Awards and citations:


1997: Le Prix du Champagne Lanson Noble Cuvée Award for investigations into Champagne for the Millennium investment scams

2001: Le Prix Champagne Lanson Ivory Award for investdrinks.org

2011: Vindic d'Or MMXI – 'Meilleur blog anti-1855'

2011: Robert M. Parker, Jnr: ‘This blogger...’:

2012: Born Digital Wine Awards: No Pay No Jay – best investigative wine story

2012: International Wine Challenge – Personality of the Year Award




Monday 9 January 2012

Sancerre: a few photos from late September 2011




Jean-Marc with the chef and owner of la Côte with his wife Karine  
 

Jean-Marc Bourgeois@the hotel bar with a glass of very young 2011 Sancerre (24th September)

Tagliatelle with fresh chèvre: Jean-Marc's irresistible signature dish  


Looking down on Bué from Le Clos de la Poussie 

 Le Clos de la Poussie – difficult to see the extent of the erosion problems from a distance  

 Small village of Champtin between Bué and Crézancy

Claude and Laurent Champault, producers in Champtin

Laurent Champault

4 comments:

Jan-Tore Egge said...

'A very young 2011 Sancerrre' sounds like an understatement. Had it stopped fermenting?

Jim's Loire said...

Probably not JT – I can't remember, although it might have been one of the first to have finished.

Luc Charlier said...

A triple comment, my friend.
First, lovely pictures again. Ever since I started my regular blog myself (July 2011) I have tended to always travel with at least a small camera in the car, and a reflex whenever feasible. But I haven’t got YOUR “eye”. Shame.
Second: Sancerre has stopped fermenting the natural part of its sugars. Now, they’re all down to the chaptalized part, and that takes a while ...... Naughty, naughty.
Third: last time I visited the appellation as a wine-writer – must be around turn of the century - we were all accommodated at a “Soviet style” hotel in the village. You know: alloy frames to the windows, long halls with concrete staircase, neon lights. All comfy and clean, no problem. Don’t remember the name. At night, I went out with the younger local winemakers to a local pub and found out they were all rugby fans. They had all had a gym teacher at school who trained Bourges’ first squad, and had enrolled them in the club. I myself was at the end of my “Scottish period” and liked the game. So it ended up pretty late and ... utterly pissed. I crawled back to the hotel only to find the door locked and I didn’t possess the access code (4 a.m.).
By lucky chance, a window was still ajar at mid-staircase height and I could make my way to the inside ... just. Lovely anecdote, that one. And long live Sancerre’s rugby !

Jim's Loire said...

Merci Luc. Yes always worth carrying a camera.

The Soviet style establishment might have been the Panoramic, now owned by Guy Saget. If you have the option stay at Jean-Marc and Karine's establishment in Chavignol.