On Monday evening there was a Soirée Boules de Fort organised plus a blind tasting competition and a Loire quiz. Boules de Fort is played inside with a special sloping track and you have to wear slippers when playing. It is very much a speciality of Anjou-Saumur and Touraine. It may look a gentle game but the stress levels are clearly enormous.

Denis Jamain, Domaine de Reuilly

 

Virtuoso performance from Luc Brizard (Château d'Epiré, Savennières)

 More stress...

Bernard Sirot: one of Belgium's leading wine journalists and Sauternes producer

The victorious Brit team including Malcolm Gluck, Nigel Wilkinson (RSJ Restaurant), Jack Hibbberd, Stuart Pesketh and Jim at the boule-drome in Varrains, close to Saumur

Indoor bowls (boules de fort), using a curved surface, is a popular game in parts of the Loire mainly from Angers through to Vouvray. La Nouvelle Republique has a report on the success of a fairly recently formed club in Blois that is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Back in August 2005 when the Saumur-Champigny producers organised a memorable UK press trip around a cricket match, they also included a game of boules de fort in the programme. Their guests were sufficiently ill-mannered to go and win not only the cricket but the game of boules as well!

Eric Charruau (Domaine du Val Brun) proved to be remarkably good with the bat

Eric Charruau (Domaine du Val Brun)