Tagged with "Loire valley"

The grapes are starting to form and after two weeks of almost daily rain, the weather has settled and things are looking brighter.

The internet flickered back on this morning. Just for a brief moment the livebox starting winking at me and then… it was gone again.

I think I could write a book about Nigel’s dreams. His dreams are far more exotic and exciting than mine although they’re more like nightmares than dreams.

I had the best night’s sleep last night. Was it due to the fact that I got up at half five yesterday morning? Was it the 6km walk through the vineyards?

My yesterday’s bread was not voted the favourite so far it has to be said. It rose well and has great flavour but seems a bit dry.

Vines are hardy plants that will grow in the most unlikely of places. Does that mean that we can make wine anywhere in the world?

Adding stout instead of wine and then prunes towards the end of cooking gives a delicious rich casserole that is perfect in the run up to Christmas.

Wine professionals often talk about residual sugar in wine but the average wine drinker is a little unclear about what this term actually means.

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.

For two nights in August, the centre of Saumur becomes the biggest restaurant in the world as thousands gather for the annual celebration of Saumur Champigny and its wines over a delightful open air dinner on the banks of the river Loire.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen the Loire so low in the 11 years that we’ve lived here. It was pretty low in 2011 but I don’t think it’s been this low.

Sadly I have to report that after an extraordinarily difficult year in 2016 due to frost, the Loire has yet again been hit hard in 2017.