Well, I know some of you are young parents, have babies and thus think they can't anymore go to wine tastings, to wine fairs and so on ... Not only they can, but they MUST bring their little ones in these festive wine events . Babies not only need to hear ( today they hear, tomorrow they'll listen ) Mozart, Bach and Sibelius to get the proper brain structure in the future . But their sensibilities grow also from the energy, the delicate emanations and the laughs they experience indirectly when their parents go taste wines with them.

This was at the vernissage of Gil Quemoun's photo exposition at the Leonard Café, on boulevard Voltaire in Paris . His pictures are scenes and portraits set in asia . Beautiful portraits, color and b&w . 5 of us were enjoying our time with a bottle of Bourgueuil . Julie went outside to answer a call and I took her picture through the window . That's all .

This is a discovery I made at the Salon des Vignerons Independants , a bi-annual wine fair in Paris : Benedicte de Rycke owns a small ( 5 hectares ) vineyard on Jasnières Appellation in the Loire valley .
Benedicte de Rycke ( this is also the estate's name ) settled there in 1989, buying 70 to 95 year old vineyards . Her wines are fresh, mineral and surprising . I tasted a red Pineau d'Aunis "Respect" 2003 (picture) and 3 white Chenin Blanc . All very different from each other . The Jasnières Tradition 2001, surprising, fresh, and so mineral . A steal at 5 Euro . The Jasnières Cuvée Louise 2003, successive pickings, a little of noble rot . After a minute or two in the glass, beautiful nose . 21 g residual sugar, but not really felt because of the acidity . 8 Euro . Last, "Respect" 2004 . Beautiful Chenin . What a nose . Delicate floral aromas . Will be bottled april 22 and priced 6 or 7 Euro . [email protected]

We went to see Sideways, ( actually a few weeks ago now ) at last and enjoyed the entertainment . From the three knocks at the door of the first seconds to the other knocks at a door of the last sequence, we followed the unexpected turns of this road movie with wine as thread . My picture here illustrates a very nice.....Merlot I discovered a few days later at a tasting at Caves Fillot in Gentilly . Not that I want to contradict the main character of Sideways, but I will not share his opinion about Merlots . This is from Chateau Tayac, a 30 hectare Bordeaux Cotes de Bourg winery . The "Rubis du Prince" 2002, 90% Merlot, 10% Cabernet was a nice silky wine; good value at 6,9 Euro . And then, among other cuvées, there was the Chateau Tayac Prestige 1999, with 20% Merlot, 80% Cabernet . Great wine with complexity. Macerated fruits, leather aromas and persistance . 15,9 Euro . [email protected]

Imagine a japanese visitor who comes to Paris to participate in the famous Marathon de Paris . The run is set for april 10 th and a few days earlier, he visits the wine fair in the way . This also could be a marathon, sort of... But he is reasonable and he just tasted a few wines . Back there in Japan, he is an amateur of Cognac . So when he dropped at Jean Philippe Tesseron & Fils, he was impressed by their products . He bought a 50 cl bottle of "Tres Vieux Cognac" XO ( 25 year old ) . [email protected]

Empty bottles... In France, their first stop before the recycling facility is often one of these big green containers . Every house is supposed to have three trash containers : organic, plastic/paper, and glass bottles . But the glass bottles one is often either not sufficient ( glass collectors don't come everyday ) or inexistant . So we end up having to bring our bottles to the nearest green tank , entering the bottles one by one through the black hole on the left . They often overflow, and people just leave the bottles around, not that we drink that much, but rather that the Paris City administration seems to have trouble managing its daily tasks, like collecting the bottles or cleaning the streets and sidewalks . This was my rant of the day ...
Hi, I went to a small wine tasting event last Sunday. not like this Salon though. I've tasted 30 kinds of wines. It's too much for me. Ofcourse, I just tasted, not drunk all of them. I'm a quite light drinker. I liked almost of the wines and bought a few bottle of wine below.
Ch. Du Grand Moeuys, Clairet
Domaine Chaume Arnaud, Vin de Pays Portes de Mediteramet
Both are inexpensive. about 1400 yen each. The Clairet was a traditional way to make a red wine, it said. and smell Fraise. Very Fraise! the color was like Rose wine's. I think it would be nice to drink with friends casually.
I wanted to buy some the others, but can't afford to buy them. lol Besides, I can buy them whenever I want. The shop owner said that he had the wine in stock yet. :)
Posted by: hikalu | April 25, 2005 at 04:10 PM
I made one mistake.
Ch. Du Grand Moeuys, Clairet
-->Chateau Vignol Clairet
Posted by: hikalu | May 01, 2005 at 04:25 PM
I agree with your view that babies MUST be brought along to wine tastings--great point!
A lot of interesting stories in this post. Very enjoyable. (I haven't seen Sideways though, and from the previews it seemed pretentious and preachy. I could imagine that they got merlot wrong in the movie. How well does that movie do in France?)
Posted by: Ken M | May 05, 2005 at 03:07 PM
The movie theater was full when we went to see it , and it was a weekday . I think many of us were curious about this american road movie with wine as background, and so were indulgent with several aspects of the movie and its characters . Of course , wasting a supposedly great wine alone and in a plastic glass was maybe too much to swallow... But real life is weird like that sometimes .
Posted by: Bertrand | May 05, 2005 at 11:47 PM