Epeigné-les-Bois: bunches forming fast

Photos showing how far advanced the vines are this year  – Gamay, I think, in a small patch of vines.

 Flowering well advanced

Domaine de la Butte: caves ouvertes – le 2 au 5 juin

Jacky and Joëlle Blot are holding their annual Spring open days at Domaine de la Butte in Bourgueil from Thursday 2nd June until Sunday 5th June. They make some of the best Bourgueils to be found. 

  

2010 harvest in mi-pente: the best parcel of La Butte

2010 Cabernet Franc@La Butte

VitiLoire in Tours this Saturday and Sunday: a reminder

Now back in Epeigné-les-Bois, after an early start this morning. The Loire countryside looks very parched  with the grass mainly brown more akin to mid-August in a hot summer. 

A reminder that Vitiloire is on this weekend (Saturday and Sunday) in the centre of Tours:

Tours station

There will be more than 110 Loire producers at Vitiloire 2011 as well as 10 local chefs over the weekend of the 27th and 28th May. There will be stands on the Boulevard Heurteloup, Place de la Gare and in the Jardin de la Préfecture. Full details here including list of producers present.

Stands on the Boulevard Heurteloup (2010 invasion of Tours by the Bourgueil producers)

Among the 110+ producers are: Baudry-Dutour (Chinon), Ch de Bellevue (Layon), Ch de Gaudrelle (Vouvray), Marc Plouzeau (Chinon), Bruno Cormerais (Muscadet), Philippe Cady (Layon), Charles Pain (Chinon), Christian Papin (Anjou), Catherine Dhoye Deruet (Vouvray), Bruno Curassier (Touraine), Antoine Simoneau (Touraine), Jacky Blot (Bourgueil, Montlouis and Vouvray), Victor Lebreton (Anjou), François Jamet (Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil), Vincent Roussely (Touraine), Pierre Aguilas (Layon), Wilfred Rousse (Chinon), Domaine des Forges (Layon and Savennières), Frédéric Hardouin (Chinon), Pascal Janvier (Jasnières), Lysiane and Guy Mabileau (Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil), Sébastien Brunet (Vouvray), Lamé Delisle Boucard (Bourgueil), Pierre Caslot (Bourgueil), Serge Sourdais (Chinon), Clos Neuf des Archambaults (Touraine – Sainte-Maure), Les Maisons Rouges (Jasnières), Nau Frères (Bourgueil), Claude Lafond (Reuilly), Jean-François Merieau (Touraine), Xavier Frissant (Touraine-Amboise) and Bertrand Jousset (Montlouis).

Heading down the A16 to Boulogne