Il Mosnel and Château de Petit Thouars

Pas Dosé, Il Mosnel, Franciacorta

Faced with a substantial family incursion yesterday, it seemed sensible to cook something that could be prepared in advance, so I opted for cooking a whole chicken in a sort of coq au vin style. I say sort of coq au vin style as it a variation on a theme rather than a classic French coq au vin as it included hot and sweet paprika, cumin and fenugreek seeds and a little lime pickle to give bite. It did, however, have lardons, onion and mushroom. 

As an apéro we dug out the last two bottles of the Pas Dosé Franciacorta from Il Mosnel. Franciacorta hosted the EWBC conference last year in Brescia. The creamy Pas Dosé showed well with attractive fruit and not aggressive despite it being a brut zéro.    

2005 Château du Petit Thouars 

With the chicken I went for an old faithful: the 2005 Château du Petit Thouars, AC Touraine. 100% Cabernet Franc this had plenty of weight to stand up to the rich and spicy chicken and its sauce. Petit Thouars and a few other estates at the western extremity of Indre-et-Loire will soon be joining the Chinon appellation – well deserved.     

Duo of crus communaux + Finkus Bripp interviews 'This blogger'

Finkus Bripp: "Can anyone tell me why I've got a camera growing out of

my ear and a shade attached to my cap? I thought I did the off-beat stuff!"

Plenty of entertaining this weekend that gave me the opportunity to try out some more of the Muscadet crus communaux and to gauge people's reactions to them.

First on Saturday evening we had friends over for dinner. The willingness of our recently opened fishmongers and butchers – Billings – to take orders prompted me to opt for a first course of mulet aux olives et au vin blanc (grey mullet with olives and white wine) served cold. This simple recipe comes from Elizabeth David's French Provincial Cooking and used to be one of my regular dishes in the days when Richards, a fine fishmonger in Brewer Street in the heart of London's Soho still existed. Sadly this shop along with others like Hamburger (also on Brewer Street specialising in a variety of smoked fish) and Gomez Ortega (a wonderful Spanish grocers on nearby Old Compton Street) have long gone. Grey mullet came hard to find. The dish is very easy to make but served cold and decorated with thin slices of lime and lemon can look pretty impressive. As an experiment we offered the option of some Polish horseradish sauce bought from Topolski in Druid Street. It worked well.

2006 Monnières Saint-Fiacre, Muscadet Sèvre et Maine

With the mullet we drank the 2006 Monnières Saint-Fiacre, Muscadet Sèvre et Maine from Véronique Gunther-Chereau at Château du Coing. The Monnières' quite opulent and rich fruit matched the meaty flesh of the mullet and with enough acidity to freshen the palate. Our friends were surprised to discover a Muscadet in this style and of such quality.

Finkus Bripp

Then yesterday lunchtime Finkus Bripp (wine on the rocks) made his way down from Hendon to South London to interview 'this blogger'. Finkus is normally based in Munich but is over in the UK for a few days. He continues to be a busy boy having recently launched his own 'pointless' wine shop and making a wine in Portugal's Douro Valley.

Miolo Brut, Franciacorta, Villa Crespia

In preparation for the rigours of the 'on the rocks' interview we had a glass of the full textured Miolo Brut, Franciacorta from Villa Crespia with its toasty and honeyed notes balanced by good, ripe acidity. Sadly this was the last of our half bottles that we brought back from our October visit to Franciacorta for the European Wine Bloggers Conference. These halves have proved to be a very useful and practical size providing an evening apéro for two or even a glass each for three people.

Then over a light lunch – baked omelette with bacon, potato and cheese and salad – we tried another Muscadet from Véronique Gunther-Chereau – the 2005 Château de la Gravelle from Gorges. This proved to be more mineral than the 2006, which was somewhat of a surprise for the vintage but may instead be a reflection of the terroir of Gorges. The Gravelle, however, did have enough buttery weight to partner the omelette.

Finkus prepares to interview 'this blogger'

Lunch over it was onto a wide-ranging interview with Finkus (shot using a Canon EOS 7 with a 16-35 L lens) – to be released at some date in the future.

The trademark Bripp cap – 'the Bripp effect'

Il Mosnel – our last visit in Franciacorta

Lucia Barzanò pouring Franciacorta 

My post on Les 5 du Vin this week is on Franciacorta producer – Il Mosnel – our final visit in the area. 

European Wine Bloggers' Conference 2011 (#EWBC): more photos from Ca' del Bosco

Benvenuti in Ca' del Bosco

Further photos from a very good visit to Ca' del Bosco on Sunday, which included an excellent lunch which was served with commendable speed in stark contrast to the disastrous 'gala' dinner at the Loggia in Brescia the night before.  

Gardens of Ca' del Bosco 

Bridge@Bosco

Autumn vine leaves 

The winery

Another view of the new pigeage machine – horn is used for a téte de cuvée

Stefano Capelli, the chief winemaker

Mirrored walk 

European Wine Bloggers' Conference 2011 (#EWBC): reflections on blogging

George Taber giving his keynote speech@the #EWBC

Inevitably being at the European Wine Bloggers' Conference raises questions about why we are blogging, how to do it better, who our audiences are and what are the differences, if any, between blogging and other forms of wine communication.

When I started writing about wine over 20 years ago I was a wine writer or as I preferred a wine journalist. Now am I a blogger who is also a journalist or is it the other way round or is there no longer any really useful distinction between a blogger and a writer/journalist? That blogging is just another tool for communicating offering different opportunities from the printed word and, doubtless, having its own limitations. Blogging, for instance, allows me point up more regularly the shortcomings of 1855 than would be possible in a published magazine. On the other hand the three news stories that Decanter magazine (through decanter.com) have taken from me about 1855 will, I'm sure, have reached a much wider audience. Of course some of the information that came to me through blogging about 1855 then went into the Decanter stories.  

On Friday in the initial round-table panel presentation and discussion, Evan Dawson, author of Summer in a glass and managing editor of the New York Cork Report, said that "specialism is the future of wine blogging". There are now so many bloggers out there that to be successful you need to carve out a niche. I'm pretty sure that Evan is right – bloggers need to find something that sets their site/blog apart from others. Whether it is by concentrating on a particular area, a particular style or some aspect of the wine world such as natural or organic wines. Equally it might be on a more campaigning theme – an area I think has not been fully explored by blogs.

Whether there is a real distinction between bloggers and journalists there ought to be one area of agreement between the two – if you sign up to go on a trip you keep your side of the bargain by turning up no matter how late into the night you partied. Yesterday on one of the EWBC trips to Franciacorta, the hosts and main sponsors of this year's conference in Brescia, only six people out of the 20 who had signed up turned up. 14 no shows, unless there is a very good reason why they didn't make it, is a disgrace and highly unprofessional. Such behaviour reflects very badly not only on the absentees but also on wine bloggers and the European Wine Bloggers' Conference. 

   

European Wine Bloggers' Conference 2011 (#EWBC): Sunday Franciacorta trip

 Entering the gates@Ca'del Bosco

Very good Sunday European Wine Bloggers Conference trip to two wineries in Franciacorta: Ca'del Bosco and Monte Rossa.  

Revolutionary rhino pigeage machine@Ca'del Bosco

More photos to add 

European Wine Bloggers' Conference 2011 (#EWBC): wear your badge@all times!!

Power point instructions

Strict instructions were issued@the beginning of the conference that delegate name badges must be worn at all times. We followed the instructions to the letter...   

European Wine Bloggers' Conference 2011 (#EWBC): George Taber

 George Taber: the keynote speaker@#EWBC11

George M. Taber, author of The Judgment of Paris and To Cork or Not to Cork, gave the key speech yesterday afternoon to the 2011 European Wine Bloggers' Conference in Brescia. 'Telling stories' is the theme this year.

Here are a few snippets from George's speech:  

"Story not about you it is about your subject."

"Small detail important. Small details bring the character alive."

"Describe the thing that makes a character interesting and do it in detail and do it accurately."

"Bad thing is that it takes lots of time to find the little details." George tends not to tell his subjects how long he will have to spend with them and how many times he will need to interview them as he conducts interviews over a long time."

"Old journalistic trick – save your tough questions for the end." Tough questions posed at the beginning of an interview will make you subject clam up and be defensive.  

"Best stories not from the source but from their friends and, in particular, their enemies."

"Wine bloggers not in the pocket of the wine industry."

"More honesty from wine bloggers than Robert Parker."

I found George Taber's presentation thought-provoking and agreed with much of what he said. However, I have considerable doubts about the last two claims here. There are so many wine bloggers and from many different backgrounds that it is firstly difficult to make broad generalisations. It may be that many wine bloggers are less in the pocket of the wine industry than some critics but this is still early days and I can't see any significant difference between press visits by established wine writers and those by wine bloggers. In both cases the participants are wined and dined and often given a present at the end of the visit.

Equally it is a big and possibly, legally, dangerous (Parker is a retired lawyer), claim to make that wine bloggers are more honest than Robert Parker. Certainly a number of wine blogs have a fresh view of wine but more honesty overall? Not sure I would want to defend this in a court of law! 

 Conference in the magnificent setting of the Santa Giulia Museum 

4th European Wine Bloggers Conference and Born Digital Wine Awards

As announced on Saturday night in Vienna the 4th European Wine Bloggers' Conference will be held in Brescia and will feature the sparkling wines of Franciacorta. Registration for EWBC4 opened today@  http://ewbc2011.eventbrite.com/ Places are limited at 200.

The American Wine Bloggers' Conference is in Virginia on July 22-24, 2011, where you can taste the wines of the Eastern seaboard of the USA. Register HERE! Places are limited at 325.

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Further details on the new Born Digital Wine Awards here. In some quarters these awards have been nicknamed The White Noise Awards.