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What’s going on in the Loire valley vineyards in August?
Harvest has officially started here in the Loire with the first grapes being picked on Monday, the 27th August. Chardonnay destined for Crémant is first in.
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Recipes from Le Tasting Room’s kitchen – simple summer salads
2 super quick simple summer salads for you. Cucumber, creme fraiche and garlic salad and kidney bean, cumin and coriander salad. Healthy, low fat, quick and tasty.
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La Grange aux Belles – natural wines from Anjou
Marc Houtin created La Grange aux Belles in 2004. Former geologist, his passion for wine led him to change career and retrain in viticulture and oenology.
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La Grange aux Belles portes ouvertes
We tasted a very interesting range of wines today at La Grange aux Belles in Soulaine sur Aubance about half an hour from us here at le tasting room
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Le Mans 2018 – a day of food and wine from the Loire
Every year we have a group that comes over from the UK to the Le Mans 24 hours race. They’re all interested in cars but they love good food and wine too and a day with us makes a change of scene. Le Mans is only an hour from Le Tasting Room so it’s an ideal day out.
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What’s going on the Loire valley vineyards in June?
Well, what a month we’ve had since I last reported from the Loire valley vineyards. Huge amounts of rain during the first 2 weeks of June caused chaos around the region. On the 11th June Amboise had 80mm of rain in just 2 hours.
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Recipes from Le Tasting Room’s kitchen – caramelised onion tart
The most requested recipe from our guests is my caramelised onion tart. The key to this tart is patience. It takes nearly an hour for the onions to sweat down and caramelise but it’s this that gives the tart its sweet flavour so take your time. This is my own recipe that I have adapted over time.
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Recipes from Le Tasting Room’s kitchen – sweet pastry
Sweet pastry that crumbles in your mouth like shortbread. This is the pastry I use to make all our sweet tarts here at Le Tasting Room and it freezes like a dream.
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Wine education – flowering in the vineyard (a little more detail)
Flowering is an important stage in the vineyard year. Vines further east have flowered and the fruit has set whereas here in Anjou, our vines are in full flower.
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Recipes from Le Tasting Room’s kitchen – warm smoked chicken salad with roasted summer vegetables
This is an unusual smoked chicken salad that can be adapted to use whatever vegetables are in season. Yesterday I used red peppers, sweet potato, aubergine, fennel, red onion and asparagus as they are all looking fantastic at the moment.
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Wine Education – crystals in my white wine
Sometimes, as you near the end of a bottle of white or rosé wine there appears to be what looks like crystals of glass or sugar in the bottom. What is it and should I be worried?
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Recipes from Le Tasting Room’s kitchen – pastry for quiches and savoury dishes
You can buy pastry in any French supermarket and I certainly don’t judge anyone for using it as it saves time, comes rolled and is ready to slide into a tin. But, it’s not quite as good as homemade. Probably because when I make my own I use rather large quantities of really good fresh butter
