Montreval
One moment.
Loading this page.
Montreval
One moment.
Loading this page.
Maison Aubris
Down into the chalk with the winemaker, at six, with a glass and a torch.
At six o'clock most evenings, Hugo Vasseur takes whoever is interested down into the cellar. It holds twelve degrees without any help, it is lit by about nine bulbs across ninety metres, and it smells the way a chalk cellar smells, which is not something that reproduces in a bottle.
You taste out of barrel — including, deliberately, at least one barrel that is not going the way it should. Hugo's view is that a tasting where everything is excellent teaches you nothing, and having sat through a great many of both kinds, we agree with him.
Included in every stay at Aubris. No charge, no booking, and no obligation to buy anything at the end — there is very little to buy, since the four hectares of old vines make about nine hundred bottles a year and most of them are drunk at the table upstairs.
In short
What is included
Elsewhere
Montreval Verane
Row six kilometres of flat water before the valley is awake, and have breakfast at the far end.
2 hours 30 minutes — €140 a person
Montreval Verane
A morning in a working forest with the four families who work it.
4 hours — €95 a person
Montreval Calanera
The cliff path to Vinca, then into the sea caves, then lunch on the boat.
5 hours — €180 a person
Reservations
Our own team answers, not an agency. Rates fall on the fourth night and again on the seventh, which tells you what we would prefer.