the Tour can’t really go anywhere without whizzing past the vineyards. However the links between wine and cycling are not as immediately obvious as in its near neighbour. The Giro is actively using wine to help connect the route to the fans, and every year there are stages deliberately heading to the famous wine regions like Barolo or Valpolicella. The Tour by contrast is quieter about the link between its national cycle race and national drink. There seem to be fewer examples of riders who come from a wine producing background or who go into wine after their cycling career is over.

Wine and Cycling in France seem closer linked when looking back in history, specifically riders drinking the stuff during the race. Philippe Brunel’s iconic book, ‘An Intimate Portrait of the Tour de The Tour de France’ documents rider’s thirst for booze during the race in the early 20th century. In those days, stages were up to 400 km long, lasted over 15 hours and racers rode through the night, surviving on a heady mix of booze, amphetamines and insanity. Many of the top riders also smoked cigarettes! In the 1960s, the great Jacques Anquetil, five time French winner of the Tour was known to finish a mountain stage and sit down to a bottle of Champagne and a lobster. Two time world champion and multi tour stage winner Freddy Meartens used to fill his ‘bidon’ (water bottle) with a mixture of vintage Champagne, glucose, caffeine and amphetamines and drank this ‘bomb’ in the last hour of the race when he was feeling good. He said the concoction made him ride like a rocket, I am not surprised!

Finally, the most tragic connection between racing and drinking is the legendary British rider Tom Simpson. He died of exhaustion on the slopes of the Mont Ventoux in 1967. Although there was no wine in his system, they found amphetamines and alcohol which contributed to him going well beyond his body’s limits. The booze was supposedly 3 large cognacs which he had drunk during the stage.

The Tour de France has always been extreme, there in lies its fascination and beauty.

This years Route and our Selection.

The route this year is exceptional, 3 338,8 km and over 50 000 metres of vertical ascent, this will all be done at an average speed of around 39-41km/h (that is approx 25 mph), try doing that on a bike for few minutes, it is not easy. The race passes through some fabulous wine producing areas, there will be vineyards a plenty by the side of the road as they whizz by. We think we have excelled ourselves this year with our selection, there are some absolute belters in this half dozen.

The race starts in Normandy and although there is no wine in the region, there is plenty of fine Cider. The route goes within a few KM of iconic biodynamic cider producer Eric Bordelet so we had to include one of his bottles in the case. We went for the Pear Cider which is delicious. The race then heads south and takes in the Loire, the wine producing area of the Auvergne, Southwest France and the Jurancon, Corbieres, Minervois and the Pic St Loup areas of the Languedoc, the Southern Rhone including going right through the village of Chateauneuf du Pape, the Northern Rhone, the Savoie and the Jura! What a route, if the riders could have a glass, they would be drinking some very good stuff every night after the stage.

It gives us plenty of amazing wines to go at in our selection and as usual we have tried to curate a diverse, slightly left field selection. In the case you will find two very different reds, one lighter, one fuller, a gorgeous summer Rose, and two whites of exceptional quality, depth and complexity from two of our favourite lesser known producers. As usual, we don’t want the price to spiral out of control so although there is a bottle in here at £42, the case is £25 a bottle average after discount which means high quality wine within the 6 bottles selected. It will be hot on the Tour and as I am writing it is 27 degrees outside in the UK so the selection is more towards wines for the sunshine, to be chilled (even the reds) and drunk on terraces with the TV outside! I really hope everyone watching the race and drinking these bottles enjoys themselves and shares our love of France, beautiful wine and fantastic sport. A Votre Santé!

Le Tour Case – The Wines

STAGE 6 Bayeux – Vire Normandie – L’Etape du Cidre!

Poire Authentique Bordelet Pear Cider (Perry) 750ml 2023

STAGE 9 Chinon – Chateauroux – The Loire

Chinon Les Beaux Monts Breton 2022

TASTING THE ABOVE TWO WINES IN SHOP WEEKEND 5TH/6TH

STAGE 10 Pau – Luchon-Superbagnères – The Jurancon

Jurancon Comete Clos Larrouyat 2021

STAGE 12 Muret – Carcassonne – The Minervois

Minervois Les Traverses Domaine de Courbissac 2022

TASTING THE ABOVE TWO WINES IN SHOP WEEKEND 12TH/13TH

STAGE 16 Montpellier – Mont Ventoux – Pic St Loup