Tagged with "Loire wine tours"

Amboise is about half an hour from Tours (TGV station, airport) and is a lovely small town perched on the river Loire. A good place to base yourself for a short break if you’re looking for a smaller, quaint place.

So what is a visite gourmande you might ask? Well, a visit with lovely nibbly bits to accompany the liqueurs and wonderful products that our local Saumur distillery produces.

A scrumptious end to a wonderful Sunday lunch in the garden with local friends here in the Loire yesterday. Layers of freshly cut new season’s strawberries, crushed meringue, marscapone, rosewater, pomegranate seeds and a lovely quenelle of fresh strawberry sorbet all dusted with rose petals.

Ampelidae, the domaine owned by Frederic Brochet in the Haut Poitou will open its door to the public on May 1st between 10h00 and 18h00 at Chateau de Lavoguyot. There will be a walk in the vineyards at 10h00 followed by a vertical tasting of Sauvignon Blanc with Frederic at 11h00

It’s been pretty hot here for the past two days so we fancied something light for dinner.

For me, this is the best chocolate mousse recipe. Incredibly simple and very chocolatey, it’s not too terrible on the calories (around 170 per mousse) is low in carbs and has no cream or butter in it, just 3 ingredients.

A few pictures taken yesterday in the Saumur Champigny appellation. As you can see there is a little more development and the tiny leaves are beginning to unfurl. We have had glorious sunny weather for the past two days and it’s set to continue over the weekend with temperatures reaching 28°C (82°F). 

Many of you will have tasted Peter Hahn’s lovely Vouvrays while you have been with us at le tasting room. I’m happy to say that he has launched an on-line facility and his wines are now available on-line in Europe and France for delivery. 

A couple of pics taken first thing this morning in the garden where we have 6 Cabernet Franc and 6 Chenin Blanc vines.

Often in France we hear the expression ‘lutte raisonnée’ and for the non-French speaker this can be a bit of a mystery. What is ‘lutte raisonnée’?
The expression applies to an approach in the vineyard. The literal translation is ‘reasoned struggle’ or’ reasoned battle’

I had to repost this little video taken recently at Prowein. It shows a variety of people from different countries trying to pronounce ‘Bourgueil’. Bourgueil is one of the Loire’s best known red wine appellations but it takes some pronouncing, especially if you are not familiar with the French language.

No wonder that the Loire has a vast range of wine styles and grape varieties and this doesn’t take into account the multitude of small satellite regions that are also gathered under the Loire valley umbrella when it comes to wine.