Jim's Loire: Wonderful dinner Chez Vincent Cuisinier de Campagne (Ingrandes-de-Touraine)

Vincent and Olivia's restaurant

Vincent and Olivia Simon used to have a very successful restaurant near Liège (Belgium). They got tired of running a large restaurant, so sold it and in June opened a small restaurant in Ingrandes-en-Touraine right next door to Lamé Delisle Boucard. The restaurant is in an old manor house which used to belong to a family of vignerons.

There are just five tables and the emphasis is very much on local produce – all the vegetables come from their garden as well as chickens, rabbits, geese, etc. The quality of the food is excellent and very reasonably priced: a lunch menu at 16€ for three courses, while for dinner it's 23€ for three courses and 29€ for four. Little wonder that to date the restaurant is nearly always full, particularly in the evening.

We ate with Philippe and Patricia Boucard (Lamé Delisle Boucard) and had a very interesting vertical tasting featuring Bourgueil from three generations of Philippe's family starting with a very attractively textured 2005 Cuvée Prestige. The 2005 represented Philippe's generation, while the next wine – 1976 Cuvée Prestige – was his father's. The 1976 was showing well, again with mouthfilling texture, although the tannins in the finish were a touch dry – probably due to the heat and lack of rain in 1976 causing stress in the vines.

Then we moved onto the 1959 – Philippe's grandfather's generation. This was grandiose and easily the best bottle of the evening – rich, spicy, wonderful sweet ripe fruit, complex and long. The 1947, which Philippe had very kindly added as it is our birth year, suffered in comparison. Still drinkable but below the level of the 1947 that Les 5 du Vin had tasted at the now famous tasting back in early June 2012.

We finished with an astonishing 1904, which Vincent generously opened. When Vincent and Olivia bought their property they were told by the sellers that any wine in the cellar wasn't worth bothering with. How wrong they were! When Vincent gained access to the cellar he found a treasury of old bottles. The 1904 was just one of them. It was astonishing because it is not a spectacular vintage like 1893 but the wine remains drinkable with a good colour, some fresh fruit with quite marked acidity, which presumably has preserved the wine.