'Fou midi du muscadet'

Bunch of ripe Melon de Bourgogne, Pays Nantais, 30.9.09

From today's Presse Ocean the selection of three Muscadets for la Folle Journée, the festival of classical music being held in Nantes from Wednesday 27th through to Sunday 31st January.

'Les muscadets de la Folle Journée ont été choisis par les spectateurs venus acheter leurs billets. Affalés sur des chaises, las d'attendre mais satisfaits : la quête du Graal s'achève. Bientôt, ils auront leurs places pour la Folle Journée. Au fond, près des petites tables, Hélène, billets en poche, est ravie : elle participe, comme chaque spectateur pouvait le faire, à la sélection des trois muscadets de la Folle Journée 2010. Présentés dans des bouteilles noires, goûtés à l'aveugle.'

Strictly speaking it should be the Pays Nantais' other white, the Gros Plant, that is served at the festival as it is made from La Folle Blanche. However, leaving that aside, the three Muscadets selected were from: 'Dominique et Béatrice Hardy (Mouzillon), de Bruno Cormerais (Saint-Lumine-de-Clisson) et des frères Poiron-Dabin (Château-Thébaud)'.

Lire la suite – Read the rest here.

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Staying with Muscadet there is an interesting article here on Labivin about the mutation of a Melon de Bourgogne vine that started to produce black grapes as well as white, perhaps returning to its parentage. For some reason the link to the Labivin article refuses to work despite several attempts to sort it out, so here is the URL : http://www.labivin.net/article-mutation-du-cepage-melon-de-bourgogne-muscadet-41884790.html

This second link does work – sometimes the blogger editor moves (or doesn't move) in mysterious ways!