Blog
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What are we drinking this week? Chateau Yvonne Saumur Blanc 2011
If you remember 2011 was a hot, sunny vintage that saw rich ripe reds and luscious whites. We opened Mathieu Vallée’s Saumur Blanc last night.
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Recipes from friends of Le Tasting Room – crab and goat’s cheese filo pastry parcels
We enjoyed a lovely summer dinner with good friends John and Sheila Wilton recently. John served a delicious filo pastry crab and goat’s cheese parcel as the appetizer and he kindly agreed to share his recipe with us.
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Recipes from Le Tasting Room’s kitchen – cooking the perfect duck breast
A perfectly cooked duck breast (magret de canard) is one of life’s pleasures and something that you can easily master. Here’s how to do it.
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What are we drinking this week? Busardières 2011, Bourgueil from Domaine de la Chevalerie
Memories of 2011 as we sat out in the garden enjoying dinner this week. The difference between this year and 2011 is that as we sat in the garden that year, the rain clouds passed over us.
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Recipes from Le Tasting Room’s kitchen – spicy cumin and turmeric roasted new potatoes
New potatoes roasted in the oven with cumin and turmeric. Delicious with a steak or any kind of bbq they are very moreish!
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Un diner en blanc at Chateau du Petit Thouars
Our friends Sebastien and D’Arcy du Petit Thouars host a diner en blanc at their beautiful chateau every year and this year we were able to join in the fun.
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Le Mans 2018 – a day of food and wine from the Loire
Every year we have a group that comes over from the UK to the Le Mans 24 hours race. They’re all interested in cars but they love good food and wine too and a day with us makes a change of scene. Le Mans is only an hour from Le Tasting Room so it’s an ideal day out.
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What’s going on the Loire valley vineyards in June?
Well, what a month we’ve had since I last reported from the Loire valley vineyards. Huge amounts of rain during the first 2 weeks of June caused chaos around the region. On the 11th June Amboise had 80mm of rain in just 2 hours.
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Loire valley vineyard update June 27th 2018
The sun has finally made an entrance after 6 weeks of stormy wet weather and huge amounts of rain.
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Recipes from Le Tasting Room’s kitchen – caramelised onion tart
The most requested recipe from our guests is my caramelised onion tart. The key to this tart is patience. It takes nearly an hour for the onions to sweat down and caramelise but it’s this that gives the tart its sweet flavour so take your time. This is my own recipe that I have adapted over time.
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Recipes from Le Tasting Room’s kitchen – sweet pastry
Sweet pastry that crumbles in your mouth like shortbread. This is the pastry I use to make all our sweet tarts here at Le Tasting Room and it freezes like a dream.
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Loire valley vineyard update 11th June 2018
The weather has been dire over the past week with huge quantities of rain making vineyards practically inaccessible. This is worrying as the damp, humid conditions lead to mildew (downy and powdery) which requires treating on a regular basis, especially if you are working organically.