Latest updates on France, French Wine, Food, Travel, Holidays and Events
FrenchDuck UK - Latest
Pouilly-sur-Loire (58 Nievre, Bourgogne), best known for its crisp Sauvignon Pouilly-Fumé wines, celebrates its wine festival on the banks of the Loire.
For more info see www.ot-pouillysurloire.fr
June sees the conjunction of 2 events which combine the magic of French wine with the joy of summer gardens.
In LONDON, over 160 otherwise private gardens open their doors (or gates) for 2 days on 9th and 10th June 2007 oin the Loire Valley Wines Open Garden Squares weekend.
You will be able to discover many of London’s hidden treasures, ranging from stately set-pieces and formal landscapes through to some of London’s more eccentric and unusual open spaces. Along the way you can sample a range of Loire Valley Wines.
Amongst the many gardens you can even visit those at Holloway and Wandsworth Prisons (ominously the website adds “special conditions apply”!) There is also Islington’s Canonbury Square which was named as the 2006 Loire Valley Wines Legacy Garden. Here the east side of the square received a major makeover including the planting of a small vineyard and rose bed as its centrepiece - reflecting the planting of the vineyards in the Loire Valley.
Over in France from June 30 to September 2, Beaune, capital of Burgundy hosts its Water Garden Festival - an ideal way of enhancing a visit to a major wine centre, and interesting old town.
For its third edition, the festival Cours Water Gardens takes you along to discover the various districts of Beaune with many various and ludic animations: kitchen gardens of the residents, flowered meadows, transitory gardens designed by schools of landscape designers, visits of course deprived exceptionally open to the public, and a visit of “strange Beaune” through its various monuments and statues which marked out its History, without forgetting the spectacles of street for smallest and largest.
For more info see www.ot-beaune.fr
The appellation system in Burgundy get confusing – whereas elsewhere in France an appellation usually covers quite a wide geographical area, in Burgundy an individual plot of land can be classified as a separate appellation. So for example in Meursault, one of the best white wine areas (Chardonnay) with some pretty good Pinot Noir reds, the following are the individual appellations:-
La Barre et le Clos de la Barre. Les Casse-Tête. Les Charrons. Les Chevalières. Les Clous. Les Corbins. Les Criots. Le Cromin. Le Limosin. Les Luchets. Les Marcausses. Le Meix-Chavaux. Les Millerands. La Monatine. Le Murger-de-Monthelie. Les Narvaux. Les Pellans. Les Pelles. Le Pré-de- Manche. Les Rougeots. Les Terres-Blanches. Les Tessons. Les Tillets. La Velle. Les Vireuils.
For more info see http://www.ot-meursault.fr/meursault/fr/lemeursault.htm
Turning left off the Autoroute du Soleil (A6) at Chalon-sur-Saone or Beaune heading south has much to offer. Instead of hurtling south towards Lyon and Provence why not explore eastern Burgundy and the Jura. Our resident exoert on the region, John Scallan at www.bandb-burgundy.com/ offers some ideas for May 2007:-
Enough of all these wine festivals in Bordeaux and such like. “Head East young man!” (to paraphrase somebody famous) This year the end of May Bank Holiday coincides with the traditional Whit holiday in France and there are all sorts of activities going on. There is still a move in government circles to get the populace working for nothing on Whit Monday with their pay to go to the old and sick but that seems to have come up against the might of the French union system and as such is now fairly well scuppered.
Chalon-sur-Saone(71 Saone et Loire, Burgundy), about 35 kilometres from us, hosts the 21st annual “Montgolfiades” a balloon festival that is nearly on a par with Bristol. Balloons come from all over Europe, including various from Britain and they fly, weather permitting, morning and evenings on Saturday & Sunday and Monday morning. The balloonists are accommodated in Cote Chalonnaise wine makers houses for the duration of the festival and there is traditionally one flight where they all take off from there rather than the main field. The whole Cote is alive with colour. As with all balloon festivals the morning flights are more for the real enthusiast with their 6.00am take offs but should you stay with us and wish to get up early then we guarantee to send you off with hot coffee, a croissant or two, orange juice and perhaps a bottle of something fizzy to put in it. Just give us 24 hours notice. The Sunday evening flight is the highlight when all of the balloons form up on the “Prairie de St. Nicolas” just to the east of Chalon. There are fairground rides and all sorts of attractions and would probably be just about the right thing to do after a wander around the market in the old town. Interesting and colourful. Great place to pick up a picnic for lunch, the rotisserie chickens are to die for. More details will be available soon from the Chalon sur Saone website:- www.chalon-sur-saone.net
Chalon sur Saone Tourist Office have got a link going with a couple of British guys who own a cruising “Peniche” called the DELTA They do lunch and dinner cruises several days a week and on Wednesdays do a lunchtime picnic cruise where you bring you own picnic and they just take you for a little run up and down the mighty Saone. Their website is www.croisieres-saonoises.fr and booking through the tourist office is compulsory. We had guests who stayed with us last year who tried the picnic cruise and thought it marvellous.
Should you be in the area on Whit Monday and not so keen on a 0500 alarm call then you might like to visit the Market at Louhans (18 kms from us). This takes over the whole town centre and is usually open all day on Bank Holidays. Parking can be a bit of a bind but if you get into Louhans for 0900 then there shouldn’t be a problem (Just think that you could have been going to the Balloon festival and regard it as a lie-in). This is the fourth largest agricultural market in France and makes me wonder how big the top three are! The main street through the town is closed to traffic as are all of the side streets in the old town centre. You can buy virtually anything you may need, and an awful lot that you don’t! The large car park by the Post office is completely given over to livestock. Not to every one’s taste but should you wish to buy some chickens (The Bresse is world famous in France for producing the best poultry in the world!) or rabbits or whatever…….Please don’t buy any Charolais cattle though, we could be in trouble trying to feed them until you leave.For more info see www.bresse.info
Jura wine is something that not many Brits know about, Jura whisky perhaps, but wine? The Committee Interprofessional de Vins du Jura is doing it’s bit to try and rectify this. In addition to running courses for its wine makers in how to speak English they have just set up a Tourist Route similar to that in Burgundy. Website address www.laroutedesvinsdujura.com or you can reach it from www.jura-vins.com. There are details of wine makers, accommodation, restaurants etc. etc. all there for the finding out. It might give you a clue as to who was in charge of the English class when we reveal that despite being 15 kms from the nearest vine-yards we are in the guide. We have the zeal of new converts and will do our best to help you to see the error of your ways (!!!). We offer a special meal featuring wines from the Jura with each course for 35 Euros per person. The wine makers open their cellars for tastings regularly, some each day, others by appointment, and they would be very surprised if somebody was to buy without tasting. These wines are not cheap but by dint of diligent research (on behalf our guests you understand) we know of several “caves” where the produce is of absolutely top quality. It was hell, but we did it all the same! For more info see www.bandb-burgundy.com
As its name suggest Private Cellar tends to major on en-Primeur and vintage Bordeaux and fine Burgundy, Champagne and Cigars. It is therefore quite something that the only French wines they stock outside the traditional “fine” wine regions are those from Guy Cuisset’s Chateau Grinou in Bergerac, South West France. Well-crafted wines with great intensity of fruit flavour, they were a consistent feature of the Allez Vins! wine list, and one of my regrets at no longer importing wine is that I no longer have easy access to these great value wines, nor the opportunity to talk with Guy about his latest innovations.
Their selection of wines from other parts of the world looks to be equally well selected.
Private Cellar was launched in April 2005 by a team of wine trade professionals determined to provide a unique wine buying experience for wine lovers
Private Cellar
51 High Street, Wicken, Ely, Cambridgeshire, CB7 5XR
T: 01353 721 999 F: 01353 724 074 e: orders@privatecellar.co.uk
Website: www.privatecellar.co.uk
It can be confusing trying to make sense of the medals which winemakers put on their bottles. Sometimes these medals are won in very small localised competitions, and hence mean rather less than those won in national or international competitions. However even with major competitions such as the International Wine Challenge or Decanter’s World Wine Awards, it is difficult to draw any real conclusions - so much depends on what wines are submitted and the criteria for judging them. The local competitions may be a good indicator of wines which are most typical of the appellation, as they are likely to be judged by local wine experts.
However, within France the medals which carry real prestige tend to be those from the Paris and Macon Wine Fairs (Salons).
So it may be worth planning a trip to Macon (71 Saone et Loire, Bourgogne) for their wine fair 20-22 April 2007. For just €5.00 you get a free glass and the opportunity to taste some of the best wines from all over France on any of the 87 stands.
The competition, Concours des Grands Vins de France takes place on 21 April 2007.
Macon is ideally situated for visits to both Beaujolais and southern Burgundy.
LINKS:-
Macon Salon des Vins
Macon Tourist office
Recommended Reading:-
Greater Burgundy: Chablis, Chalonnais, Maconnais and Beaujolais v. 1 (Mitchell Beazley Classic Wine Library)
Wines of Burgundy (Mitchell Beazley Wine Guides)
Burgundy is obviously one of the premier wine regions in the world, but it is quite unlike other regions such as the Loire or Bordeaux. The vineyards are small and the geography complex, prices can be high and yet just 2 
grape varieties dominate - Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. So it really is a region to study to get the best from it, or glean your understanding from someone who knows their stuff.
One such is Pascal Watkins of the Wine Cave who has penned a charming piece on his discovery of, and passion for Burgundy (see below)
They stock Chassagne-Montrachet Morgeot 1er Cru 2002 from Ballot-Millot.
The Yorkshire Dales is one of the most beautiful regions of the UK (I used to live there) - such a large rural area is not over-populated with too many good specialist wine merchants. TheAngel Inn at Hetton is a favourite Bar, Brasserie and Restaurant with rooms in the heart of the Dales, and its offshoot The Wine Cave is an online Burgundy specialist.
“At the Wine Cave we have a simple philosophy that is to make Burgundy accessible to as many people as possible. By virtue of buying good quality wines from small, lesser known producers, we are able to pass on to our customers a level of quality and value for money that is otherwise unheard of in the UK. This is highlighted by our offering no less than six Grand Cru Burgundies for under £36.00!”
The Wine Cave
c/o The Angel Inn, Hetton, Skipton, North Yorkshire, BD23 6LT
Tel: 01756 730415 | Fax: 01756 730363 | email: info@winecave.co.uk
Every year Burgundy celebrates the Patron Saint of Wine with a festival in one of the key wine villages - and for 2007 it is Nuits-Saint-Georges (21 Cote d’Or, Bourgogne) on the weekend of 27/28 January - although St Vincent’s Day is actually on 22 January.
The highlights this year include a concentration on the 2004 vintage which will be on offer from numerous winemakers and negociants.
Negociants are a key feature of the Burgundy wine scene, who buy wines (sometimes just grapes) from small winemakers and blend and market them under their own label. Some of the top names in Burgundy are these merchant/blenders -e.g.Jadot. Although the trend elsewhere in France is towards domaine-bottled and labelled wines, a good negociant can be very useful, especially in Burgundy where many of the domaines are quite small. The vigneron can concentrate on his vines and winemaking, whilst the negociant develops marketing and distribution channels which most small winemakers would be unable to access. Where the negociant blends, this can ensure consistency of style, and can more easily reflect changing tastes and styles.
However, back to the St Vincent Tournante des Nuits Saint Georges - this will have all the trappings of a good wine festival - processions, music, ceremonies, plenty of wines to taste and, being Burgundy, plenty of excellent food to sample. It’s a pretty little town, and a weekend here should brighten up an otherwise dull end of January.
For more info see www.saint-vincent-nuits.fr
John & Carolyn Scallon offer comfortable Bed & Breakfast (Chambre d’Hote) accommodation in Burgundy either for stop-overs en route south or for short or longer stays. At Sens-sur-Seille (71 Saone-et-Loire, Bourgogne).
This would be an opportunity to explore some of the lesser known parts of Burgundy with the additional bonus of experienced advice from your English hosts who can help you plan your itinerary to get the best from your day - and recommend vineyards and restaurants.
Just 90 minutes from Geneva or Lyon airports this area abounds with small villages, individual cuisine and lots and lots of really fine wines.
“We’re biased. We live in a small village in the extreme east of Burgundy, right on the border with the Jura Department and we love it here” say John & Carolyn Scallon at www.bandb-burgundy.com who offer excellent accommodation (4 individually decorated bedrooms with en-suite facilities) in the heart of south Burgundy at Sens-sur-Seille (71 Saone-et-Loire, Burgundy) east of Chalon-sur-Saone (see map)
For more info and for suggestions on visiting the vineyards of Burgundy see www.frenchduck.co.uk
With the foul winter weather of the last few days in the UK, it was a welcome breath of something warmer and sunnier that arrived in our mailbox today - details of the French House, a large 4-bedroom house on the banks of the River Yonne, within a few kilometres of Auxerre, Chablis, Irancy, St Bris-le-Vineux and Clamecy.
We’ve visited the area several times in recent years, and it has many attractions - not only the easy access to good vineyards. Nearby the Canal du Nivernais connects the Yonne to Nevers (58 Nievre, Bourgogne) through some wonderful unspoilt and tranquil countryside - and even if your not a boating enthusiast, the towpaths provide access to countryside which is often inaccessibe by road.
The French House is at Vincelottes (89 Yonne, Burgundy - see map) just 12 kilometres south of Auxerre. Away from the bustle (and facilities) of Auxerre, Vincelottes is truly rural, surrounded by farms, orchard and vineyards. Within 15 minutes are vineyards with everything from honest “Grand Ordinaire de Bourgogne” to the finest Premier Cru Chablis. Personally I find the reds in this northern part of Burgundy a bit thin, but the whites including Chardonnays from Chablis and Sauvignons from St Bris.can be magnifique! There are also numerous restaurants (this is Burgundy after all!) and evocative villages replete with history. And it is all within 4 hours of Calais.
Recommended vineyards include Jean-Marc Brocard at Chablis and Domaine Felix at St Bris-le-Vineux.
For more info on the French House see www.frenchduck.co.uk
Contact the owners, Jill Tounsend (jtounsend@aol.com)
| December 7, 2006 | to | December 10, 2006 |
Every year the city of Lyon (69 Rhone, Rhone-Alpes) stages a remarkable festival of lights, its Fete des Lumières - this year the festival is taking place from Thursday 7th to Sunday 10th December 2006.
“A path of light will go all the way from the plateau of the Croix-Rousse down to the Place Carnot.” originally established to celebrate the anniversary of the unveiling of a statue of the Virgin Mary on the Fourvière hillside - a celebration of thanks to th
