Around Bourgueil today – flowering, Café de la Promenade, tasting at Chevalerie

Flowering well underway at Château Minière 

(above and below)

Side on view of the new tasting room at Château Minière

Loïc Terquem, La Floie Lucé, Saumur

@Domaine de la Chevalerie

Eddy et Mylène Oosterlinck-Bracke, Domaine de Juchepie, Layon

@Domaine de la Chevalerie

Laurent Herlin in Lilliput
Sadly Laurent is largely giving up his domaine following a 
succession of difficult vintages
He is keeping on his around one hectare 
vineyard that he owns and will return to his IT work
Understandable but such a great shame!

The bar @Café de la Promenade, Bourgueil

Since taking over from Ludo and Sophie, Norah and Sam 

have put la Promenade on a more professional basis, 

although there is less bohemian chic 

We had a very good meal here tonight.

Le Pot de Lapin – an interlude 7th October

PetNat la Folie Lucé

Next stop after Frédéric Mabileau was the Pot de Lapin in Saumur. We started with a glass of PetNat rosé. This time from a new producer – Loïc Terquem at La Folie Lucé, who has taken over Yves Drouineau's vines in Dampierre. 2009 was Terquem's first vintage. His PetNat is a little sweeter than some with attractive red fruits. Later on in the meal Olivier Thibault, owner of Le Pot, gave us Terquem's soft and fruity 2009 Saumur-Champigny to try. 

Having talked about Yves Drouineau and the quality of the wines that he made it seemed appropriate to choose a bottle of his 2000 La Seignère, Saumur-Champigny. Still quite youthful, although showing just a touch of brickiness, Yves 2000 is medium weight with attractive mellow fruit. Good for a few more years, this shows the quality of Yves as 2000 was not an easy vintage in the Loire.

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While on the subject of pétillants Jacky Blot told us that over the weekend he had decided to bring forward the first release of his Triple Zéro Rosé to this December. Bottled in January it will have had nearly 12 months sur latte by the time it is released. The rosé is a roughly equal blend of Grolleau and Gamay.