There are some obvious destinations when looking for a Muscadet to drink, top names such as Domaine de la Pépière, Pierre Luneau-Papin, Domaine de l’Ecu and others. I have these pretty well covered on Winedoctor, with some detailed profiles, recent updates and plenty of associated tasting notes
I really can’t abide hanging around waiting for things to happen. Time spent kicking my heels is time lost, and this is especially true when visiting a wine region, the Loire, Bordeaux or otherwise
There was a still a soft blanket of snow cushioning the vines at Domaine de la Bergerie when we arrived. France had, until late into January at least, been enjoying a relatively mild winter, drier than the norm in many parts, with hours of sunshine much higher than expected
And from the broad complexity of St Emilion we now come to a commune both smaller and stylistically, to my mind, somewhat easier to define. And it seems in some way fitting that we come to it now, as we approach the end of my Bordeaux 2011 reports; because sometimes you do have to save the best for last.
The weather gods were smiling that day; the bright sunshine illuminated the stone work all around me, lighting up the gravel of the path and feeding the vines through their just-budded leaves in the vineyard mere metres away. It was the first week of April 2012, and Bordeaux was enjoying clear skies and bemoaning – after long periods of on-off drought – the continued lack of rain.
This year I headed out to Bordeaux a day earlier than I have done in previous years, in the hope that I could expand my coverage of some of the less exalted communes and appellations.
We squeezed into our booth in the already-crowded back room at the Brasserie de la Gare. The restaurant was heaving; it is a popular venue, and this being the week of the Salon des Vins de la Loire it was busier than ever, and this allowed for a little Loire star-spotting.
Having lived in Scotland for a few years now I have become accustomed to, on occasion, waking up to find a blanket of snow thrown across the world outside my window.
The story of Bordeaux through the early years of the 20th century is littered with failing châteaux, any suggestion of success always punctuated and tempered by the twin insults of war and economic depression. Towards the end of the century, however, the region was most certainly making an about turn
It’s been too long since I last reported on the wines of Jean-Pierre Chevallier, and in fact it might be said that it is too long since I last reported on any wines at all from the Saumur and Saumur-Champigny appellations. This region of the Loire is too easy to overlook, its wines often good but rarely the best; the white wines are often eclipsed by more focused and complex styles from Vouvray and these days Montlouis, the reds frequently paling into insignificance behind those from Chinon or even Bourgueil
