Restaurant Agnès Sorel@Genillé closes its doors

 Restaurant Agnès Sorel@Genillé

 

One of our favourite local restaurants, the Agnès Sorel in Genillé, closed its doors about a fortnight ago. The food was extremely good and very good value for the quality, while the wine list, although short, was carefully chosen with a good selection of Loire wines. We will certainly miss it and Nicolas and Estelle Petit, who ran it. 

I guess the closure of the Agnès Sorel underlines the difficulty of running a quality restaurant in a backwater like Genillé. Whether anyone will ever take over remains to be seen or is this the end of a restaurant that has been in Genillé as long as we have been in Epeigné – now more than 27 years?

The menu holder now empty

Through the reflection you just see the empty restaurant 

with the tables and fittings gone

Biodynamics dépassés par Eco-Luneau....!

Marie Chartier (Domaine Pierre Luneau-Papin) demonstrating 

a return to an age-old tradition to analyse 

the newly born 2014 Muscadet Sèvre-et-Maine  

It is an immutable law of nature that there comes a time when even the most cutting edge, starry movement slows and is overtaken by something new. Last Thursday we had the good fortune to discover that this may well now be underway in Muscadet Sèvre-et-Maine. There is now a palpable sense that biodynamics is beginning to appear jolly fatigué!

Pierre-Marie Luneau – listening to his nascent 2014 Muscadet

Eco-Luneau is a return to hallowed traditions and values, including one long forgotten aspect of wine – its sound.

Trail-blazer Pierre-Marie Luneau (Domaine Pierre Luneau-Papin) explains: "We have forgotten how to listen to wine. Of course, the sight, aroma and taste are very important but we must never forget the sound of wine – the fourth sense. Unfortunately all the current wine notation systems, including of course the 100-point scale, concentrate exclusively on the three senses ignoring sound so only assess a part of a wine's qualities."  

Pierre Clavel, Domaine Clavel in the Languedoc  

(Millésime Bio, Montpellier January 2012)

 

Pierre-Marie acknowledges the pioneering and inspirational work carried out by Pierre Clavel into the audiology of wine over the past few years. 

The Luneau family with their promising 2014 Muscadet Sèvre-et-Maine:

Pierre-Marie, Marie, Monique et Pierre 

(above and below)

Marie with the finely calibrated divining stick

 Monique Luneau with a stereo of 2014 Muscadet Sèvre-et-Maine

 Muscadet Sèvre-et-Ligeoise:

there will be some exciting new flavours 

emerging from the Pays Nantais this year

Loire cycle ride for cancer: good and bad moments

Attractive château just to the north of Le Puy en Vélay

Much of the Loire Valley is beautiful, although there are times when its flatness becomes a little monotonous. I didn't have much time to stop to take photos, although I did take a few.   

 The Loire just to the north of Le Puy en Vélay

 The bridge – Pont des Droits de l'Homme (Human Rights Bridge) -

@Retournac

 The Loire@Retournac

 Retournac: a business that has seen better days

 Close to the Bec-Allier, where the Allier joins the Loire@Cuffy

(above and below)

 The Loire@Ancenis

 Not the best moment!: at the top of the climb over the 

Saint-Nazaire Bridge over the Loire.

Narrow, unguarded cycle lane some heavy traffic

Good when you get sucked along but not so good 

if you get sucked under the wheels! 
(photo: Charles Éric Pasquiers)

Having a Baule@journey's end