Fresh crews in Muscadet, Adegga Summer Festival + dates

Muscadet's pyramid Four new Muscadet Crus Communaux After some considerable delay the next four Muscadet Crus Communaux were finally agreed by the INAO on Wednesday 19th June 2019. They now need to be officially signed of by the relevant Franch minister. Hopefully she or he will soon the necessary pen and the process will soon …

Gonflette et brosse à reluire

Notre cher Hervé a attiré mon attention sur un article récemment publié sur le site web du magazine Terre de Vins. En m'envoyant le lien, il m'a simplement dit:  "ceci va te plaire". Ironiquement, il avait bien raison, car cet article et sa tonalité posent encore une fois la question de la déontologie journalistique, mais …

Sébastien David’s big week

Breaking news 20th June: Following the hearing this morning in Orléans the court will give its judgment on Thursday 11th July. Fingers crossed for Sébastien! An update on the Affaire Sébastien David:  On 7th May 2019 I posted about Sébastien David being threatened with the destruction of his bottles of 2016 Coef Saint=Nicolas-de-Bourgueil. Click below …

The dry dilemma of Bordeaux’s sweet wines

Back in December last year I published an article on this blog that you can find HERE about the ways in which Sauternes and other Bordeaux appellations dedicated to the production of sweet whites are attempting to deal with a market that seems to increasingly eschew this type of wine. There's not much point in going …

Return to another old haunt: Puyméras

  Cave la Comtadine, Puyméras Refuelling point My post last Tuesday recounted how we had returned last week to the Vaucluse and the Southern Rhône for the first time in many years. As well as climbing the Ventoux on our e-bikes we went back to Faucon and the campsite in the pine forest, where we …

Néo-vignerons provençaux (1): quelques questions pour commencer

Quand on parle de néo-vignerons, cela n’est pas une question d’âge, il faut plutôt comprendre "nouvellement installés", que ce soit par conversion professionnelle, par reprise du domaine familial ou encore par changement de domaine, les cas de figure sont nombreux. En Provence, où l'on surfe avec maestria sur la vague du rosé, ces nouveaux arrivants …

A return to the Ventoux

The imposing and dominating Mont Ventoux During the early to middle 1980s we spent most of our summer holidays in a lovely campsite in a pine forest in the commune of Faucon. We spent our time cycling, visiting wine producers and enjoying long meals of varying quality with friends and family. As we were once …