Summer in a glass. More than any other wine — that’s what people say about sauvignon blanc.
It truly is an ideal wine for summer: it embodies summer fresh scents of citrus, grass, and white stone fruit, and it pairs so well with summery foods like salads, vegetables, and goat cheese.
That definitely goes for sauvignon blanc from the Loire River Valley, Continue reading
“Roussillon has the potential to be as great as Bordeaux, Burgundy or the Rhône.”
So says Michel Chapoutier, oenologist, biodynamic farmer, famed Rhône winemaker, and head of Maison M. Chapoutier whose Bila-Haut wines from the region provide a testimony offering excellent wines at an affordable price. Continue reading
Bouzy Rouge from Gaston Collard. It’s a thing– an unexpected pleasure, a red wine in Champagne!
Red still wine? In Champagne?
During my visits to Champagne just before harvest in 2018 and at the end of harvest in 2019, I tasted many unexpected pleasures including Gaston Collard’s biodynamic red wine made from Bouzy pinot noir in the barrel and the bottle.
Yes, red wine from Bouzy is a thing– a Champagne thing — and it’s called Coteaux Champenois. What an unexpected pleasure!
Because when we think about wine from Champagne, usually it’s the big sparkling wine houses that come to mind– the labels we see on a regular basis in the grocery store like Moet & Chandon, G. H. Mumm, Laurent Perrier, Bollinger, Veuve Cliquot, Taittinger, Piper-Heidsieck, Nicolas Feuillatte.
Just like when we pop open a bottle of Coca-Cola we expect a specific flavor, we expect these big brands, and their flagship labels, to have a certain, consistent, standard profile which they achieve from their proprietary dosage which is added before bottling.
All roads lead to Champagne! Also– these cookies– biscuits of Reims–another unexpected pleasure.
But Champagne is full of unexpected pleasures!
These include biodynamic wines like Vincent Charlot (read more here) and Leclerc Briant (discussed below) and organic wines too that express the terroir and the vintage, wines full of distinct personalities, wines with little or no added sugar, even red and white still wines like they are allowed to do in Bouzy!
So let’s virtually visit today in advance of the June #Winophiles exploration of unexpected pleasures in Champagne along with some picnic pairings!
Above are photos from our visit to Gaston Collard in Bouzy. We tasted through the wines and visited the cellar where we tasted the Bouzy rouge from the barrel.
“My life is full of mistakes. They’re like pebbles that make a good road,” said surreal artist and ceramicist Beatrice Woods. The avid journal keeper and author of I Shock Myself lived until she was 103 which she attributes to chocolate and young men.
Known as the Mama of Dada, she hung out with Marcel Duchamp and others in Paris where she studied art and acting. In one of her paintings in a surrealist exhibition in New York City, a woman rising from the bath with a real piece of soap in “the tactical position” as Beato put it, garnered a great deal of attention.
and what do you see here? missing: a bar of soap in the tactical position…
Do you know these 13 French indigenous grapes?
These are just a few of the French indigenous grapes that are considered “god-forsaken” Continue reading
fondue fun with Alsace wines
What’s an easy, romantic and fun meal for Valentine’s, Galentine’s, or an evening with friends? Fondue!
Fondue is fun and easy, especially if you buy the cheese in a kit ready to melt! No need for a fancy fondue pot; you can melt the cheese on the stove. Cook up some vegetables and sausage, cut up some bread and you’re good to go! To make chocolate fondue, chocolate chips are easy to do also, either in a double boiler or microwave, and then dip strawberries and bananas in it– yum! Continue reading
It was on a lift at Squaw Valley about 10,000 feet in elevation that I recognized that the woman I was squeezed next to had a French accent. She and her husband grew up skiing at Chaminix in the French Alps, she told us, then she revealed that she grew up in Jura and her husband in Savoie.
wine predator.............. gwendolyn alley 