Etikettarkiv: France

French red wines

Blackcurrants and herbs from the Loire Valley

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From the Domaine des Hauts Baigneux in the Loire Valley in France, we try a fruity red wine made from the grape variety Cabernet Franc in 2022. The wine is called So Franc, it is organic and its number is 93036 at Systembolaget in Sweden (price 179 SEK).

The old friends Nicolas Grosbois (Domaine Grosbois) and Phillipe Mesnier decided in 2013 to buy 12 hectares of vineyards in Azay-le-Rideau together, east of Chinon. They began growing all the vines organically and with an ambitious project to reintroduce the original wines of Azay-le-Rideau. Traditionally, Azay-le-Rideau is known for white wines made from chenin blanc and rosé wines made from grolleau and gamay. Most of the vineyards are located in Azay-le-Rideau in the small area of ”Hauts Baigneux” which has given the domaine its name. The wines are produced without added yeast and the vinification takes place with minimal intervention. Natural and terroir-driven wines!

On the nose we find a fruity and open aroma of blackcurrants, raspberries, blueberries and fresh herbs. On the palate the wine is dry and has a medium-bodied taste with high acidity, smooth tannin structure, concentrated blackcurrants with hints of herbs and a good length with well-defined aromas.

This wine is very price worthy, and is best served at around 16°C with vegetarian or light meat dishes, preferably cold cut and well-aged cheeses. I give it 88 points.

Sparkling wines

Organic Champagne Premier Cru with superb chalky freshness

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Since 8 generations the Larmandier family has been cultivating vines in the heart of the region of Côte des Blancs in Champagne, France. The sparkling wine that I tasted is the Larmandier-Bernier Longitude Premier Cru Blanc de Blancs, non-vintage (nr 91313 Systembolaget) which has a both crisp orchard fruitiness, brioche with fabulous mineral finish.

The appellation of Champagne is situated in the north-eastern part of France, just south of the 50th parallel, with a cool continental climate. This makes it more vulnerable to problems like fungal disease, meaning that organic viticulture can be more difficult. However, already in 1992 Pierre Larmandier abandoned herbicides, and since 1999 Biodynamic viticulture is used on the entire estate as well as indigenous yeasts for the fermentations.

“Longitude” is made of 100 % Chardonnay, and gets its name from the fact that the Chardonnay grapes are grown on the Côte des Blancs: Vertus, Oger, Avize, Cramant, which form a line close to the 4th meridian. This non-vintage cuvée also contains 40% of wines coming from the perpetual reserve of reserve wines, begun in 2004. This adds fantastic complexity to the palate, with notes of citrus, pastry cream, crisp plum fruit, nuts and freshly baked bread. It has a long salty mineral finish, and the dosage is only 3 g/l giving a pure freshness and the label of ”extra brut”. It has a vibrant acidity and the mousse is exquisitely long-lasting.

The base wines are matured in wood and on the natural lees, with no filtering – adding texture and complexity. Then the blending and tirage takes place, according to the traditional method of producing sparkling wine. This means that the second fermentation takes place in the bottles, which are resting in the cool cellars for at least two more years. Then each bottle is disgorged by hand.

For me this is a pure and terroir-driven Champagne, ready to really enjoy now but it could also be kept for some years to show more nutty and nougat flavors. I truly enjoy this Champagne, which is perfect to serve as it is or with cheese, salads, seafood, fish and lighter meat dishes! It gets 95 points!

French rosé wines, Tasty recipes

Divine rosé from Bégude with salmon

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The art of combining wine and food is a wonderful journey that I pursue every day. There are always new combinations to try, new possible fantastic pairings to be discovered…

In the south of France, in the appellation AOC Bandol in Provence we find the Domaine de la Bégude, which I recently visited. Their organic Rosé Vin de Bandol is such a fantastic pairing with salmon! It is made from a cuvé of 80 % Mourvèdre, 15 % Grenache and 5 % Cinsault, and the alcohol level is 13,5 %.

The vineyard is Ecocert certified since 2006, and for this wine ambient yeasts have been used. It has a beautiful pink-orange color, and on the nose I sense both fresh lime and red cherries and strawberries surrounded by roses and violet. On the palate the red berry notes are accompanied by spices and a fresh acidity. The finish is long and tasty. This rosé gets 89 pooints, a wine to both drink as it is and serve with food!

Even though this rosé wine is fantastic as an aperitif, it is also a great match with both fish dishes and lighter meat dishes – even grilled and with spicy sauces. Asian food is also very nice with this rosé.

The food I prepared to serve with the Domaine de La Bégude Rosé is a slightly grilled smoked salmon with fresh stewed potatoes, which you boil and mix with milk, cream, oatmeal and butter. Add some fresh dill and lime, and serve with pickled red onion and seaweed chips.

Bon appétit!

French red wines

Xavier Grenache vieilles vignes

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Rhône is one of the most famous wine regions of France, and the red grape varieties you find there are typically Grenache and Syrah. Xavier Grenache vieilles vignes Organic 2015 (nr 2151, 95 SEK at Systembolaget) is produced from 85 % Grenache and 15 % Syrah, and it is organic. I give it 81 points.

The producer Xavier Vignon is famous for using the terroir (soil) of the grapes to enhance their flavours, and this wine is a great example of this. The wine is made of a selection of grapes from more than 50 years old vines, called ’vieilles vignes’.  The deep roots give mineral salts from deep down which results in rich tastes of dark fruits like cherries and raspberry, spices, lavender, cinnamon and minerality. The local tones with herbs and lavender from this region is also called ’garrigue’.

The alcohol level is 14,5 %, and it is best served at 16-18° C.

CHEESE: The spicy notes from this wine go very well with the Corsican cheese called Brin d’Amour. It is a goat/sheep cheese rolled in spices like Rosemary, Chili and other local spices/herbs. You can also use soft cheese and roll it is spices and herbs to get this effect, and it goes very well with the fruity and spicy character of this wine! But this wine would also go well with cheeses that are salty, a bit acid and have some spices/complexity – like the Swedish cheese ’Västerbotten’ or the French Gruyere!

FOOD: This wine can be enjoyed on its own, but is goes very well with spicy and grilled dishes (meat and/or vegetables).

French white wines

Fresh white Bordeaux blend

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Yesterday at our dinner we had a small wine tasting, and among other wines we tried the Château Bichon Cassignols Graves 2014, a biological wine. Even though everyone did not agree on all the tasting details, most of us agreed that this is an easy-to-drink fruity and fresh experience! 🙂 I give it 82 points.

Graves is a wine district in Bordeaux, France, characterised by its gravel soils. It is situated south of Bordeaux. It is known both for its red and white wines, and the white wines are often blends of the grape varieties Sauvignon Blanc and Sémillon. This is the case for the  Château Bichon Cassignols 2014 with 65 % Sémillon and 35 % Sauvignon Blanc. The Sémillon grape has thin skin and is widely used for sweet wines since it has an affinity for noble rot (this is a dry wine however), and gives wines a golden colour and plenty of body. The Sauvignon Blanc grape is aromatic and gives herbacousness, grassy notes and elderflower aromas. It has high acidity.

On the nose you find citrus and green fruit, like apples, as well as herbs and som minerality. On the palate you sense the quite high acidity, and notes of citrus and green fruit, herbacousness and herbs typical for the Sauvignon Blanc – however not too intense given the blend, and there is a slight note of oak and vanilla. It is very crisp, and the alcohol level is 12 %.

Enjoy this wine at 10-12°C either on its own, or with tasty dishes of seafood, fish or light meat. You can buy it in Sweden at Systembolaget, ordinary assortment (nr 4124) for the price of 122 SEK.

And it is best enjoyed in the company of nice fiends 😉

Graves
French red wines

Powerful Pomerol provides pure pleasure :)

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…you either love the powerful aromatic black grape variety Cabernet Sauvignon, or you don’t….I myself really like it 🙂 However, since it is so very aromatic in its character I think that a blend with the ’softer’ grape variety Merlot giving the typical Bordeaux blend is often the best option to choose.

It is NOT easy to find green Bordeaux wines, basically since the humid weather makes green production more difficult. But the Château des Annereaux Lalande-de-Pomerol 2010 is the first year that this wine was ecologically certified. Lalande-de-Pomerol is situated on the East side of the Gironde river, north of Pomerol and St-Emilion. This vintage is made of Merlot 78%, Cabernet Franc 17% and Cabernet Sauvignon 5%. The alcohol level is 13,5 %.

On the nose you sense the typical Bordeaux Merlot/Cab with ripe blackcurrants, toast from oak, herbs and spices. Not too strong since the Cab level is not so high.

On the palate this wine has lots of integrated tannins and strong aromas, however well-balanced and velvety. You sense the oak in a well-blended way, as well as blackcurrants, black cherries, cedar, coffee and the typical herbaceous tones. It has good length and is good to drink now but can also be kept for a decade. I give it 90 points!

Concerning food, this wine would be great with most meat dishes, but also with a moussaka for instance. It is wonderful with Brie and also with Camembert cheeses!

The Château des Annereaux 2010 can be bought at Systembolaget (special order nr 74200) for the price of 179 SEK.

Skål!! 🙂

Pomerol

Fortified wines

Sweet Saturday evening dessert with Muscat

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Wow, I just had another heavenly chocolate and wine experience 🙂 This time with a tasteful chocolate cake dessert and the marvellous French fortified white wine Domaine du Paparotiel Muscat de Beaumes-de-Venise. Ant this wine is ALSO ecological! It says on the bottle that it won ’Médaille d’Or in the Concours des Vins Orange 2014’ (the wine is from 2013).

This is a Vin doux naturel from the village of Beaumes-de Venise AC in Southern Rhône in France.  It is made from the Muscat grape, which is not one grape variety but a prolific family – and this specific one is called Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains (the oldest member of the Muscat family – and one of the oldest grape varieties of the world!). Sweet wines have been made in the region form the 14th century. This grape gives a very complex spectrum of perfumed and aromatic notes! Unaged wines are full of both floral notes like rose and elderflower, as well as citrus aromas and grape and peach. It is totally adorable, according to me 🙂

On the palate you find the similar floral and perfumed sensation of elderflower and roses, as well as stone fruit like peach and nectarine and citrus fruit like grape. The alcohol level is 15 %.

When this wine is made the fermentation process is interrupted by adding high-strength grape spirit to make a strong sweet wine. Beaumes-de-Venise is situated next to Gigondas och Vacqueyras, and the village has existed since the Roman times and is mostly know for its sweet Muscat wines. The wines generally have a slightly lower level of residual sugar than other Muscat wines, resulting in a lighter style and are easier to combine with food.

Talking about food – apart from my own favourite chocolate dessert, this wine goes well with fois gras, blue cheeses of fruity desserts like strawberries and melon as well as many berries.

This wine gets 90 points from me – it is great to drink now but it also has potential for ageing, which would add flavours like honey, raisins and dried apricots I should believe.

To buy it in Sweden it must be specially ordered at Systembolaget, and one bottle of 375 ml costs 99 SEK.

Have a totally enjoyable Saturday evening! 🙂

muscat

Fortified wines

Maury+chocolate= match made in heaven ;)

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I might as well admit it at once…I am completely addicted to chocolate, especially dark chocolate. This is the most evident proof of the time I spent working at the European Parliament in Brussels some years ago, and I am now convinced that it will be a lifelong affliction 😉

However, it is quite tricky to find wines to match dark chocolate, especially green wines! So I was so happy when I found out that Domaine Pouderoux produces a green Maury from Languedoc-Roussillon in the south of France!

This wine gets 90 points. It is a red fortified wine from 2012, made in a way similar to the Portuguese Port wine (halting the fermentation by adding brandy to create a sweet alcoholic wine by leaving ”natural” residual sugars). The Maury AOC is normally made of the grape Grenache noir (Garnacha), which is the case for this wine as well. The Domaine Pouderoux is situated in the heart of the Maury appellation 20 km from Perpignan, and have been winegrowers for more than six generations (www.domainepouderoux.fr).

The wine has a dark ruby colour. On the nose the wine has a spicy and fruity tone, with plums and blackberry – as well as black pepper and a sweet note.

On the palate you both sense the alcohol (15 per cent) and the sweetness (110 g/l), as well as quite a complex mix of flavour characteristics like black fruit – prunes, dark cherries, combined with crystallised orange, chocolate and vanilla.  It is a well-balansed wine, full-bodied and with both good tannins and a long finish.

Food: Serve this wine at 14-16°C with matured cheeses or chocolate desserts.  Maury is also very suitable as an apéritif, or with duck or fois gras. But my own favourite would be to simply have some delicious dark chocolate pralines, preferably Belgian 😉

You can find the Domaine Pouderoux in Sweden at Systembolaget’s normal assortment (nr 7806) for the price of 101 SEK (500 ml).

Enjoy!!!

Maury

French red wines

Tempting Crozes-Hermitage

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I really appreciate the red wines from the Rhône valley (Southern France) in general, and particularly wines from the Northern part made of the grape variety Syrah (which is called Shiraz in Australia).

From Laurent Habrard I have tasted a red from 2012 called Crozes-Hermitage Domaine Habrard, which is an organic wine. Domaine Habrard is located in a little village in the heart of the Crozes-Hermitage appellation area. The Habrard family has cultivated the vines there for 5 generations! Their objective is to produce and sell wine with minimum impact on the environment 🙂 The vines are 30-60 years old, and the harvest is made by hand.

For me this is a very typical Crozes-Hermitage wine, that I give 88 points. The Syrah grape is small with thick dark skins, which give deeply coloured wines. The aroma characteristics are black fruit, like blackberry, hints of eucalyptus and violet notes – it is both open and complex. The taste is also black fruit, cloves and cinnamon. There are   toasted notes and spice like black pepper, as well as notes of garrigue and violet. It is a dry wine, with medium plus acidity and quite a full body. The tannins are velvety and smooth. The alcohol level is 13 %.

Food: This wine is perfect with grilled red meat, lamb and game but it also goes well with the French marvellous cheese Brillat-Savarin!

You can buy it in Sweden at Systembolaget (ordinary assortment nr 2861) at the price of 119 SEK.

Crozes-HermitageHabrard

French white wines

Charming Pouilly-Fumé

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The Loire Valley in France has many great white wines to offer, and in the Pouilly-Fumé district lies the Domaine du Bouchot. I just tried the ecological white from 2013, and it was a pleasant experience. On my 10-graded wine tasting scale I give it 88 points.

It is made from 100 % Sauvignon Blanc grapes, and is very typical for its region. It has a light lemon colour, and on the nose it is aromatic without being too strong, with hints of lemon, pears and peach. It also has some tones of grass and nettles, which is typical of Sauvignon Blanc. The smokey and mineral tones that can often be found in the Pouilly-Fumé wines are also there!

On the palate it is a dry white wine, quite high in acidity. The alcohol is 13 %. The flavour characteristics are mainly fresh crisp aromatic tones of lemon, pears and peach – as well as green apples, gooseberries and a mineral note. It is well balance and goes very well with the French goat cheese Crottin de Chavignol from the nearby region of Sancerre, for instance. Concerning food: The aromatic tones paired with the high acidity of this wine also go well with most seafood dishes and fish dishes – especially boiled fish with fresh herbs that match the aromatic green notes. The high acidity level as well as the green and aromatic notes also make this a wine that would go well with sushi 🙂

In Sweden you can buy the Domaine du Bouchot 2013 at Systembolaget (nr 2238) for the price of 189 SEK (ordinary assortment).

vinpuillyfume