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Bring out a sweet wine this Christmas!
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.
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Recipes from Le Tasting Room’s kitchen – caramelised endives with thyme and Parma ham
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.
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What’s going on in the Loire valley vineyards in November?
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.
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What are we drinking this week? Coteau des Treilles 2009 from Jo Pithon
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.
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What’s going on in the Loire valley vineyards in October?
We’ve been living in the Loire for 12 years now and this is the first year that we have seen smiles on the faces of growers all over the region.
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What’s going on in the vineyards in September 2018?
Harvest is in full swing here in the Loire and for the first time in three years we are seeing broad smiles on the faces of our partner growers as they bring in decent volumes of lovely looking grapes.
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Wine education – picking grapes for Crémant
The Loire is the second biggest producer of sparkling wine in France after Champagne but here we call it Crémant de Loire.
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Recipes from Le Tasting Room’s kitchen – Greek style chicken with orzo
This recipe for Greek style chicken with orzo was brought to my attention by my brother recently who spotted it in the Daily Telegraph. He made one or two small adjustments and passed it on to me.
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Loire valley vineyard update – Domaine de la Cotelleraie St Nicolas de Bourgueil
Grapes are looking superbly healthy and there are plenty of them at Domaine de la Cotelleraie in the St Nicolas de Bourgueil appellation here in the Loire valley.
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Wine education – picking grapes by hand
Why would you bother picking grapes by hand when you can use a machine? Small growers often choose to pick by hand. Why do they do that?
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The Loire harvest 2018
The Loire harvest 2018 has begun and vintage is now in full swing. First to be given the go ahead were the Chardonnays destined for sparkling wine, Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir.
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Recipes from Le Tasting Room’s kitchen – squidgy chocolate raspberry dessert
I’m calling this a squidgy chocolate raspberry dessert rather than a cake because there is no flour and it’s something you would serve as dessert rather than with a coffee in the morning or cup of tea in the afternoon (not that you couldn’t of course because it’s delicious!).
