Another great Loire vineyard discovered

Those who occasionally pass by this blog will know that I live in France. What may or may not be immediately apparent is my love of French wine.

I spend a lot of time going around the local vineyards as we are very lucky to be only a few kilometres from the nearest growers.

There is a little village that we pass through regularly on our way to and from our village which has a vineyard that we have never visited because of one excuse or another. Well yesterday we decided it was time to pop in and have a tasting ('Degustation' in French). Well I'm really glad that we did as the father of the owner was in the tasting room, and he was in fine form, after having been tasting all day, if you get my drift!

We talked for a long while before trying the wines, with the vineyard owners father who had been a cooper by profession.His family had been in the Barrel manufacture business for two generations, so the whole wine business has been a way of life for the family. We also ended up buying a Barrel from him for my wine cellar, but that's another matter.

We tried all the wines they had on offer:

An Anjou Red which was smooth and fruity, but not too strong.

The Saumur Red which was full bodied, and had the earthy taste of my favourite Saumur-Champigny.

They also produce an aged Anjou red, which had that lovely full bodied oaked taste.

Their Method Traditionelle sparkling wine was a mix of Chardonnay and Chenin, and was full and floral . A twist on this was a sparkling Rose, which had a citrus taste and not too dry.

Their sweet wines (moelleux) had a really noticeable slightly bitter after taste , which was very pleasant. In exceptional years they produce a special version of this, which was so sweet it was like drinking liquefied sugar, and is perfect for foie gras and deserts.

All I can say is, each and everyone of these wines was incredible value for money, with the most we paid was seven euros. Needless to say I bought a mixed selection to drink now and some to lay in the cellar for a few years. can't wait.

Unfortunately they don't appear to have a web site that I can point you too, so you are just going to have to get on a plane, train or boat to come and try them yourselves, I can think of worse things to be doing.

Their address is:
Sebastien Prudhomme
16 rue du Calvaire
79100 Mauze-Thouarsais
Tel: 0033 549966418

The death of the local French bar

I bought a house in France over twelve years ago in the Deux Sevre , which is a lovely country county (department) of western France. When we first moved here the bars were all doing reasonably well and making a sort of living, even if the bar owners were never going to own a Ferrari.

Since then the French government has passed stupid law after stupid law to basically destroy the client base that kept these interesting and diverse bars going. There was the smoking ban in public places, then the police crack down on drink driving, the ridiculously high prices the bar owners have to pay for selling cigarettes and beer. It has now reached the point, and I do not exaggerate, that it is more expensive for me to drink in my local bar in my local village than it is in the west end of London.


These changes have all now conspired to drive many of them out of business. The ones that are able to keep themselves afloat are having to become more like a restaurants than a bar, which destroys the whole ambiance of a drinking establishment.

It will be a really sad day for the French way of life once all these great little places, quirky , untidy, smoky and sometimes a little grubby around the edges go out of business.

As a man who likes the odd glass of wine or beer in a convivial and friendly bar , I for one will not be celebrating their passing.