Faverolles-sur-Cher, Touraine (Loire)
I visited recently Pascal Potaire and Moses Gadouche at their cellar at Les Capriades, everything was quiet in the facility, this is winter, a season where you just let the wines quietly make their way through the following spring. Pascal told me that the sparkling
wines had a swift fermentation last
autumn, this was all very smooth and easy this year. There was nothing to see for these wines, they were all bottled and lying sur lattes or on a few riddling tables or also on riddling pallets/cages (see pic above, don't disturb them !). But the interesting thing was to talk with Pascal about their new thing (for the past 3 years), the poiré, a petnat they make from old varieties of pears. Poiré, which I think is not even well known in France is sometimes dubbed the Normandy alternative for Champagne, it is registered in an Appellation and has both mainstream producers and artisan ones. But poiré has been made for ages in other regions as well, not just Normandy.
The process of making poiré takes place at about the same time than the winemaking, just a bit after it from what I understand, because these pears are of the late ripening type. Pascal told me that this poiré production was sparked by a few encounters and their love to make local products, as they source the fruits from the same département, the Loir-et-Cher.
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