Around Tain l'Hermitage

The wines of Hermitage, Crozes, Cornas and Saint Joseph
By John Wheeldon

This Guide was last updated on 08 August 2011
To explore this Wine Travel Guide, select from the menu on the left

Wine producers to visit

Cave Cooperative de Tain l’Hermitage

Address: 22 Route de Larnage, 26603 Tain l’Hermitage
Tel: 04 75 08 20 87 
Web: www.cavedetain.fr
Geo-coordinates:  Latitude: 45:4:22N (45.07277)    Longitude: 4:50:39E (4.84410) 

One of the biggest and best wine cooperatives in France, it supplies most of the supermarket own label and négociant Crozes-Hermitage and accounts for 70% of the total Crozes-Hermitage produced and 30% of Hermitage. Quality is rising here - the top level wines (Hermitage Gambert de Loche and Crozes-Hermitage Les Hauts de Fief) are as good as any, and their regular bottlings are also good. This is one place where you can actually buy the famous, but very rare Hermitage Vin de Paille. A particular tip is that they release a range of old vintages for both Christmas and Fathers Day (June in France) and at very reasonable prices. They are in the process of developing a visitor centre “Fief de Gambert” on their Gambert de Loche vineyard on the hill of Hermitage. At present an interesting new restaurant is open (see ’Places to Eat’) and they are running tutored wine tastings and accompanying meals. It is worth visiting at present for the restaurant and to look around the domaine which is being refurbished and has display boards explaining the work of the domaine. It is situated on the southern end of the hill of Hermitage on the Route de Larnage not far from roundabout at the motorway entrance.

Useful information: Open every day except certain public holidays, no appointment needed. Open Monday – Saturday 09.00-12.30 and 14.00-18.30 (all day 25 May - 31 August). Sundays: 10.00-12.30 and 14.00-18.00. Groups welcome. Some staff speak English.