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




Thursday 29 November 2018

Adegga Winemarket Lisboa: Saturday 1st December 2018 – it's fast approaching




Adegga's winter Lisbon edition of their Wine Market is fast approaching – Saturday 1st December from 14.00 - 21.00 at a new venue this year – Armazém 16, Marvila, Lisboa.  

70 Produtores Adegga, 500 Vinhos, 6 Chefs, 1 Sala Premium

The 70 producers, who will be showing their wines, are some of Portugal's best wine domaines. 

If you happen to be in Lisbon on Saturday and want to taste some excellent and varied Portuguese wines the Adegga Wine Market is highly recommended.  


Wednesday 28 November 2018

Some more Loire dates: Portes Ouvertes chez Pierre-Henri Gadais, Noblaie + Marché de Noël à Pouilly-sur-Loire



Les Trois Jeunes Vignerons 
– Pierre-Henri, Michel et Christophe Gadais


Portes ouvertes at Pierre-Henri Gadais' Domaine de la Combe: Saturday 1st December and Sunday 2nd December

Details of Domaine de la Combe here and here

•••

Domaine de la Noblaie, Ligré (Appellation Chinon):
Portes Ouvertes: Saturday 1st and Sunday 2nd December  

 
Details here:
***


Marché de Noël at La Tour de Pouilly – Sunday 9th December





Tuesday 27 November 2018

A few more Loire dates for your diary + Les Filles à Bléré



Xavier Cailleau, Château de Bois-Brinçon
Blason Saint-Sulpice, Anjou



 Bléré, Touraine


A recommended lunchtime spot in Bléré: L'UNION – Chez les Filles 
I haven't yet eaten here but L'Union comes strongly recommended, so:

From La Nouvelle République (6.1.18)
Après un parcours à La Poste toutes les deux, Sonia Trabelsi-Anglade et Catherine Vandezande se lançaient il y a onze ans dans une toute nouvelle aventure en ouvrant le bar-brasserie L’Union au 23, place de la Libération. Depuis, les deux femmes, accompagnées en cuisine par Sophie, ont fait leur bout de chemin avec succès.

En fin d’année, au regard des coûts pour faire évoluer leur outil de travail et le mettre aux nouvelles normes handicapées, elles ont fait le pari de s’installer dans un nouvel établissement situé juste à côté, au 21, place de la Libération. « Les montants des travaux étaient si importants que nous avons eu envie d’être dans nos murs ; ce bâtiment était en vente, on a profité de l’opportunité » explique Sonia.


21, place de la Libération, Bléré
Tél. 02.36.20.94.72




Monday 26 November 2018

Montrichard: Festival des vins de Touraine - how was it?




Lionel Gosseaume, vice-president of l’ODG Touraine
'OGD: organisation de gestion et de défense de' 


For 33 years Montrichard, a small town in the Cher Valley, hosted a Touraine Primeur (Gamay) celebration every November when the new wine was released. Unfortunately I never caught one of these events as for some reason I am never in Touraine in mid-November. This June is was announced that this event would not be run this year. Instead there would be a new event at Montrichard involving wine and food with the focus on the range of Touraine wines rather than just Gamay Primeur.  

From La Nouvelle République  (2nd June 2018)
La manifestation montrichardaise ne sera pas reconduite. Tout au moins pas sous la même forme. Une aventure trentenaire s’achève. Non sans regrets.

Some local mayor were sad to see a popular event go after 33 years. However, as Lionel Gosseaume explains below in another article in La Nouvelle République, Touraijne Gamay Primeur was no longer enhancing the reputation of the wines of Touraine. Its sales only represent 0.4% of the appellation's production. It has become an ultra-marginal product, so continuing to spend 10% of Appellation Touraine's promotional budget on the annual two-day Touraine doesn't make any sense.  

Explanation by Lionel Gosseaume in the NR: 21.11.18 
Décider de ne plus communiquer sur le touraine primeur n’a jamais autant fait parler du touraine primeur ! Le paradoxe fait sourire Lionel Gosseaume, mais pour le vigneron de Choussy, responsable de la stratégie de communication de l’AOC touraine, il n’y a aucune ambiguïté. « Le touraine primeur est devenu une production ultra-marginale, à peine 0,4 % de la production, et on mettait près de 10 % de notre budget dessus. En début d’année, le nouveau conseil d’administration a voté à une très large majorité l’abandon de cette action, pour s’engager dans une nouvelle stratégie de valorisation de toute l’appellation touraine. »
 
Instead Appellation Touraine decided to hold last weekend their first Festival des Vins de Touraine in Montrichard. It featured 35 local Touraine producers included a number of top Touraine vignerons as well as a top chef Rémy Giraud, chef de cuisine des Hauts de Loire à Onzain to head up their food offer.

35 Vignerons who showed their wines:
Cave des Producteurs de Montlouis-sur-Loire
Divin Loire
Domaine Château de Fontenay
Domaine de la Chaise
Domaine de la Chapinière
Domaine de Marcé
Domaine des Caillots
Domaine des Chezelles
Domaine des Echardières
Domaine des Pierrettes
Domaine Desroches
Domaine du Clos Roussely
Domaine du Colombier
Domaine Jean-Christophe Mandard

Domaine Jean-Marie Penet
Domaine Jeremy Villemaine
Domaine Joël Delaunay
Domaine Josselin Ragot
Domaine Laurent Le Bihan
Domaine les Vaucorneilles
Domaine Lionel Gosseaume
Domaine Mérieau
Domaine Mesliand
Domaine Raphaël Midoir
Domaine Sauvète
Domaine Xavier Frissant
Le Cellier de Beaujardin
Les Caves du Père Auguste
Les Pierres d’Aurèle
Les Vignerons des Côteaux Romanais
Manoir de la Vignière
Montdomaine
  
Was the Festival a success? As I wasn't there I will rely on a Scottish couple, who live a good part of the year near to Montrichard, for their view on the first edition of this new festival. My grateful thanks to them: 
   

Photo by Martha and David McCorkindale
'Happy to give our impressions of the Festival des Vins which took place at the weekend in Montrichard.

Saturday turned into a bright sunny day, so we decided to go into Montrichard mid-afternoon - the guingette with live music was under way at the place next to the Mairie, under a large clear tent, with a dance floor.  They had a selection of different kinds of music, all good, but not many people there. This was also the case in rue Porte aux Rois and the caves under the donjon where the vignerons had their stalls (I attach a photo taken late Saturday afternoon).  There was an opportunity to collect any wine bought round the corner off place General du Gaulle, which meant the exhibitors didn't have to keep their stock beside their stalls. As usual the vignerons were happy to talk about their wines and it was a great opportunity to sample local produce.  We passed l'hotel Effiat where again there were ateliers culinaires (including ones for children) with samples of produits du terroir and experts happy to share their knowledge.

We thought it was a very well organised event, but disappointing that so few people appeared to be there (at least while we were there).  Unfortunately yesterday was dull and very wet, hope that word had got round and numbers had increased.

If you have been to any of the Montrichard Touraine Primeur events in previous years (33 in total apparently), you'll know that it was difficult to move through the streets because of the large number of people. Not sure if the reduction in attendance is because it's a new/separate event, with different organisers.  The link to an article in the local paper possibly gives an explanation as to the reason:

This is a report from La Nouvelle Republique on the inauguration of the event on Saturday morning, which appears to have been better attended:

We hope the event will continue to be held in future years, in whatever format, because it really does give local producers an opportunity to market their wines and food to a wider audience, and for a relatively small town, Montrichard is really excellent at hosting external events throughout the year.'
Any new event is likely to take time to establish itself. Hopefully, if there is a second edition there will be more publicity prior to the event. I was unaware that it was happening until the day before the event. Is late November the best time? There are lots of other competing wine events on at this time? Would it be worth considering another season when there are more visitors in Montrichard?
 Montrichard

The Cher@ Montrichard

Friday 23 November 2018

1st Festival des Vins de Touraine @Montrichard, 24th and 25th November




Have received a very late notice of the first edition of this Festival of Touraine wines to be held in Montrichard on this Saturday and Sunday (24th and 25th November). Looks an interesting and promising list of producers and well worth going along to taste many of the best producers in AC Touraine. Unfortunately I'm not in the area this weekend.

Press release
'Le 1er Festival des Vins de Touraine se déroulera les 24 et 25 novembre 2018 à Montrichard Val de Cher. L’inauguration officielle aura lieu samedi 24 novembre à 10h00, sous le chapiteau de la guinguette, en présence d’élus et personnalités de la région. Cette cérémonie sera suivie d’un vin d’honneur. A l’issue de l’inauguration, place à la fête !

Vous trouverez ci-dessous le programme du Festival,  que vous pouvez également télécharger ici en pdf : FESTIVAL DES VINS DE TOURAINE 2018 : Programme

The Cher @Montrichard


VILLAGE DES VIGNERONS
La qualité des vins de l’appellation Touraine sera mise en avant par les trente-cinq domaines viticoles présents pendant le Festival. Dans une ambiance festive, le grand public pourra déambuler au cœur du village des vignerons, installé dans les caves Effiat et Mouzay, et dans la rue Porte au Roi, et déguster des Touraine blancs, rouges, rosés et des fines bulles. Le Festival sera aussi une nouvelle occasion pour les visiteurs d’aller à la rencontre de ces vignerons passionnés par leur travail et leur terroir.

35 Vignerons showing their wines:
Cave des Producteurs de Montlouis-sur-Loire
Divin Loire
Domaine Château de Fontenay
Domaine de la Chaise
Domaine de la Chapinière
Domaine de Marcé
Domaine des Caillots
Domaine des Chezelles
Domaine des Echardières
Domaine des Pierrettes
Domaine Desroches
Domaine du Clos Roussely
Domaine du Colombier
Domaine Jean-Christophe Mandard

Domaine Jean-Marie Penet
Domaine Jeremy Villemaine
Domaine Joël Delaunay
Domaine Josselin Ragot
Domaine Laurent Le Bihan
Domaine les Vaucorneilles
Domaine Lionel Gosseaume
Domaine Mérieau
Domaine Mesliand
Domaine Raphaël Midoir
Domaine Sauvète
Domaine Xavier Frissant
Le Cellier de Beaujardin
Les Caves du Père Auguste
Les Pierres d’Aurèle
Les Vignerons des Côteaux Romanais
Manoir de la Vignière
Montdomaine



Details here:

Tuesday 20 November 2018

Fast approaching Loire dates for your diary

bioTyfoule


Biotyfoule21 vigneronnes et vignerons bio tourangeaux vous donnent rendez-vous dans le hall de la Mairie de Tours les samedi 24 et dimanche 25 novembre 2018 pour la 9e édition de Biotyfoule.

Alors que les Français n'ont jamais été autant intéressés par les vins bio, cet événement sera l'occasion de découvrir qui se cache derrière les étiquettes. De Bourgueil à Vouvray, en passant par Montlouis, Azay-le-Rideau, Amboise ou Chinon, les producteurs présenteront leurs cuvées issues des cépages locaux travaillés en agriculture biologique certifiée. Vous évoluerez de stand en stand, comme lors d'une balade au cœur des terroirs tourangeaux.

Dégustation et vente. Accès libre, verre à dégustation : 5€.
Hôtel de Ville de Tours, samedi 24 de 11h à 19h, dimanche 25 de 10h à 18h.
 
Ouvert aux particuliers et aux professionnels. Petite restauration bio sur place. Ateliers du goût gratuits.


biotyfoule18a

•••

Anges Vins details here.

•••

Saumur Salon

Details of Saumur Salon: 1st and 2nd December.  

•••

La Boire

La BoireSalon de vins bio et naturelsSamedi 1 et dimanche 2 décembre 2018Au Wattignies Social Club, sur l’île de Nantes

Loire

Manu et Marion Landron-Pescheux, domaine Complémen'Terre (Muscadet);
Jacques et Agnès Carroget, domaine La Paonnerie (Pinards et Jus); Marie Carroget et Sandra Chenal (Nord Loire); Johan Chassé (Pinards et Jus); Philippe Chevarin (Pinards et Jus); Adrien De Mello, domaine de la Petite Sœur (Anjou); Stéphane Delettre (Bourgueil); Jacques Février, domaine Le Raisin à Plume (Pinards et Jus); Xavière Hardy (Pinards et Jus); Mathieu Lhotellier (Pinards et Jus); Marc Pesnot, domaine La Sénéchalière; Rémy Sédès (Pinards et Jus); Thibault Stephan (Saumur Puy- Notre-Dame); David Landron, l’Aufrère (Muscadet); Benoit, Bernard et Françoise Landron, domaines Landron- Chartier (Pinards et Jus); Emilie Brunet Tourette, domaine la Tour brune (Anjou);  Igor et Melanie, domaine du Bois Rond (Pinards et Jus); Yoann Gillot, domaine les Vins jardinés (Muscadet)


Alsace
Julien Albertus, domaine Kumpf-Meyer

Beaujolais
Sylvère Trichard, domaine Séléné

Jura
Gilles Wicky

Languedoc-Roussillon
Victor Beau, Domaine Inebriati
Patrice Dethil, domaine Calimàs  Rhône Sud
Elodie Aubert, Clos des Cîmes (Rhône Sud)

Dordogne
Romuald Ambitio


•••

 

Producers:
Olivier BELLANGER-- Domaine La Piffaudière, Pierre-Olivier BONHOMME-- Domaine Pierre-Olivier Bonhomme, Mikaël BOUGES, Alain COURTAULT et Simon TARDIEUX-- Domaine Courtault-Tardieux, Cédric FLEURY--Domaine Les Gauchers, Moses GADOUCHE et Pascal POTAIRE-- Les Capriades, Corinne et Paul GILLET-- Domaine des Maisons brûlées, Jean-Christophe JÉZÉQUEL, Anouk LAVOIE-LAMOUREUX et Paul André RISSE--Domaine Les Jardins de Theseiis, Ariane LESNÉ-- Domaine de Montrieux, Estelle MAÎTRE et François SAINT-LÉGER-- Les Caves de l'Arche Macé, Damien MENUT, Berjan MOL--Domaine La Taupe, Noëlla MORANTIN, Julien PINEAU, Pierre PRADELLE--Domaine des Pies blanches, Vincent ROUSSELY-- Clos Roussely, Jérôme SAUVETE-- Domaine Sauvète, Cyrille SEVIN-- Domaine Cyrille Sevin, Philippe TESSIER-- Domaine Philippe Tessier, Brendan TRACEY, Yann LE POLLOTEC – bière, La PIGEONNELLE – bière

Friday 16 November 2018

Various from Portugal & France

Portugal

Open space

Adegga Wine Market on Saturday 1st December 2018 – a date for your diary

Details 1.12.18

This year the winter Adegga Wine Market has a new venue at Armazém 16, Marvila, Lisboa with 70 Produtores Adegga, 500 Vinhos, 5 Chefs, 1 Sala Premium (Premium Room). Scenes from the 2015 Wine Market in Lisbon

There will be a special 'Rising Stars' section with Álvaro Martinho (Douro), Arribas Wine Company (Trás-os-Montes), Herdade da Anta da Cima (Alentejo), Portugal Boutique Winery (Douro), Rosa da Mata (Dão), Titan of Douro (Douro) already confirmed.

It will be interesting to see how the empty space above will be transformed for the Wine Market. If you happen to be in Lisbon on Saturday 1st December then a few hours spent at the Wine Market is highly recommended – a brilliant opportunity to meet some of Portugal's most interesting wine producers, taste their wines and then buy at a discounted price.

••
Lisbon is booming – a week last Sunday morning we travelled back into Lisbon where we had again had a great meal at Terroso and the streets were mobbed at 1.15 am with traffic jams – true it was the weekend before the Web Summit ...... but even so. Sadly Terroso is now closed on Sundays and Mondays, so long Sunday lunches are now out, so will just have to have long Saturday lunches or even long Tuesday lunches instead.

It is more than a full-time job trying to keep up with all the new bars and restaurant openings in Central Lisbon. During our brief Lisbon visit we did try one new restaurant – Picamiolos, where the influence is very much from the Alentejo. We were very impressed.

Rabbit chops

There were some very creative dishes like the above very crispy rabbit chops – so crispy that you eat the bone and all.

Accorda Guinea Fowl

Acorda is very much a traditional Portuguese recipe – a recipe based on bread and including fish or shellfish often prawns or monkfish. Acorda is a little like a bread porridge. Although well done acorda can be very good, here at Picamiolos the approach was decidedly different. Their acorda of guinea fowl was more akin to a bread and butter pudding without the sweetness – the bread lightly toasted. With this we drank the fascinating and lightly spicy 2013 Mayor from José da Sousa, which is vinified in ceramic amphora that has a very long tradition in the Alentejo dating back to Roman times.

I do hope that Lisbon will ride the boom and continue to offer quality food and drink at a reasonable price wherever you go – one of the big reasons for the the city's current popularity. If it doesn't then there is always a danger that boom can turn rapidly to bust.

France

Make Mine a Pouilly-Fumé!

2014 La Mine-miner

2014 La Mine

On Friday night we opened the stunning 2014 Barre à Mine, Blanc Fumé de Pouilly from Michel Redde – a combination of lovely rich texture citric fruits edging towards more exotic fruits matching by great clean mineral length. Drinking brilliantly now but clearly capable of aging much longer.

Barre à Mine comes from a special relatively recently created vineyard planted in very flinty ground just off the D4 close to La Roche in the northern end of the Pouilly-Fumé appellation. The Reddes cleared some huge boulders (see below) from ground around an old quarry – hence the name.

Rocksremoved 

SilexinFroida
Vines struggling through pure flint....

Pro-1

Vignobles & Signatures venture to London (part two)

IMG_8344 (1)

(First published on Les 5 du Vin)

My last week's post covered the Loire producers who were present at the first London tasting. This week covers those producers from other parts of France and whose wines I tasted and impressed me and, in the case of Roger Groult, his cider and Calvados. To make this tasting manageable producers were limited to showing four examples from their range.

Domaine Paul Blanck & Fils
It was good to see Philippe Blanck again and taste the wines which Frédéric, his cousin, makes. The Blanck wines have lovely purity and precision. This was typified by the 2017 Rosenbourg Riesling, from a parcel planted on granite, with its concentration of fruit and length on the palate. No doubt the severe April frost, which reduced yields by 80%, accentuated this wine's precision.  Their 2016 Grand Cru Furstentum, comes from a limestone vineyard, and has lovely mouth-filling texture and again is very long and precise. Surely this has the potential to age for many years.


Quatuor_de_Cauhape


Domaine Cauhapé
Moving from the eastern end of France to the south-west to Jurançon close to the Pyrénées, I was impressed by all four of the Domaine Cauhapé wines – 2017 Geyser (sec), 2015 La Canopée (sec), 2015 C de Cauhapé (sec) and 2015 Quator. But then Cauhapé has long been a source of fine Jurançon – both sec and moelleux. I'll pick out the richly fruited and textured 2015 Quator (100% Petit Manseng), which is a blend of the best of Cauhapé's range of sweet wines. It has wonderful freshness in the finish to balance the rich fruit.


Coume del Mas 
This domaine, which joined Vignobles & Signatures last year, was created in 2001 by Philippe and Nathalie Gard making Banyuls and Collioure. I was particularly impressed by their 2016 Quadratur Collioure made from 50% Grenache Noir, 30% Mourvedre and 20% Carignan. Full of rich, concentrated, ripe black fruits it has lovely texture and  very good length.


Les Grisettes


Roger Groult
Although I have tasted and enjoyed Roger Groult's Calvados, I had never tried his cider. The company's origins go back to the 18th Century but it was Roger Groult (1905-1988) who really established distillery's reputation and gave the company his name. His grandson is now the owner and distiller.


I liked the cider's strong appley character, which I assume comes both from the quality of fruit but also that the cider is bottled fermented and spends two years on its lees before being dégorged. I tasted the 2015, which was dégorged in 2017. Unfortunately it is not available in the UK. As it retails for 12€ in France it may be the price that puts UK imports off.

The three Calvados on show – 3 ans d'âge, Vénerable and the Sherry cask finish – were all impressive particularly for the gentleness of the spirit – not at all aggressive.

Amongst other wines tasted – Jean Durup's crisp 2017 Petit Chablis (10.80€) and the more concentrated 2017 Chablis (13.30€) were good value and that Domaine de l'Hortus (Pic Saint-Loup) remains a star of the Languedoc.


Pro-1

Monday 5 November 2018

Vignobles et Signatures venture to London (part one)

IMG_8344 (1)


For the first time since the Vignobles et Signatures group of French producers were founded in 1984, representatives from 15 members of their 17 members came to London to show off their wines. In the case of Roger Groult it was their cider and Calvados and for Famille Lesgourgues an Armagnac.

I don't know whether V&S decided that October 2018 was their last easy chance to display their wares before the utter lunacy of Brexit kicks in at the end of March 2019 leading to who knows what sorts of complications – visas, travel delays etc. – to make the short journey across the Channel/La Manche. Two of the club's members were absent – Domaine Rolet (Jura) and Vignobles Joseph Janoueix (Saint-Emilion, Pomerol). I can only assume that they decided that it made no sense to visit a small island off the coast of mainland Europe in the middle of a full blown nervous breakdown and wilfully committing economic and political suicide. Who, furthermore, from 29th March 2019 will not be able to afford to buy their wines. All in all a rather understandable and hard-headed decision.

Whatever it was a very good tasting with the 15 who ventured into the lunatic asylum as each producer was sensibly limited to showing four wines/cider or spirit.. This meant I was able to taste the majority of the wines although I didn't have time to taste everyone.

All the wines shown were of a high standard – I didn't taste one poor wine.

Vignobles & Signatures have three Loire domaines – Château de Tracy (Pouilly-Fumé), Guilbaud Frères (Muscadet-Sèvre-et-Maine) and Couly-Dutheil (Chinon).

Tracys
Château de Tracy

I started with Château de Tracy (Pouilly-Fumé). It was good to meet Juliette d'Estutt d'Assay, who took over a couple of years ago from her brother Comte Henry d'Assay, who ran the estate for many years but in 2016 founded his own négociant business – Comte Henry d'Assay  – which concentrates on Sauvignon Blancs from the Loire and the Côtes de Gascogne.

Juliette showed three wines – the 2017 domaine, 2015 Haute Densité (a small plot planted with 17,000 vines per hectare) and 101 Rangs also a 2015 from a plot on flint near the château. Of the three I found Haute Densité, which is matured in a 30 hl  foudre, the most impressive with its concentration, length and clear potential to age.

IMG_5720 
Pascal Guilbaud 


I first met Pascal Guilbaud (Guilbaud Frères) in February 1989 during my first professional visit to the Pays Nantais and my first trip for a Decanter article. Those were the days when the sales of Muscadet in the UK were buoyant and there was an annual article in Decanter. Pascal wasn't in London instead it was good to meet his daughter Romane and her partner Maxime Fernandez. Romane started working at the family firm in October 2017.

From their four wines I picked out the characterful 2017 Soleil Nantais and the complex 2009 Clos du Pont, which is made in a long ageing (more than two years) Muscadet Cru Communal style. Guilbaud Frères first made this cuvée in 1983. Romane told me that although they are in the commune of Gorges, Pascal isn't part of the Gorges Cru Communal as it was they who started off the movement with this cuvée. As an outsider staying outside the Crus Communaux movement, which is raising Muscadet's profile seems a pity, especially if you were a precursor.

CDcellarapproachs 
Approach to the Couly Dutheil cellars
in the centre of Chinon 

Due to finishing the fine 2018 harvest Arnaud Couly stayed behind in Chinon. They showed two whites from 2017 – Blanc de Franc (Vin de France) from 100% Cabernet Franc and Les Chanteaux (Chinon Blanc) from 100% Chenin Blanc. It is rare for Cabernet Franc to be vinified as a still white, although this is a frequent practice for Loire sparkling wines. It works well with the 2017 Blanc de Franc having good concentration and attractive texture. Of the two reds the Clos de l'Echo naturally stood out with its ripe concentration of black fruits. Although it can be drunk now this really needs more time in bottle to reveal its full potential.

My post next week will cover the producers from outside the Loire.
    Pro-1Pro-1