Tag Archives: bordeaux

What I Bought at the Wine Fair in Paris

Print pagePDF pageEmail page

Nearly forgot to go to the Independant Wine Growers Fair at Porte de Versailles this weekend and pick up some more Sancerre for our oysters on Sunday before we ran out which would have been a disaster! Most of the wine in our cellar was originally bought directly from the vineyard when we used to go on one-week wine-tasting holidays around France. We finally filled up the cellar and turned to cycling holidays instead with an occasional tasting of course. Now we just top up at Versailles in November and Mailly-en-Champagne during the Whitsunday weekend.

The Porte de Versailles fair is always very crowded so it’s best  to choose a weekday or morning. This time we got there about 11.30 on Sunday. We had sorted out our many free invitations beforehand so were able to make a beeline for the stands on our list. Each invitation entitles you to two standard INAO wine tasting glasses. As you can imagine we’ve collected a fair number over the years – great for parties. The Versailles ones are pretty mundane but those from Mailly-en-Champagne are much more original. Then you use this neat little gadget to hang them around your neck (2 euros for one, 3 euros for two) to keep your hands free. They usually last for a couple of years but they eventually break.

Our first stop was François Cherrier from Domaine de la Rossignol, a family-owned vineyard on the eastern end of the Loire Valley, founded in 1858 and steeped in tradition where they still hand pick their grapes. This year’s sancerre (sauvignon) has a completely different nose from last year’s – a very distinct pineapple. It’s a very « mineral » wine due to the nature of the soil with a powerful bouquet. When we first visited the vineyard about ten years ago, Mr Cherrier shared his passion for wine-growing and showed us samples of the different types of soil and rocks that make all the difference to the way the wine smells and tastes. We have a preference for his AOC sancerre at 8.90 euros a bottle.

Just next door was our favourite margaux – Château Haut Breton – which we discovered on our very first « wine week » back in 1999 in the Bordeaux area. That day, we tasted « merlot », « cabernet sauvignon »  and « cabernet franc » straight from the vat for the first time. Not very palatable, but a wonderful learning experience. Their 1996 margaux was superb. The last time we bought their wine was in 2005 – we’ve been disappointed ever since. This year, however, we tasted their 2009 and were delighted. It has its wonderful prune nose, full body and good persistence again. I see it won a Silver Medal at the fair this year. Excellent value at 28 euros a bottle. We’ll be able to dip into our 2004 and 2005 stock now knowing  we’ll have something to replace it in a few years’ time. What better accompaniment to a côte de boeuf roasted on an open fire enhanced with a copious serving of freshly-picked wild mushrooms?

Next on the list was Domaine Cauhapé from the south-west of France, in Béarn near the Pyrenees which makes an excellent jurançon. The grapes are mainly gros menseng, petit menseng and camaralet with a bit of lauret and corbu thrown in for good measure. We decided to take a mixed carton of Geyser 2010 with its powerful palate, at 13.50, Sève d’Autonne 2008 with its exuberant nose, at 14.50 and La Canopée, fresh and aromatic, at 22.50. Excellent with fish and seafood and even veal cutlets. I was amused when the wine grower, Mr Ramonteu said, with his strong Béarn accent, « You can drink this wine when you don’t have anything else! » I don’t suppose that’s what he really meant. We initially discovered Domaine Cauhapé at a food and wine tasting in Paris and were able to visit their vineyard when holidaying in the area last spring.

The trolley was starting to fill up by then and even though we’d been spitting out the wine, the alcoholic fumes were starting to take their toll so we bought a foie gras sandwich (what else?) before tasting another red, this time a vacqueyras (grenache, chiraz, cinsault and mourvèdre), oaked for about 12 months, from Domaine Le Pont du Rieu in the Vaucluse in the south-east of France along the Rhone Rivier. An excellent accompaniment to barbecued pork loin chops and spare ribs. We took the 2009 which despite its bargain price (8 euros) is well-structured with concentrated aromas. We’ve just finished off our last bottle of 2003 so it was time to restock. It will be perfect in 3 or 4 years time.

Last stop, Domaine Jacques Rouzé, whose quincy we find very pleasant. This is another sauvignon, from an area close to sancerre, with mainly silica soils. Jacques Rouzé is an advocate of sustainable and integrated vine growing methods and his wine reflects that choice. We took his 2010 Tradition at 7 euros to have with fish or as an aperitif. Watch out for quincy on restaurant menus. It’s not as well-known as sancerre but just as aromatic and definitely worth trying.

 

 

Domaine de la Rossignole, rue de la Croix Michaud, 18300 Verdigny, Tel 02 48 79 34 93 cherrier@easynet.fr 
 
Château Haut Breton Larigaudière, 3 rue des Anciens Combattants 33460 Soussans/Margaux Tel 05 57 88 94 17  contact@de-mour.com  www.de-mour.com 
 
Domaine CAUHAPE, 64360 Monein Tel +33 (0)5 59 21 33 02 Open house 2nd Sunday in December  contact@cauhape.com http://www.jurancon-cauhape.com/en/
 
Le Pont du Rieu, route de Montmirail, 84190 Vacqueyras faraud@le-pont-du-rieu.com  www.le-pont-du-rieu.com
 
Domain Jacques Rouzé, 18120 Quincy. Tel +33 248 513 561 rouze@terre-net.frhttp://www.jacques-rouze.com/english/swf/index.htm
 

Beaujolais Nouveau

Print pagePDF pageEmail page

There are a lot of detractors of beaujolais nouveau, mainly because it’s not particularly good wine. After all, it is the first wine of the new harvest. They use this special process called carbonic maceration or whole berry fermentation so they can keep the fruity quality of the wine without extracting the bitter tanins from the grape skins. That means maximum colour and aroma without the usual atringency of red wine. You serve it slightly chilled, around 13°C (55° F).

It was the victim of its success for a long time and the wine growers started adding all sorts of chemicals to achieve the characteristic “banana” flavour. In the last few years however, there has been a distinct move to produce a better wine so it’s gradually gaining a better reputation. “Beaujolais nouveau” is celebrated on third Thursday in November. At lunchtime and after work, people go swarming into the local bars and brasseries to compare the different producers and decide whether or not it really does taste of banana! They often have a special “Beaujolais nouveau” menu on the blackboard outside as well, mainly cold cuts and traditional dishes such as boeuf bourguignon and pot au feu.

Some people even start at midnight Wednesday when it can be legally sold. When we lived near the Marne we used to go to the “Le Bel Air” in Le Perreux, which has a wooden terrace jutting out over the river (they heat it in winter!) but once we moved to Paris, we looked for something local. We discovered the area around the Saint Honoré Market, literally black with people, mostly with their own bottles of beaujolais and saucisson sandwiches. Then they brought in a law to say you couldn’t drink alcohol in the street and the beaujolais tradition took a steep plunge.

Biggest bottle of beaujolais in 2011!

Last year, Townsvillean and Annabelle Rouge were in Paris so we wanted to take them to one of our favourites on Rue des Petits Champs where they also had a brass band with a huge tuba. But it turned out there was nothing on so we went to a local brasserie instead – Le Musset – where they were serving platters of cold cuts and tried a couple of different types of beaujolais nouveau. We stayed on for dinner and Townsvillean had pot au feu which he is still reminiscing over.

I can remember being in Normandy once on 17th November and the local cheese cum wine shop offered us a tasting of beaujolais nouveau. We were delighted and tried out three different ones. When the shop keeper asked a regular if he wanted to taste as well, he turned up his nose and said, “I only drink bordeaux” (like a lot of people who know nothing about wine). I answered, “Ah but you have to drink beaujolais for the fun of it!” To my astonishment, he then picked up a bottle of Georges Le Boeuf, the most well-known and certainly not the best beaujolais nouveau, and added it to his bill. I guess he wanted some fun!!!

And there’s even an app for my iPhone this year to tell me where all the excitement’s happening!

Le Musset, 5 rue de l’Echelle, 75001 Paris
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...