Afternoon at Château Pichon Longueville Baron

 

    Located in the famous Pauillac appellation, in a small town called Saint-Lambert, this magnificent Château stands out in the middle of those thousands hectares of vines...

As a 2nd Grand Cru Classé, this estate has nothing to envy to its prestigious neighbors Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande and Château Latour. 

    Built in 1851, the Château has been refreshed in 1992 with an outstanding round vatroom, and since 2008, a brand new underground cellar.

After a look around the huge stainless steel vats vinifcation room and an exhaustive explanation about the picking, sorting and fermentation process, you land in the old cellar where a wonderful smell enhance all your senses. This one-thousand cellar welcomes the new vintage for six months before it is blended once in a 1500 hL tank for a perfect harmonization. Then, the wine ages for another twelve months in the new cellar before a last blend that insure a constant wine .

 

After an interesting speech about the history of the Château, here comes the tasting. Well... i didn't taste all the wines you see here that were being selected to be on the new Air France's wines range.

 

But i am actually not complaining about this tasting i could't attend when you get the chance to taste one of the souvenir of the beautiful old cellar... Château Pichon Longueville Baron 1960 ! Typical old Pauillac style, with strong leather/ animal flavors, jammy fruits and soft tannins ! 

Cheers guys ! 

Barrel Tasting

35th Annual Barrel Tasting
   Wine Road - Northern Sonoma Count

100+ Wineries!

This week dear readers, I want to share with you my wonderful experience of the Californian wine road, the two week-ends tasting, event of the Sonoma Valley, THE BARREL TASTING!

More than 100 wineries are open to the public for two times tree days, and this year it will be March 1-3 and March 8-10. 

You choose on week end, you choose the winery where you want to start your tour and you buy a ticket on internet, only 30$ for 3 days tasting!! 

At the D-day, you go to your first winery, they give you your map and your glass, and from 11am to 4pm you taste futures and practically all the time the annual release or the 2 or 3 previous vintages. 

 

This is your chance to sample wines from the barrel, talk to winemakers and explore the beautiful Alexander, Dry Creek and Russian River Valleys.

 

This is an opportunity to purchase wine now, often at a discount, then come back to the winery when the wine is bottled, typically 12-18 months from now.

With a winemaker

I have been to California 1 month last year and enjoy this great event for the two week-ends! 
The first one I taste and speak with winemakers because i wanted to find contacts with my goal to enter the master "Wine Marketing and Management" at INSEEC. So I traveled around the 3 valleys, the weather was perfect, even if at this period of the year there is no leaves or grappes on the vines, the landscape there was splendid!

During my little wine tasting road trip week-end, I met a really nice winemaker family, the Davis family, and they asked me to work for them the next w-e, pouring the wine and talk about their wines and vineyards!

So I spent the 2nd w-e working with the winemaker, speaking about wines and enjoying this so pleasant time of the year in California. 

2 great w-e to enjoy with friends and family, to learn about californian wines and taste some delicious!

Winely yours

M. 

 

A mix of passion

Wine lovers, football fans, this article is for you!

This is an event that football fans have not failed last monday: Lionel Messi, 4th Ballon d’Or and 4 wines to its name: "Leo"

Messi started this year a collaboration with an Argentinian vineyards to produce four wines with diminutive of his first name "Leo". As a label a jersey or a ball with player's name and signature.

Produced by Argentinian Valentin Bianchi winery, located in Mendoza region, part of the profits from sales of these bottles will return to the player's charitable foundation: "The company will work closely with the Leo Messi Foundation so it can continue to carry out projects focused on children's health and educational development," advised the House Valentin Bianchi via a statement.

Valentin Bianchi is a 3rd generation, family-owned Argentine winery from 1928 that is respected for its traditional Argentine wines. Their wines are staples at the finest restaurants and most chic bars and clubs in Buenos Aires and are found in the country's best wine shops. The family proudly creates 'Don Valentin', 'Sparkling Brut', 'Elsa', 'Famiglia', 'Enzo', 'Particular', 'New Age' and their newest line, 'Valentin Bianchi'.

If you're like me: a lover of new taste sensations and a fan of the player Lionel Messi, you can combine your two passions enjoying this wine !! 

2013 Loire Valley Wines Fair

Dear bloggers, if we talk about Anjou, chenin, gamay, Saumur, Touraine... does it ring a bell ? If it doesn't...GREAT! because this week we are introducing you to the only European exhibition dedicated to a single vineyard, the Loire Valley. Created in 1987, the Fair allows French and international visitors to discover in preview and before marketing, the vintage year.
During three days, nearly 600 exhibitors from 83 different appellations : Pays Nantais, Anjou-Saumur Regions , Touraine and Loire Valley, offer 9,000 trade visitors expected to discover all the richness and freshness of the Loire vineyards , through a variety of high quality wines red, rosé and white dry or sweet, still or fine bubbles.

  

Apart from all the fabulous wines that will be tasted, this year will be celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Best Loire wines student sommelier contest as well as an other contest in which we could have been pretender... the Wine Blog trophy, that rewards the best wine blogs! Why aren't we on the list ? Well... maybe next year !
Eventually, the day before the fair starts will occure the 19th Ligers Contest, where the best wines will be rewarded with gold, silver and bronze medals. All the rewarded wines will be presented on Monday afternoon so you everybody can mane his own opinion about the creme de la creme of Loire valley wines !


Check out the offical website for more informations : http://www.salondesvinsdeloire.com/

Cahors Malbec & Truffle festival

Hi everybody

I hope you had a good new year party !!

I'm going to introduce you to a very nice event i attended last week

Cahors Malbec & Truffle festival

I spent 2 days in the splendid region of Cahors to visit their vineyards and get more familiar with their wine.
During my trip i did a stop in the "Villa Cahors Malbec"  a bar owned by UIVC where you can tast a great collection of Cahors wine


On Tuesday night was organized the Cahors Malbec & Truffle festival where a we could taste the matching between MALBEC :

Clos Troteligotte
Mas del Périé
Chateau Eugénie
Chateau Haut de Serres

All, it was more than 100 wines proposed

and TRUFFLE

Toast of foie gras with a slice of truffle
Scrambled truffle eggs
Truffle sausage
Cheese with truffle














It was the first time i tasted Malbec with Truffle and it was just amazing!!
Nice atmosphere, good wine, truffle ...
I recommend everyone to go there
Next sessions: every wednesday and saturday of january and february