francofiled

The Cher comes to Belfast! Having spent a year living in Vierzon, in France's Centre-Val de Loire region, I feel a strong connection to the Cher department and the Loire Valley more generally. This part of France is famed for its châteaux and its wines particularly Sauvignon Blanc, and Chenin Blanc. I visited several times over the decades, but recently, the Cher came to Belfast in the persons of winemaker, Thierry Delaunay, and his wife, Marie. They brought 9 of their wines with them, to Direct Wine Shipments (DWS), for a meet the wine maker tasting, organised by DWS.  There was a large crowd of wine enthusiasts, and the air bubbled with conversations and excitement. Making our way up the stairs we each received a welcome glass of sparkling wine at the top before a member of staff assigned everyone to their place in the tasting room. I had gone on my own but soon our table was a buzz of conviviality, fellow tasters swapping names and sharing wine adventures. A handbell sounded ou...

Browsing the wine section at my local supermarket, I suddenly stopped as I found it interesting to come across these bottles with French idioms on their labels.  Varietals / Grape Varieties More about their meanings below, meantime the varietal names, Merlot, Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay are by now so well known to wine consumers that they need no further explanation.  If it were a competition varietals would win among local consumers. In many establishments that's all that is offered.  However, most of the wine in France is bottled with regional or estate names and may not immediately recommend themselves to those who select their wine according to grape variety - Chablis, for example is a Chardonnay.   We're getting there but it may take a while longer until outlets and the wine consuming public develop greater confidence with LaBel(le)France  And that's why these labels are such a good idea.  They create  a splash of fun with the language and...

 

 

Author's note: This article was first posted as 24 hours in Saint Émilion on www.cerclefrancaisdebelfast.org in August 2020.  It is a follow up to a post that appeared ten years earlier on francofiled in August 2010.  Click here for the previous post entitled Saint Émilion - Message in a bottle.  The plan to spend a night in the medieval town of Saint-Émilion was uncorked some years back. Nearly two decades ago we had been in the town and purchased a special bottle from the 1981 vintage of  Château Franc-Pourret  to commemorate our wedding year.  The idea, still not realised, was to crack it open at a special anniversary. It was on checking its current status for drinkability that we noted that the Château offered the opportunity to stay in the heart of the  vignoble  in highly rated  chambre d'hôte  accommodation.  The plan developed its aroma when last September, we arranged to spend a few weeks in France starting in Bordeaux bef...

Quand mon verre est vide, je le plains, Quand mon verre est plein, je le vide.     Raoul PONCHON I have always loved this simple jeu de mots , word play. Literally it means that when my glass is empty I feel sorry about that. When it's full, I empty it. Within moderation of course.

It was nice at a family gathering of the Tracey clan to be able to get so close to a namesake bottle of Pouilly Fumé. We all took turns at posing with the bottle with the eventual aim of posting to social media. The back label provides some details on the wine and a stop at the Tracy sur Loire commune overlooking Sancerre will be a definite visit on our next trip to France. But it was the depuis 1396 on the front that really got me looking. Have they really been making wines there for over 600 years? Turns out they have and there's a Scottish connection too. I browsed to the Château's website and was pleased to see that it includes a short film in French with English subtitles. Even if your name's not Tracey, if you are a wine lover you'll appreciate it. There is the château in all its glory, the vineyards and cellars. And the occasional pop sounds of corks being eased from their bottles. Daniel, an old French friend, when he hears the distinctive sound of a poppin...