french wine a day

Sweet Vouvray

      Harvest in Vouvray, in the begining of the century.
               Note the rock caves in the background.

Dear wine lovers,

When it comes to cheese and dessert, the truth is, it is difficult finding a wine that will go with both dishes. Hopefully, Vouvray has some treasures for you...

Vouvray, a beautiful village located near Tour in the Loire Valley, is a place where you can admire lots of authentic Châteaux from the 16th century like Châteaux Montpoupon Download chateau_montpoupon.jpg , Château Amboise Download chateau_amboise.jpg , Château Chenonceau Download chteau_chenonceau.jpg or Château de Jallanges where you can also stay overnight.

It is also the place which produces this unique sweet and sour wine made from of Chenin Blanc Download vouvray_vines.jpg. In fact, this grape variety manages to over-ripen without degrading. Noble rot is produced by a microscopic mushroom called “botrytis cinerea” that concentrates sugars as the water evaporates under the sun. In the meantime, a high acidity level is maintained and the outcome is a wine with 50 - 100 grams/liter of sugar balanced with a nice freshness.

These concentrated wines then age then in barrels kept in cellars dug into the rocks Download Rocks.jpg which maintain all year long a constant level of temperature and humidity. Then they are stored in bottles for at least 4 years.

Clos Baudoin, Domaine Georges Brunet, Domaine Bourillon or Château Moncontour are serious references that represent pretty well the wines of this superb area (family-owned with respect to ancestral traditions).

I will never forget this visit at Clos Baudoin owned by the charismatic Prince Philippe Poniatowski. It is there that my friends Chris and Reed  tasted so many great wines. One particular is this 1989 that I still have in my cellar and that expresses so many complex and different flavors at the same time, like mushrooms, dry apricots and honey. Oh, by the way, we tasted them with thinly sliced salami. See, you can also try this wine for the aperitif !

Cheers,

Jean-Marc Espinasse

Any comments, edits are very welcome at contact@french-wine-a-day.com

*Listen to "Vouvray" : Download Vouvray.mp3

**Mushroom = Champignon

To see Vouvray on a French wine map (use enlarge icon to see it better) : Download Vouvray.jpg

Rosé thoughts

Dear wine lovers,

In this dark emotional period , I thought I would try to make the sky is little more blue with "rosé thoughts".

A lot of people don't consider rosé as a real wine and I can understand this pre-judgment. But rosé wines have changed a lot this last decade and neither the sweet "white zin" nor the colorful "Tavel" style represent the kind of wine that make our summers so special. I remember a winemaker telling me that rosé is probably the easiest wine to drink but the most difficult to make and I totally agree with this. So as summer is offering its last warm days, it is time to enjoy our last bottles of rosé wine.

Sunday, the whole family went to a Chinese restaurant and I have to say that rosé matches very well with Asian food. In France this alliance is very popular but for some reasons, it is not elsewhere. So, French wine ambassadors that you are, make sure your favourite Asian restaurants have in their wine list a nice French dry rosé in order to regal your palates with spring rolls, sweet and sour sauce shrimps or with Cantonese rice salads.

I am used to selecting (after many tastings) a rosé every summer and drinking mostly the same one during this warm and sunny period. Then, I keep one bottle in my cellar and this permits me to remember this fun period when it is dark and rainy outside. This year, it is Château Ferry Lacombe (Download ferry_lacombe.jpg) : Peach nose, dry fruits, fat and with a lingering tatse. Last year it was the one of Domaine Saint* Jean de Villecroze : Wild strawberry fruits and freshness at the same time. 2003 was Château Pas de Cerf with jam** fruits... I can go back until 1998 with Chateau Beauferan, a beautiful spicy and fresh wine that I sipped watching the soccer world cup that France eventually won. I still have a bottle left but I won't drink it until...we win a second one.

Cheers, (Download cheers_.jpg)

Jean-Marc Espinasse

Any comments, edits are very welcome at contact@french-wine-a-day.com

*Listen to "Saint" : Download Saint.mp3

**Jam = Confiture