Wine buying tour – Rouffignac-de-Sigoulès, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France

Today, we have mostly been buying wine 😁😂😋🍷

We started the day leisurely with breakfast and then a stroll into Belvès for our shopping trip. We visited ‘Plonk et Plus” where we met Graham for our wine supplies, he was able to advise which were the bottles we enjoyed the most from the night before, so we could take some more away 😁😋

After an expresso in the local bar we wandered back to the van where I eventually caught up with some blog writing, as we did not have far to travel today.

After lunch, we headed toward Montbazillac and Bergerac, surrounded on all sides by vineyards. So, what could we do but sample their wares? It is impossible to select from the hundreds of vineyards in the area, all offering free tasting. We decided to try at the locations which offer motorhome stays under the French Passion scheme which offer free motorhome parking from winegrowers, farmers and tradespeople in return for visiting their stores but with no obligation to buy.

We started at Domaine de Grange Neuve which had a lovely shop and we were able to to sample their wares. The customers served before us were taking away their purchases on a cart which seemed a good recommendation. We bought red, white and rosé after sampling their delicious wines.

Finally we went onto “Avinturiers” with 5 dedicated motorhome pitches between the vines in the Passion scheme. We headed to the shop but found it closed and we were about to head off when a quad bike came dashing across to the fields towards us. The quad rider turns out to be Monsieur Camus, the owner who greets us with a warm smile and a flood of French. He is though highly demonstrative and quite understandable.

We join him in the shop, where he explains he has had 5 motorhomes himself and his son, also is an adventurer into motorhomes and also with a motorbike and sidecar, I explain that my father used to race those. The shop is adorned with every type of flag and he tells us about his many international visitors and asks about our motorhome journeys.

He is such a lovely character and obviously loves to have motorhome visitors. We ask about buying some wine and he says his vineyard is only 12 hectares and is it too small for his popularity as he has sold nearly all his stock to the many nationalities of motorhomers who have visited him in the summer. He will not have more until the school holidays. Luckily though he has a lovely smooth and fruit red left and we buy a box but the Demi-sec desert white wine famous in the region we can sample, but not buy.

Nonetheless we have had a pretty successful day in wine stocking, but retire to an Aire nearby with a good mobile signal, so we can watch the Northampton v Bath rugby game this evening.