Domaine Ménard-Gaborit

The crooked finger of land that sits between the Sèvre and Maine rivers as they approach their union is a rolling landscape as doucement as any you are likely to find along the length and breadth of the Loire Valley. This undulant landscape is blanketed by vines, verdurous green in spring and through summer, and dotted among them the proud remains of a windmill can occasionally be seen. It was not uncommon in the Loire Valley for wheat and wine to go hand in hand, and although many of these windmills are today derelict, their wooden mechanisms and sails having long since rotted away, the stone towers still stand, reminds of this past association.

Very close to Monnières, one half of the Monnières-St-Fiacre cru communal, is the hamlet of La Minière. While the name of this small settlement probably conjures up images of mining rather than milling, it too has its fair share of windmills. One such mill, its roof intact but the sails having long disappeared, sits just to the west of the hamlet, in the vineyards of the Ménard family, of Domaine Ménard-Gaborit.

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