Again back at you with the best of wines news of France. By the way for the non Romans LVII is no 57, The wines of France are just super simply awesome and a great tradition. Often imitated, some time equaled ,but never surpass! Therefore, let me tell you some news shall we. Hope you enjoy it as I.
La Cité des Climats et vins de Bourgogne ,the city is 3 different places and distributed near the most beautiful wine areas in Burgundy. Its location, in the heart of one of the most beautiful vineyards in the world! Plots of vineyards, I remind you, classified as UNESCO’s heritage. The city of Beaune offers you a modern scenography all year round, guided or not. This is a visit for young and old and to understand the history of the climates of Burgundy. And do not miss the 3 workshops of 45 minutes each: « Accords mets et vins » or Match food and wine, « Conseils du sommelier » or Sommelier advice” or even « Art de la dégustation « art of tasting, to perfect your knowledge of wine tasting. Like the workshops of the City of Gastronomy, provided by the prestigious School of Burgundy Wines, these unique and educational activities are exciting. And finally, take a well -deserved break at the discovery bar! La Cité des Climats et vins de Bourgogne, 21 avenue Charles de Gaulle – Beaune Webpage : https://www.citeclimatsvins-bourgogne.com/en/cite-in-beaune/
Welcome to a historic and beautifully renovated place, in one of the most beautiful villages in the region: Chablis. The reputation of the white wines of Chablis is no longer to be known, and you will understand why during the route of the visit (guided or not). Playful outing and adapted to children, family activities are even offered to you in Chablis. The La Cité des Climats et vins de Bourgogne in Chablis, 1 bis rue de Chichée – Chablis Webpage : https://www.citeclimatsvins-bourgogne.com/en/cite-in-chablis/
The gigantic press screws perched on the roof of the building of the Cité des Climats et vins de Bourgogne, is not in service, we reassure you. But what a beautiful wink to our know-how. Guided tours or not, activities with children or afterwork, you are not going to be bored when you come! La Cité des Climats et vins de Bourgogne, 520 Avenue Maréchal de Lattre de Tassigny – Mâcon , Webpage : https://www.citeclimatsvins-bourgogne.com/en/cite-in-macon/
Something I look forward every year and already my invitation and discount for Carrefour Vannes ! Spring wine fair 2024 at Carrefour Hypermarkets from March 19 to April 1, 2024 There will be approximately 450 wines make up the Spring Wine Fair 2024. The most attractive promotions, which take the form of immediate reductions of -30%, or -25% from two bought bottles, “2 purchased and one offer” or “4 purchased 2 offered” concern current consumption wines. For wines higher, more than twenty euros per bottle, discounts are often limited to three euros per bottle, with exceptions in Champagne. The wines of Burgundy, quite coveted, unfortunately only benefit from few reductions. In Bordeaux wines, on the other hand, the price are well reduced, Webpage : https://www.carrefour.fr/evenements/foire-aux-vins
The 63rd sale of the wines of the Hospices de Nuits-Saint-Georges (Côte d’Or 21 ), stopped its race for records, garnishing last Sunday March 10, 2024 less than 2.3 million euros, down 37% compared to the last year. Like last year, the quality of the vintage was also widely rented in 2024, and the quantity in slight decline only (150 lots for sale, against 160 last year). Webpage : https://www.hospicesdenuits.com/la-vente-aux-encheres
The wines of the Varois of George Clooney sold by the American actor, owner of the Domaine de Canadel sheltering a bastide of the 17C and has 172 hectares, including less than 5 hectares of vines in production in the Var, should put the first vintage of his property for sale by spring. The actor George Clooney and his wife Amal bought in 2021, the Domaine de Canadel, located in Cotignac in the Var. Now installed year -round in this magnificent building of 800m2, the couple embarked on the exploitation of the few hectares of vines that their property has. By spring, a first cuvée in the domain should be available for purchase, a white Var hillsides as well as a rosé. For the name, you will still have to wait a little. No web yet stay tune for more.
The 2020 cuvée of the Château La Canorgue in AOC Luberon. A bouquet of garrigue flowers and a stylish, precise and vibrating fruit on a flesh with succhesity. A slight cocoa flavor due to the vintage but a touch of velvety, luscious mouth. Perfect lengthening. Composed of Syrah, Grenache and Carignan 50 % of this cuvée is vinified in carbonic maceration, whole clusters harvested by hand and 50 % in scratched harvest, with longer cuison. The breeding is then done in the 17C cellar, in lightning, amphora, stainless steel and concrete tanks. All our vineyards are located in Bonnieux, at the foot of the Luberon, on a clay-limestone terroir. Webpage : https://chateaulacanorgue.com/gb/gb/
A bit of reflection on the bubbly !!! If Champagne is a separate wine, identifiable in the millions of bubbles that walk in the flutes or other glasses revealing its brilliant yellow dress, it is however in a quiet state that the secret of the most famous taste is written ,still wines. Because, if the effervescence of Champagne is only obtained after the second fermentation, it is good because behind the bubbles, it first hides fermented grape juice. Developed from three flagship grape varieties, including two reds – Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier , this white juice is obtained at the end of pressing and first alcoholic fermentation in tank, prelude or not to malolactic fermentation that the winegrowers operate if they wish to lower the acidity of their drink. Until then and before the clear wine was put back in the bottle with a draw liquor and yeasts for a second fermentation, Champagne is therefore a still wine as well as a painter mixes blue and yellow to obtain green , the Champagne winegrowers combine clear wines from different grape varieties, themselves cultivated on terroirs and differentiated plots to create a Champagne with a unique taste. At a time when the trend leans rather on the side of less dosed wines, if not at all, this Champagne Brut, fruit of an assembly of a hundred clear wines tasted each year between November and March, we are in a hurry to rediscover the elegance of a dosage that perfectly frames the vinosity of a deep and expressive cuvée. Still the king of events dear to all of us,
Discover my selection of some beautiful Champagnes at less than 40 euros !! Gonet-Médeville, Brut Premier Cru Tradition, Nicolas Maillart , Extra-Brut Premier Cru Platinum Alfred Gratien Brut Nature , Piper-Heidsieck Extra-Brut Essential and Égly-Teriet Extra-Brut Les Prémices, They are all excellent !!!
Rich in a long wine tradition, the Médoc enjoys an international reputation. Within this vineyard which houses some of the most prestigious appellations in Bordeaux, the Médoc appellation is the largest and the most discreet at the same time. Its territory is vast. balaying an area of more than 16,000 hectares, it extends from the Jalle de Blanquefort – to the gates of Bordeaux , The vast majority of Médoc stamped wines are produced in the north of the peninsula, the south being busy by the Haut-Médoc AOC which beltes the six town appellations (Margaux, Pauillac, Saint-Julien, Saint-Estèphe, Moulis-en-Médoc and Listrac-Médoc) to the Atlantic shore, at the tip of Grave. The Médoc appellation is distinguished today by the formidable concentration of fields of modest size, which produce red wines full of charm, not only attractive by their taste profile but also by their excellent value for money. Born from the merger of the cellar of Bégadan, Orderc, Prignac and Queyrac, the Union of Uni-Médoc cooperative cellars stands today as a central pillar of the Médoc appellation ; this union of 140 families of winegrowers with 1000 hectares of vines, cooperative represents 19% of the AOC Médoc, which makes us the 1st producer of the appellation, The cellars of the coop Uni-Médoc is the largest in all of the Médoc peninsula. Created in 1949, Producta Vignobles is today a key player in the Bordeaux wines market. Benefiting from a solid renown in the region, this cooperative shareholding structure has become a partner of choice for the wine sector of which it is a major operator. With expertise extending from purchases to logistics to marketing, the house is solidly anchored in the wine territories of Bordeaux. The Merrain Rouge cuvée is raised in the barrel cellar of the uni-Médoc winegrowers. Some properties I have enjoyed and still do are the following : Located on the terroirs of Queyrac, Château Carmenère, 98% of flowering plants had an extremely low yield, Despite these obstacles, it has remained determined, charmed by the atypical nuances of the carmenère grape, and by its ability to produce light and structured wines at the same time. The Château Carmenère welcomes its private customers to the estate, The Domaines Rollan de By started with 2 hectares in the 90s , and slowly bearing the total surface of the Rollan areas at 185 hectares.You have the Chateau Haut Condissas, flagship of the Rollan domains. Today, its wines sell for both France and abroad and especially in the United States, where the Château Greysac cuvée is the best-selling French wine. I have only experience with their main wine Château Rollan de By, The Château Vieux Robin is elegance at the service of Médoc ,witness of five generations of a family of passionate winegrowers. Particularity of its vineyard of around twenty hectares in 2011, also resumed the Domaine des Anguilleys, formerly belonging to the parents. You won’t go wrong with any of the above !!
At the junction between Brittany and the more continental regions of France, Anjou is a major viticultural terroirs, shared between what is often summed up like black schist Anjou and and limestone white Anjou, fully flourish on the banks of the Loire, near the river and near its tributaries, Thouet , the Layon and the Aubance. More than 2,000 winegrowers have often worked there for several generations all styles of wine, quiet and sparkling ; 19 AOC were recognized on this large territory of 21,400 hectares, to which are added 8 denominations and a still white wines, all from the same emblematic grape: the Chenin,
The first two will be made in the heart of AOC Savennières, small by size ; 150 hectares operated by 30 producers in three towns, large by its singularity , the vineyard overlook the right bank of The Loire, at the Château d’Etrée and the Domaine des Baumard. You take the sweet road of the Bonnezeaux , and the Coteaux du Layon, then will make a stop in the areas of the La Bougrie, and the Clavières. Finally, the journey will continue east with a final stage south of Saumur, to taste a wine from the eponymous appellation to the well-named Domaine Lavigne .The Château d’Épiré only works the Savennières appellation, With three cuvées which correspond to particular micro-terroirs but within a relatively small radius, 10 hectares in the very town of Épiré . The Croix Picot benefits from slightly botrytized harvest as has been done for a long time, but it brings modernity by a vinification in recent barrels, which are between one and fifteen years old, The Domaine de Baumard 20 km from Angers, Rochefort-sur- Loire rhymes with Baumard since 1634 ; it currently extends over 40 hectares spread over the two banks of the river. is mainly devoted to still white wines as well as to the Crémant de Loire, which does not prevent the Baumard from making light red when the vintage allows. It is one of their two Savennières who marked the minds Le Clos du Papillon 2019. It comes from a more clay soil than the Clos de Saint Yves which comes from sandy plots, but they remain generally on schist land of the Domaine de La Bougrie ,a happy Bonnezeaux currently extends over a hundred hectares. Eight grape varieties are cultivated there and then transformed into wines of 13 different appellations, not to mention the mono-cenage cuvées of Chardonnay and Sauvignon which are sold in IGP it is an exceptional wine, packaged in 50 cl bottles, and do a few dozen hectoliters per year, that’s all, The plots are located on schist soil. Apart from that, the field also produces other whites in the region, red, worked in barrels, quite confidentially, and above all a lot of rosé, the demand of customers remaining high, Domaine des Clavières in a classic partition, produce at the Caveau du Vieux Pressoir of winesof all kinds, including several cuvées on the famous Coteaux du Layon. To reach another audience, it is markets one under the name of Domaine des Clavières, since 2010 through the merchant Herbault. The Domaine Lavigne, three generations of Lavigne have devoted themselves and still devote themselves to wine, in Varrains, south of Saumur, on the left bank of the Loire. Today, they resumed the family business in 1999 and manage 45 hectares of vines with the particularity of having 42 hectares of Cabernet Franc and 3 hectares of Chenin; Two grape varieties to which are added, it is a novelty, of the first harvests of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay for the production of a special cuvée of Crémant de Loire Extra-Brut. Great wines, better prices to drink by all now !
The Château Monbazillac is nostalgic for me each time I see and now even drink once in a while, This were the favorite wines of my dear late wife Martine, she liked them sweet, The Château Monbazillac 2022 won the 28th edition of the Monbazillac competition ! It comes from the vines that surround the Château de Monbazillac and belong to the cellar since the acquisition of the castle, a standard carrier of the appellation, by the latter in 1960. 32 Cuvées for the 2022 vintage participated in the competition and were tasted by 45 sommeliers trainers, coming from all over France and welcomed over two days by the interprofession during the congress of their association in the Bergerac vineyard, the Monbazillac competition was a highlight of their vineyard discovery program. Webpage: https://chateau-monbazillac.com/en/wine-tourism-tours-in-dordogne/
And last, some entertainment indeed with wine and film !! The film of Madame de Sévigné The release of Isabelle Brocard in the coming out of the film last February 24,2024, was, also, an opportunity to taste the wines of the AOC Grignan-les-Adhémar by rereading her correspondence. The appellation of the Drôme Provençale honors the writer’s memory each year with a cuvée. The film is interpreted by Karin Viard, the Marquise de Sévigné is a brilliant and independent woman. A woman of head and heart who wishes the same fate for her daughter Françoise (Ana Girardot). A passionate mother, she maintains a tormented fused relationship as soon as she marries the Count of Grignan (Cédric Kahn). The circumstances, the distance and the emotional lack will be the source of a vast correspondence which will give birth to a major literary work. On his promontory, the Château de Grignan imposes by his Renaissance style and his magnificent terrace that served as a setting in the film, like that of Suze-la-Rousse, its neighbor. The ghost of Madame de Sévigné is omnipresent (she will die at the castle), to the point of erasing the count François Adhémar de Monteil de Grignan and the countess. A festival is even dedicated to him. Each year, at the beginning of July, the festival de la correspondance or correspondence festival honors the epistolier. 1800 hectares planted from Châteauneuf-du-Rhône to the north, to Saint-Restitut to the south, La Roche-Saint-Secret-Béconne to the east, the Ardèche making its limit to the west. AOC since 1973, it is available in the three colors, but the red is in the majority of more than 35 areas, cooperative cellars and merchants market the appellation. About 65% are AB and HVE certified. For the nobility of the name Grignan-les-Adhémar, illustrates in its own way the Marquise. Madame de Sévigné has her cuvée. For more than 20 years, during the festival, a jury made up of an actor, amateurs and journalists have been electing a “fruity and female” red wine blindly. The bottle then takes on a dedicated label and enjoys amateurs, like that of the Domaine du Serre des Vignes, elected last year. An additional opportunity to discover this pretty property and area, Webpage Allôciné trailer of the movie Madame de Sévigné : https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm=288971.html
Webpage : The official vineyards of Grignan-Les Adhémar : https://www.grignan-adhemar-vin.fr/en
There you go folks, another wine episode of my belle France! The wines news from France that is, superbe, sublime, wonderful, gorgeous, enjoy without moderation but accompanying a meal, family table just perfect. See you in the vineyards of my belle France, Again, hope you enjoy the post as I
And remember, happy travels, good health, and many cheers to all !!!
Paris1972-Versailles2003 