My sister had brought me this bottle which she found in Lyon or a trip in the Rhone and we waited to open the bottle, it happened to be a very enjoyable wine. It's vinifies naturally on wild yeast, is (and feels) unfiltered. The Domaine Le Mazelet which I didn't know is located in Ardèche and managed by a Dutch and a Brit (Kim Nasmyth & Ronald Van Breemen) from what I found out on the Web. These outsiders are again making a terrific job, and with a label like this one I was almost sure I'd like the wine. I'm looking forward to trying more of their wines. Feels harmonious and well balanced, with a juicy mouth sporting a moderate 13% alcohol.
This was quite a luxury, B. had opened a Pommard 1er Cru from Pacalet which she kept for years in her cellar at her parents house in Burgundy. She checked her cellar bottles recently and thought it might bbe the time to try this wine. This turned to be urgent to drink the wine actually, it was fine but almost peaked, you felt waiting more wouldn't add. Delicate color, very delicate mouth and complex aromas, certainly very different from what it was when young, such a pleasure to drink. She has a few more bottles of this cuvée and I push her now and then to open a bottle (just an altruistic motive so that the wine doesn't spoil, of course....).
We also opened the same day another rarity, a Chablis Rosette 2004 by De Moor (pictured in the background), one of their first vintage, also unfiltered & unfined, such a vibrant liquid food.
Enjoyed a nice dinner at A la Renaissance in Paris in the 11th arrondissement (map directions), a restaurant that has been pouring natural wines for 20 years and serves food made with well-sourced ingredients (menu).Keizo Ishida who is the sake brewer behind the Matsunotsukasa sake brewery in Shiga near Kyoto (which is imported in Europe by Puzelat Imports) was happy with the wines we got there including this Alice & Olivier de Moor Aligoté 2015. Keizou also makes a bit of wine himself in Japan for a try and personnal use and he's very knowledgeable about wines, they get all the good stuff over there. Loved also this Domaine Leonine Chuck Barrick, a terrific thirst wine made with Syrah/Grenache. Great wine list by bottle (it's a book you have to leaf through, not just a couple of pages), all natural, and the choice of the wines-by-the-glass is impressive (picture on right). Given the food and the wines it's fairly good value to eat there and the neighborhood is pretty relax and real, with a mix of shops and services, an authentic vie de quartier, not the artificial over-hyped Marais with its sophisticated shops.
I was lucky enough to be offered by Keizo Ishida, the chief brewer of the Matsunotsukasa sake brewery a bottle of an experimental sake which he made in his Shiga facility just before leaving for France. (Don't pay attention to the label, Keizo just needed a bottle to carry it and took one of his existing cuvées). this sake is indeed exceptionnal, with both smoothness, aromatic intensity and an Umami vibrant with energy as well as a long radiating feel in the palate.
This is a non-conventional sake made with blending several vintages, a 2017 Ginhubuki rice polished at 60 % [40 % of rice polished away] and fermented on wild yeast in clay vat, a 2016 same rice, also wild yeast fermented in 4500L enamelled tank, a 2017 from local organic Yamadanishiki rice polished at 55 % and fermented on selected M5 yeast and a 2016 from Yamadanishiki rice polished at 30 % and fermented in 3000L enamelled tank with #1801 selected yeast, each part od the blend being respectively 71 %, 13 %, 11 % and 5 % and the water coming from various wells (including mainly their own).
Artisan winemakers also routinely conduct trials on micro cuvées with unconventional blends, yielding very interesting wines and this sake is itself terrific, and would make a killing at any high-end restaurant that would have it on its list.
Pictures on the sides related to this one-off cuvée.
I atended recently a press event organized by Pain Vin & Company with Jo Pithon and his successor Ivan Massonnat. Jo Pithon who started his winery in 1978 is retiring and was looking for someone to take over as his children didn't follow his path. He farms now 9 hectares including the iconic Monopole vineyard Coteau des Treilles, a steep slope with a rocky soil. Jo says that this terroir is very difficult to farm and he wanted to find someone who was ready to keep the good work. He found Ivan by chance when at the Salon d'Angers Patrick Baudouin present him Ivan Massonnat. They both drove to the Coteau des Treilles which was then blanketed with snow (early february) but Ivan felt something in this place and was ready to take the challenge.
Ivan Massonnat who is a financier working in private equity had been looking for a year for an investment opportunity in Anjou, he already has a house not far from here in Chinon and he loked for a domaine with something special. Of course he'll keep working in finance and plans to run the domaine with the help of a multi-purpose chai master who understands the philosophy of the domaine and will overlook the existing team of 3-4 full-time staff who work on the vineyard (anyone interested in taking this challenging job can candidate on their new webpage We Love Chenin....
Ivan plans to further invest in Pithon-Paillé both in terms of vineyard surface, adding soon 6 hectares thanks to the retirement of a neighbor and he plans also to buy 10 hectares in Quart de Chaume (10 % of the appellation surface) which may sounds weird, he says, at a time the liquoreux (sweet wines) have a hard time to sell, but he thinks these terroirs are also well-suited for dry whites and there's a bright future there. Ivan Massonnat says he's very influenced by Burgundy and wants to develop this terroir approach in Anjou because the soils can be very different and Chenin is the perfect variety to express these differences.
Pithon-Pailé wine profile by the Wine Doctor
If you're looking for a nice place to eat and have a few glasses of wines in Tel Aviv go to Brut, it's located at Nahalat Binyamin & Montefiore in a trendy but relaxed neighborhood, the place is not very
roomy but if you sit at the counter you can watch Yosefi the owner cooking under your eyes.
I asked for a glass of the private production of Yaakov Oryah (who works most of his time at Psagot in Judea & Samaria) because this is one of the few places where you find the wine.
__ Ya'akov Oryah, From Darkness to Light (in Hebrew), Blanc de Noire [typo] 2016, made with Grenache, Cinsault, Mourvèdre. 11,5 %. 48 Shekels a glass (11 €), 186 Shekels a bottle (44 €). Surprising direct-press wine with bitterness notes.
__ Ya'akov Oryah, Jemma, Semillon 2015, named related to Yosefi if I remember. Color : a bit pink, turbid. Mouth : superb with weird tannins typical of a white with skin contact. Long and beautiful mouth feel, delicious wine with just the touch of bitteness at the end. Glass 60 Shekels (14 €), bottle 235 Shekels (56 €).
Right next Brut there's Extra Brut where you can get nice, fresh Asian food along with a good range of locally made spirits by Yuval 'Joov' Hargil of the Jullius CraftDistillery, especially his excellent Marc de Galilée, so smooth and powerful at the same time, superb.
I discovered M25 Meat Market after Ze'ev my work contact there tipped me about it, this is a must-visit restaurant if you spend time in Tel Aviv. The venue is very casual and unpretentious from the outside
(and even the inside including the quiet terrace upstairs) but this is the most serious place regarding the food and the meat they source and cook, really a terrific value in the heart of Tel Aviv, conveniently located along a side street of the Carmel Market (Map - but few tourists venture there it seems). This restaurant is like a butcher with a restaurant, I love that. Best is visit a weekday and early, you can eat then without reservation but if you're a party, better reserve.
I opted for an Arayes which I was told was the staple dish here, it's a grilled pita bread filled with meat, tomatoes, onions, parsley and other spices, the whole thing served with a refreshing salad, this Arayes was just rewardingly crunchy and delicious for just 48 NIS (Shekels) or 11,3 € to which you add some 10 % for service. Great value. See pic on right, I was pretty hungry and took the picture after having almost gulped one of the quarters.
Looking about what to bring back from Israel I chose to buy a couple of Arak. There are good wines here around too but they're pretty expensive especially given our choice back in France and Arak is certainly relatively under the radar. Of course I looked for a bottle from El Namroud, the distillery in northern Israel founded by former south-Labanon Militiamen but it's pretty hard to find even in Tel Aviv. I ended finding one at Apéritif, a wine shop with two branches, one at Dizengoff 93 and the other at Bugrashov 29.
Was invited recently by Proteines to a tasting of the wine section of the Casino supermarkets (here is the Pdf file of Casino's wine range for their Foire aux Vins), one of the major retail giants in France, and knowing of the new trend to offer a range of natural wines (or labelled as such) among their mainstream wines made me want to go. It was a mixed bag but I came across several worthy wines, which makes me think that it's wise to keep an eye once in a while on what the supermarkets offer.
__ Domaine des Roches du Py, morgon Côte du Py 2017 Sans Sulfites Ajoutés (without added sulfites) retail price on the shelves 5,95 €. The first wine I got in this nature/no-sulfites range was pretty bad indeed, will spare me the 6 € I'd have spent if I had tried the bottle by myself. Was tasting so weird, I suspect they relied on some sort of pasteurization to secure their zero-SO2 winemaking, maybe using other tricks as well. I don't think this domaine exists really, it's probably a temporary name for a négoce product.
The event took place at the Yacht Club rue Saint Lazare in Paris (pictured on right), the snacks and buffet food was excellent.
The weather was perfect for the Fête de la Musique this year, no rain, not too hot (almost a bit chilly actually which is better) and you had tons of live music (as well as recorded) everywhere in town. Big events are a nuisance though, when there are thousands of people massed in a square to listen to some music star, not counting the risk to have another islamic fanatc try to harm infidels. We prefer the out-of-the-beaten-path events like this party outside a bar at Jourdain, this was real fun although it was DJ music and recorded classics. Beer was flowing from a tap on the sidewalk, really cool...
__ Domaine Cazes, Côtes du Roussillon 2017, Sans Sulfites (no sulfites) 6,75 € at Casino. I was more lucky with my seconfd pick. From an existing domaine with organic farming and biodynamic as well, I found this SO2-free cuvée on their website. Not bad at all in the mouth with a pleasant freshness and sweet edge, good deal at 6,75 ! Grab one bottle if you wander in a Casino (no sponsoring here, and I actually never go to Casino, don't have one near my whereabouts.
__ Buzet L'Intact 2017, Vin sans sulfites (wine without sulfites) 4,5 € at Casino. "Une Viticulture Restectueuse de l'Homme et de la Nature" printed on the label, certainly means non-organic but uses chemicals with moderation, take it like you want...
Prune notes on the nose, in the mouth it's unbalanced with prominent alcohol feel, a bit burning, not good, tastes cardboard or something. Also must have used some kind of pasteurization process to make the wine sterile. I'd love to learn about the vinification and cellar processing for this wine.
__ Chateau de la Grenière, Lussac Saint Emilion 2016 Autrement. 7,9 € at Casino. Back label reads Vinifié et élevé sans Sulfites. Beyond what looks like a copyright infringement issue regarding this cuvée name which is already used for a long time by the Bordeaux domaine Chateau Lamery for its cuvée nature Autrement, the wine is pretty good. Nice wrapping feel along the palate, sweet fruit touch, elegance and quite good length with tannins that are palpable but well mastered. Not organic but you might try this one as well.
__ Chateau Cateau Lagrange, Bordeaux Supérieur 2016, Sans Sulfites Ajoutés (without added sulfites. 4,9 €. Organic viticulture. Won gold at the Concours Amphore Bio 2017 (a competition between "organic" wines -- here are the winners for the 2017 edition list). Forgot to take a pic. Didn't like much the wine, angular mouth.
There were a few otherno-so2 wines but nothing very interesting on the whole.
There were many other wines beyond the "nature" or "without added sulfites" ones and I poured myself from a couple of them, including this Albert Bichot (a valeur sûre if a négoce) Domaine du Pavillon, Clos des Ursulines Pommard 2014 - 32,5 € at Casino . Super good indeed, aerial, fresh, a nice classy wine which is certainly made with very little intervention.
__ Domaine des Carabiniers, Lunar Apogé, Lirac 2017, 9,95 €. Grenache 50 %, Mourvèdre 25 %, Syrah 25 %. Also a cuvée found at Casino. Spicy notes on the nose. Smooth, unctuous mouth, thin tannins, nice length. 50 000 bottles. Biodynamic domaine (Demeter) with a 50-hectare surface. The vigneron was there at the tasting, Fabien Leperchois (pictured) who founded Biodynamic Wine 3 years ago with his father and sister, 85 % of the production being exported (20 % to the U.S. alone). He says they use a quad bike to do the biodynamic sprays on the vines. Interesting to follow and taste the wines, proves that relatively large domaines can handle the challenge of biodynamic farming and still be affordable. More insight into the vinification procedures would be interesting also. Showed me pictures he made in the U.S. with bottles of his cuvées with as a background the Grand Canyon and other iconic landscapes (some are on the Facebook page).
This was an impromptu stop at François Saint-Léger with Alex, his wife Estelle couldn't be with us because she was taking care of their baby. I remembered his great Pineau d'Aunis among other things from my visit last year and wanted to see what he had in the cellar these days. We first tasted a blend of Menu Pineau (planted in 1950) and Chardonnay (planted in 1980) 2015, the wine got 3 grams/hectolier SO2 because of the conversion (when not yet solidly organic the fermentation isn't very stable on indigenous yeast, from what I understand). Then we tasted his blend of Chenin (3/4) Sauvignon (1/4) 2015 from a vat. He says he added 3 grams of SO2per hectoliter here. Then same cuvée from 2016 (bottle), no sugar left. Nice wine with expressive acidity. Then a 100 % Sauvignon 2015 from vines planted in 1950, from a barrel. He has 4 barrels of this. Then Sauvignon 2016 from a fiber vat, still fermenting. Good acidity, perly wine. then a red, a Gamay Chaudenay 2016 from vines planted in 1929. Nice tannin touch, pepper. Some nail polish on the nose. Then a Pet'nat from Cab Franc and Grolleau, nose with flower aromas, so good, he still has bottles of this if I can't read properly my notes, 1500 bottles (not clear if that's the whole volume). Sorry for the sketchy notes.
This was the other day, actually a couple months ago, Oenoteam had organized an interesting hidden dinner (a dîner planqué) in a confidential location in the heart of Paris, we were a happy few to be invited and to add more mystery the Bordeaux eonology consultants (Stéphane Toutoundji, Thomas Duclos and Julien Belle) had planned to pour their guests wines that were not at all from Bordeaux, not very usual for a region that is very self-centered... For this special event we were 20+ writers, journalists and a few wine luminaries (like Michel Bettane, Bernard Burtschy and Philippe Faure-Brac) to be invited and the Chef was no less than Vivien Durand who came specially here in Paris from his one-Michelin-starred restaurant Le Prince Noir in Lormont just outside Bordeaux. Vivien took the reins there after Jean-Marie Amat and brought along his love for the Basque products and cuisine. He is pictured here upstairs in the kitchen part of the roomy loft/atelier where this private dinner took place.To begin with we had a delicious appetizer, ask for it if you eat in Vivien's restaurant : Caviar d'Aquitaine Sturia, céleri rôti sur un lit de sel. I love this job...
Stéphane Toutoudji who is oenologue conseil since 2002 made a short speech as we had our first glass before sitting along the table, an Egly_Ouriet Grand cru VP. VP stands for Vieillissement Prolongé or extended aging, meaning longer élevage in the bottle, 6 years. 70% de Pinot Noir & 30% de Chardonnay, extra brut (2gr dosage). Very beautiful, thin bubbles and spicy notes. Stéphane Toutoudji began to hint at why they made this dinner with wines that are not from Bordeaux, not wines which they help craft through their oenology-consultan business. They say their job is evelving, their profession is evolving and they are curious of other wines as well. They work individually with their clients, there's not a single philosophy or work frame applied to all the chateaux they work for. The 3 associates set up Oenoteam at the end of 2012 and work from from a lab in the heart of Libourne with several technicians and a microbiologist. I don't dine often with flying winemakers so that was interesting to hear their point of view. tHey say (Julien Belle took the floor) they help the domaines not only for the technical issues but also for the managerial and the economical aspects. They say Bordeaux had to face lots of bashing with very expensive wines that are exported although 60 % of the wines from the region are sold between 5 € and 15 € without tax with an excellent value for money. They say the Parker era is over with more diverse wines on the market and a comeback to balance, freshness and wines that are easy to drink.
You understand the oddity of this dinner (and a couple of wines are missing here) : a successful team of Bordeaux oenologists calling you for dinner with an exciting surprise wine list without a single Bordeaux, I like that approach. They poured wines they like, a way certainly also to show they're open minded and get their inspiration from a diversity of region and of winemakers. I get invited pretty often to all sort of wine events including closed doors dinners and alas I don't go very often because of work and other schedule issues, but events like this one make me think I have to get around the difficulties and attend more often, this is the rewarding part of a wine writer and an opportunity to approach wines I wouldn't easily otherwise, and with the pairing thing.
__ Meursault En Luraule 2015, Domaine Remi Jobard. Superb white Burgundy, refined, complex with a mineral edge. So enjoyable with Vivien's entree, a Jus d'une salade râpée, coques et épinevinettes, the latter being small tannic berries that crunch
under the tooth.
__ Vosne Romanée, Gérard Mugneret 2012. Super seductive red Burgundy, Vosne-Romanée style, delicate and subtle. Coats the palate, silky. We have this Pinot Noir with fish, Salade de Merlu de ligne (line-caught hake) de Saint-Jean-de-Luz, coquillages, verts et blancs de blette, delicious salad too, ask for it at Le Prince Noir. The whole pairing is super harmonious and delicate.
__ Domaine de la Mordorée, la Reine des Bois, Chateauneuf du Pape 2012. Very delicate spices, empyreumatic aromas, herbal essences, extracted but not excessively, and quite fresh in the mouth. 15 % alcohol but doesn't really feel like. Got that with a Paleron de Boeuf "Herriko" maturé 75 jours, fricassée de légumes racines, moelle et joue de boeuf, the meat being covered with a generous layer of black-truffle chips, sliced by Vivien himself on the plates in front of us (pic on left) . Man, that was good ! Stéphane Toutoundji says they chose this wine for its mouth touch and he says this tannin quality is not the result of chance, it needs a proper and timely winemaking. He says they could get this chiseled and precise mouth touch in spite of being a 60-hectare domaine, it's not overripe, it's balanced, wuth just enough of everything, juicy, this is the type of wine they get their inspiration from and when they're working with a vigneron they keep these objectives in mind. Michel Bettane says at this point that he agrees, it's a magnificent wine, and he adds that that's one of wines Robert Parker likes the most and he basically is the one who put this domaine on the world map thanks to his praise for its wines...
__ Clos Rougeard Saumur Champigny, this was poured like a mystery wine, the label hidden from view. Only one person around me guessed what it was if i remember correctly, and it was Michel Bettane. The wine is exceedingly beautiful, sip after sip. Croquant in the mouth with fruit, light, with a subtlety in its intensity, quite an aerial wine overall. With choosing this wine they wanted to highlight the beauty of vegetal, green-pepper notes in a wine, Julien says that this type of aromas is often viewed negatively when actually in the vegetal range there is also a dimension with floral, anise, menthol, bulbar aromas, and he says you find this range of aromas in Bordeaux wines as well, bringing complexity, drinkability in the wines. It's considered as being for granted in the Loire's Cabernet Franc but it had a hard time to be accepted in Bordeaux. Happily he says, Bordeaux is coming back to this range of aromas through more and more wines.
We opened a nice bottle a few weeks ago, a Giboulot Bourgogne 2005. Can't find my notes about the wine, we just have the color here to pay homage to its greatness...
We ended up eating in march the very big pumpkin I had brought back from the garden in the Loire, we kept it in Paris in the garage in the dark for months and brought it out when we saw it was beginning to have rot spots (happens one day or another). This was indeed a very big pumpkin and we gave big slices of it to family and friends. I can't but encourage you to put seeds in the ground wherever you live and see by yourself, a pumpkin doesn't need a lot of attention (it's the best vegetable for lazy gardeners) except keeping off snails, slugs & rabbits at the young-shoot stage. It grows very long shoots that wander around with big, rough leaves to catch the light and you end up with pumkins of various sizes that will embellish your winter soups. And of course i've put on the side all the seeds so that the cycle can continue forever. I got the initial seeds from an elderly lady in the village who herself used to replant the seeds year after year.in spring I still had some spare pumkins from the 20 I picked last october and the first baby shoots were already popping up in Paris waiting to be planted in the Loire....
We opened this bottle after some time spent in the wine fridge, and this was indeed abracadabrantesque as usual, a great red Provence wine made by Jean-Christophe Comor of Les Terres Promises, there's fruit and a pleasant tannic chew, this is the liquid food I like to feast on. I don't remember the vintage (neither B.) and as it was printed on the back label that will remain a mystery. Provence deserves better than being just a region for rosés of uneven quality, this land has all the potential for great reds but oddly many conventional/commercial wineries make more profit making high-yield rosés....
Portugal has also an established tradition for Champagne-type sparkling, it is located in the Tavora-Varosa wine region and Murganheira is the large cooperative specialized on these bublies. We visited both the vatrooms and the impressive underground cellars were thousands of bottle lay sur lattes waiting for disgorgement. The coop owns 30 hectares and buys the grapes from an estimated surface of 1000 hectares (50 producers).
Murganheira is located in a uniquely beautiful village, Ucanha, with churches full of lovely religious art (really, lots of stuff, very inspîring even if you're not into catholic things), a very old bridge and a few kilometers away from the remains of a large cistercian monatery (Tarouca).
Almong the bublies we got at the coop I liked the most this one made for the Russian market :
__ Czar, Grand Cuvée rosé 2013, made from Pinot Noir. Nose : delicate flowery notes, roses, berlingot candy. Much drier than the other bubblies I tasted in the coop, I prefer that one, the dosage is obviously very moderate. Nice bitteness feel also. I saw 3 prices on their list for this bubbly, between 22 € and 27 €. 14 % alcohol.
You may know that Bacalhau (cod) is the national food in Portugal, but they cook it from the salted, dry version. We had some a couple of times at the restaurants and frankly I hate it, sorry for the Portuguese who might read this page, it was hard to chew, dry and plainly unsavory. My mother used to make some when I was a child and samely I didn't like any of it including the smell. In case you're a fan of this dey salted fish and know a better way to cook them, you'll find plenty and like you can see here at a very affordable price (7 €/kg).
Otherwise if you go to the aisle for the Douro wines (pic on left) in a Continente supermarket you'll have a very large selection of bottles, from the dirt cheap to mid level prices. While the very cheap must not be very good I'd have liked to make a test though, for example with this bottle priced at a mere 1,44 € on the right.... I saw motorhomes parked here and there in the countryside and I know some European retirees (including French) spend winter touring around here and in Spain, they have certainly the time to look around for an affordable table wine, which I don't doubt you must have here.
Here is a twin picture with a few wine prices for supermarket wines in Portugal, from around 2 € to 14 €. The Vinho Verde on the left can be cheap and that cam make the job for a summer sip outside. I'm always curious to check supermarket wines from time to time, especially in summer with the rosés and i stumbled on a few drinkable wines in France in the supermarkets (story here), so I think that may be the same over here, just at an even lower price. Didn't have time on this issue for cheap summer booze to explore the offer for bag in box wine or plain bulk wine bought from wineries or coops, it's pretty mainstream in the south of France (How do you think France can remain among the biggest wine drinkers...).
We had a dinner the last day of our Douro trip with several vintners, having their wines or Port along the dinner and here Jorge Alves poured us his 1st rosé made with a direct press at Quinta Nova, no skin contact with, he says, a color as light as possible, a rosé which he wanted to show a good harmony, acidity which comes from the schist soil, fresh, and, he says with a grin, as expensive as possible... The color is clear, indeed more like a white than a rosé. Pretty full mouthed, aromas of rose petals, very feminine wine, generous and somehow powerful, more a gastronomy rosé than one to drink by itself in summer. Very nice wine. I didn't ask for the price but found out later it sells for 15,5 € in Portugal.
Carlos Agrellos speaks with a British accent, he is the winemaker at Quinta do Noval, the origin of which can be traced back to the year 1715. Its Port wines are well-established values and the Quinta also makes Douro wines since
2006 (Read Jamie Goode's story on the introduction of these wines in the UK in 2007).
Here is what we got that day at the end of dinner :
__ Quinta do Noval 20 Tawny Port. Superb. Color not tile but still redish. The balance between sweetness & acidity is the key, Carlos Agrellos says. He says that it is a style that illustrates what Douro is about, different expositions, different altitudes, varieties, as this is a blend of many wines, 16 to 21 parcels and from many varieties, aging in big and smaller vessels. This particular Port was bottled this year, a 1000 bottle batch only, and later this year they'll bottle more. He says that Port temperature at serving should be 10 C (50 F). Complex aromas with peony, leather, musk, truffles. Sells for 30 € retail, good deal.
We had the opportunity to taste (and drink) the renowned Portuguese sparkling (Méthode Champenoise) made in the Alto Douro by Vértice, and this was in the presence of Celso Pereira himself, who is in charge of the vinification since 1989, he is the pioneer in the making of quality sparkling in the Douro region,
with the awareness that you need good grapes first. This all started with what is
called the Schramsberg experiments, made by the visiting owner of Schramsberg Vineyards (California), a domaine with a long experience in making méthodes Champenoises in Napa. During trials they found that the terroir & soil at Cimo Corgo at a higher altitude was perfectly fit to grow the type of grapes needed for a good sparkling, and Vértice was started at that time.
__ Vértice Gouveio Brut 2008, metode classico, disgorged out [october] 2016. Very refined, with thin bubble texture, almost a still white with just a gentle tickling on the tongue. Zero dosage, Jorge Moreira says (we have him closer than Celso at the dinner table), he says their first bubbly was 1991 (I guess just in time for the first 1989 plantings to deliver grapes).
__ Vértice Pinot Noir Bruto 2008, 100 % Pinot Noir of course, grown at 600 m altitude. Zero dosage. Disgorged february 2018 (all is printed on the labels). Such a beautiful aftertaste also, bubbles in the back seat. Great job.
There's a tradition in France in the cold season to get very good deals on pork meat in the supermarkets in the back country, this is some sort of continuation of the peasant tradition of preparing whole pigs to make it through winter. But although I thought I had been around all the feasable deals regarding pork, Portugal made me tick on this issue and I whished I had been able to bring back one of these : We had little free time along this exciting press trip but I managed to visit the local supermarket Continente, it was a mere 25 minute walk from the hotel downtown and the municipal market that should have been opened all day that friday was closed because it was Easter.
Can you believe it, they were selling these vacuum-packed piglets weighing from 5 to 8 kilograms for a mere 9 € ! They were so cute and immaculate, if for a bit of fresh blood still visible through the plastic. Had been in the Loire I'd have found a way to cook one, maybe I'd have roasted it outside or in the fireplace, I was told here in Portugal that it was delicious. Poor things, they're so cute when alive but when I see that my carnivorous side takes over....
The Portuguese seem to be fond of piglets, i found out that Continente sells cooked piglets as well (although a bit more expensive than the raw ones here).
And this smoked pork foot, also found for a mere 1,5 € at Continente...
That's the charm of Tel Aviv, you certainly hear mopre Russian in the street than French and english, the Russian immigrants are everywhere and they brought their culinary delicacies with them. My favorite grocery for Russian food or drinks is the one at 106 Allenby, the main avenue of Tel Aviv, it's full of everything including pork, Ukrainian chocolate, canned food, and the prices are surprising low in a country where it's rather the opposite. This well-sized pack od dried Yellow Stripe Trevally was costing only 11,90 Shekels or 2,4 € and there were several other types of dried fish, all with both Russian and Hebrew information on the packaging.
I stumbled upon this very nice Minervois a few weeks ago : Domaine de l'Oustal Blanc, Giocoso, Minervois 2014, a Languedoc red made from a majority of Grenache. Smooth, harmonious wine with sweet spices notes and a bright acidity, very enjoyable. Comes from the tiny Livinière region which I visited last year and had another of their cuvées.
That's a gem of a wine ! Méli Mélo is a Jura wine, a deliciously fresh blend made with both white and red varieties (Trousseau, Poulsard, Chardonnay & Savagnin if I'm right). Made by a couple, Amélie Vuillet and Sébastien Jacques who live in Molamboz. The domaine is operating since 2011 The guy made beer first and his wife got him try making natural wine, after which he worked for Stéphane Tissot (still works there on the side). He also works for a craft brewery in Jura. The juice-like wine is a pleasure, with this particular tannin touch in the mouth you get with these white-red blends.
Jura rocks, and it is almost the only region where you regularly come across these unpretentious red-white blends that were probably very common a couple centuries ago when locals would drink wine made from parcels complanted with both colors. Look at this color, it can't lie...
Grange Bara, vin de France 2017 made by Daniel Sage who works in Ardèche since 2011. Marsanne-Roussanne blend with skin maceration and no added sulfites. Another weird color, very turbid and wheat like shades. Tastes incredible, out of this world, need to try this also if you come across a bottle. Nice label that blends well with the wine character. A hard-to-find cult wine from what I understand and all his wines are made without any additives including SO2. Was opened by Alex who brought this back from his wine route across France.
I found a nice children book in Tel Aviv, it's all in Hebrew and it seems to be locally published (BooksRus and designed (Shimshon Kotlovski) and it's printed in Israel (so many children books are international products). I don't know what's the story but there are a few pages with workers/growers working in a vineyard overflowing with generous bunches of grapes.
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