Blog
-
Recipes from Le Tasting Room’s kitchen – melon, tomato, cucumber and goat’s cheese salad
This is a lovely summer salad. Make it when all the ingredients are tasting at their best and it’s hard to beat on a hot day in the garden.
-
Boa Moa from Jean-François Merieau
Boa Moa is a delightful example of something a little offbeat. 100% Sauvignon Rose, this colour mutation of Sauvignon makes beautifully aromatic wines.
-
What’s on the cheeseboard this month? Fougette au thym
Made from raw milk in the Haute Garonne department in the south of France, the goat’s have roamed freely among the garrigue (the dense scrubland found in Mediterranean regions covered with wild plants and herbs).
-
Recipes from Le Tasting Room’s kitchen – clementine juice braised celeriac
Celeriac is a very underused vegetable. It’s delicious both raw as in the classic celeriac remoulade and braised as I have done here with orange juice.
-
Vouvray 1947 from Julien & Francois Pinon
A couple of weeks ago we spent the afternoon with local winemaker friends. Everyone brought along an interesting bottle to share.
-
Recipes from Le Tasting Room’s kitchen – roasted Toulouse sausages with tomato salad
This is a great dish for a summer’s day. A simple dish, transformed by the quality of the ingredients so we only make it when the tomatoes are in season.
-
What’s going on in the Loire valley vineyards in July?
More scorching weather and no rain for weeks. Young vines are dying and grapes are sunburnt. July has been another trying month for growers in the Loire.
-
Loire growers start to worry as soaring temperatures start to burn grapes.
It’s 42 °C here in the Loire today. The third day of intense heat that is seeing growers in the Loire start to worry about their grapes.
-
A new member of Le Tasting Room
Say hello to our new kitten Pesto! She arrived a week ago and seems to be settling in nicely.
-
Le Van – a mobile wine bar in our village!
We have a mobile wine bar that comes to the village every Wednesday evening. The wines are interesting and include wines from the Loire and elsewhere in France.
-
Technical vocabulary demystified – dosage
After the sediment has been removed, the bottle is topped up with a mixture of wine and sugar. This is the ‘dosage’ and the amount of sugar varies.
-
Recipes from Le Tasting Room’s kitchen – spicy pork kebabs
These delicious, smoky, pork kebabs can be prepared in advance and then popped on the barbecue or under the grill when you want them.
