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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.

It seems appropriate after my recent update on Jo and Isabelle Pithon’s domaine, to open a bottle of one of Jo’s beautiful sweet wines, Belargus des Treilles.

Jo Pithon, legendary winemaker in Anjou has sold his domaine to Ivan Massonnat after 40 years of dedicating his life to wine.

The appellation Anjou-Villages Brissac was created in 1998 and covers a dozen communes around the market town of Brissac making quality reds for ageing.

French people are very secretive about mushrooms. They don’t let on where you can find them in case you go and pinch them yourselves.

Using up bits and bobs in the fridge to make a really tasty winter lunch. I took half a butternut squash and half an aubergine,

After 5 days of total gluttony in Barcelona, I’m going light and low for a while before the Christmas festivities kick in.