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You might think that not much goes on in the vineyard in December but in fact it can often be a busy month. There are lots of tasks that need to be tackled.

Think of something between a baked or roasted potato, crispy on top yet soft in the middle and oozing buttery juices. This is the Hasselback potato.

Like most people, we tend to spend a bit more on wine at Christmas. So is it important to take vintage into account when buying your wines for the festive season?

Smoked salmon is something that always makes an appearance on our table over the festive period. Here are a few wine pairing ideas for you.

For us Brits, Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without mince pies. Perceived as something rather strange by the French that doesn’t deter me!

Pithon Paillé’s former domaine will be called Domaine Bel Argus, named after the tiny rare blue butterfly that can be found among the vines of Les Treilles. 

Growers in Montlouis have suffered greatly these past few years leaving many of them in a rather precarious position financially despite their best efforts.

I’m a huge fan of sweet wine and luckily for me, we live in the Loire valley which makes some of the best sweet wine in the world. 

We eat a lot of endives in France and love that characteristic bitter quality. In the winter we eat them in salads or cook them wrapped in ham and bechamel.

This year it’s been mild and the leaves on the vines only really started to fall recently after we had a couple of days when the temperature dropped below zero.

This is a rather Christmassy cake that serves 12 generously. Blood oranges can be hard to find in France but normal oranges are also excellent.

Another amazing wine from Jo Pithon, his Coteau des Treilles 2009. We have a few bottles of a few different vintages in our cellar and it’s a while since we tasted the 2009.