Wines of the week: Good value vino's to enjoy during Tour de France

This week is set to offer some fine weather and a range of sport, the perfect excuse for summer drinking. Join Terry Kirby in his wine tour across spots on the French race route

I’m not massively enthusiastic about whether the cycling robot that is Chris Froome wins his historic fifth victory, but I love watching the spectacle of the Tour de France and its progress through often glorious parts of France.

And for wine lovers, one of the incidental pleasures of the Tour is the proximity of parts of the route to some of the country’s celebrated and sometimes less well known wine regions.

It is a great opportunity to appreciate the diversity and variety of French wines. So, while taking a few geographic liberties, here is a selection of good value wines to enjoy while watching the Tour – or not – all produced close or close-ish to parts of the route.

The Tour kicked off yesterday at Noirmoutier-En-L’Ile, a small island on the Atlantic coast and today, Sunday, the second stage, takes a long sweep through the Loire Atlantique region south of Nantes and tomorrow, Monday, there is a time trial around the town of Cholet, southeast of Nantes.

This is, of course, all in proximity to the vineyards of the muscadet wine, the largest white wine appellation in France and always made from the melon de bourgogne grape. Muscadet is a terrific summer wine: dry, crisp, with floral aromas and occasionally a flick of salinity on the palate – therefore ideal with the oysters and other seafood of the area.

In last week’s column I recommended the lovely Filderfere Muscadet Chateu de Cleray 2017 (£9.95 fromvineyardsdirect.com) but for another take try the citrus influenced Les Roitelieres Muscadet Serve et Maine 2017 (£9.99 majestic.co.uk) or the very similar Champteloup Muscadet Sèvre et Maine 2017 (£8.79 waitrose.com; ocado.com).

After the Loire, the Tour does not return to major wine producing areas until Stage 13 on July 20, when it reaches Valence in the northern Rhone, home to some of France’s greatest red wines. And some of the most expensive.

You can pay a lot of money for crozes hermitage, from just north of Valence, but we are keeping to a budget this week, so try the Crozes Hermitage 2014 (£14 marksandspencer.com) is perfect Syrah: juicy, violet tinged fruits, supple, savoury and with some lovely peppery spice; an excellent match for barbecued lamb.

On July 21, Stage 14, the Tour route climbs up through the Ardeche mountains, one of France’s less well known wine regions. However Louis Latour, a big name in Burgundy spotted the potential of the area some time ago and their Louis Latour Grand Ardeche Chardonnay 2015 (£13.99 majestic.co.uk) displays typical Burgundian white qualities – rich, complex, buttery, with hints of vanilla, honeyed spice and apricots – at half the price. Perfect with roast chicken or a big baked fish, like a brill or sea bass.

On Sunday, July 22, the Tour reaches the splendid walled city of Carcassonne, with the minervois and limoux appellations within easy reach and much high quality vins de pays produced almost everywhere. North of the city is the Carbades appellation, where Chateau Ventenac produces excellent reds with individual style, such as the, juicy, appealing, all Grenache Le Paria 2017 (£10.99 jnwine.com) or the heftier cabernet franc syrah, merlot blend, Chateau Ventenac Carbades La Reserve De Jeanne 2014 (£10.50 jnwine.com) both ideal with all Mediterranean foods.

After two days in the Pyrenees, Stage 18 of the Tour on July 26 takes a long loop through Gascony, close to the Cotes De Gascogne appellation and home to fragrant whites made from less well known grapes such as gros mansang and colombard and deep dark reds from the tannat grape. The Plaimont co-operative is one of the big players in the region and you will find their bargain whites under different labels sold in many outlets.

Try the Colombard IGP Cotes de Gascogne (£7.70 tanners-wines.co.uk) or the Saint Mont 2016 (£10 marksandspender.com) the latter an almond and citric tinged blend of gross manseng, petit courbu and arrufiac. Both zesty, refreshing, fridge door whites.

​Tesco also has a great barbecue friendly red from Saint Mont, the Reserve des Tuguets Madiran 2015 (£6.50 tesco.com) where the Tannat is leavened by the addition of cabernet’s franc and sauvignon.

From a much smaller Gascony producer, made sustainably on the family vineyard by two brothers, the Domaine Les Remparts La Bonne Franquette Blanc 2016 (£12.00 redsquirrelwine.com) is a more complex blend of sauvignon blanc, colombard and petit manseng.

For a gorgeous, food friendly red, try their cabernet franc and merlot La Bonne Franquette 2016 (£12.00 redsquirrelwine.com). The Tour then heads to Paris for the climatic ride around the Champs-Elysees on Sunday, July and both of these wines would be ideal to toast the winner, British or not.