Lock-down take 2. Day 19. 17th November 2020.

All systems go at Domaine Vincent Careme this morning. Le Clos 2019 is being bottled so I’m off to take some pics and capture the moment.

Le Clos is a beautiful parcel perched high on the limestone ridge just above the troglodyte cellars and tasting room of the domaine. Old vines on a clay limestone terroir. It’s a wonderful vineyard and I can’t wait to taste the new vintage.

You may have noticed that I didn’t manage to post on the blog yesterday. I was too busy. Yes you read that correctly. I actually had too much to do and ran out of time at the end of the day. That’s a rather nice feeling I can tell you.

I had a moan recently about how difficult it can be to find certain ingredients (lemon grass and fresh coriander to be precise). Well, I found lemon grass in the supermarket so snapped up 3 packets. I’m going to make some Thai inspired mussels for dinner tonight (recipe pinched from friends John and Sheila who made them at the weekend and were kind enough to blog the recipe). The remainder will go in the freezer. It freezes well so I’ll have a small stash ready now when I am feeling Thai inspired again.

We tried Le Clos 2019 this evening before dinner. It’s a lovely wine. Our official tasting note was as follows:

“Quite open and rich on the nose with touches of pear, herbs and quince. A rather attractive stoney quality too that promises more to come. A note of white lily and stone fruit, peach in particular then springs out of the glass. This is a big wine on the palate. Full and ripe but with a lovely freshness and a slight agrume quality on the finish that is very attractive. Definitely a wine to pair with food it will be fabulous with scallops in a creamy sauce or Aisian cuisine. Surprisingly delicious seeing it was bottled this morning!”

We’ll retaste with the mussels and see if it pairs as well as we think it might.

The mussels were delicious. It’s ages since I cooked them and it made me wonder why. I know you have the bother of cleaning them which does take time but once that’s done it’s practically a 10 minute dinner.

Lovely plump Moules de Bouchot, sweet and juicy with a rich spicy sauce. What’s not to like! Delicious and definitely one to do again.

It’s a messy business eating mussels. Not for those who can’t bear getting their fingers sticky! Perhaps one to avoid on a first date with all the slurping that ensues too. Nigel is definitely more elgant than me when it comes to eating them.

Le Clos 2019 went rather well with them as it happens. There wasn’t too much heat in the dish to drown out the delicacy of the wine and the peachy, herby, citrus notes paired well with the lemon grass, ginger and coconut milk. A rather lovely combination.

We’ll return to Le Clos tomorrow to see how it has evolved overnight. Always interesting to see how a wine changes over time.