Exploring the wine scene in Nantes and beyond
The 2018 harvest is nearing and it is nearly a year since I started this blog. As expected it has been hard to keep up a regular blogging rhythm, but it has been a fun year with plenty going on. My most-read article was my guide to Muscadet and the village cru appellations, which is not... Continue Reading →
When a call for tasters for the Concours Ligers (Loire Wines Competition) held in Angers popped up in my facebook feed, I decided to submit an application and was accepted. After the Concours Général Agricole de Paris, this is one of the biggest wine competitions in France, receiving around 2,000 entries from across all of... Continue Reading →
On an awful rainy day in November, I accompanied digital strategy company Mineral to Domaines Landron, one of the better known Muscadet making estates of the Nantais area. Jo Landron, who runs the estate with his wife, is one of the pioneers of biodynamic winegrowing and the idea of a system of ‘village crus’ for... Continue Reading →
Although France produces so many different wines that you'll never taste them all in a lifetime, it can be a rather frustrating place to live when you want to expand your wine knowledge or are simply just curious to taste wines from elsewhere around the world. Supermarkets stock the odd Spanish Rioja or Italian wine,... Continue Reading →
In just a few days, people all over the world will be adorning straw hats and stripy tops in true Frenchy style n’est-ce pas to celebrate the release of this year’s Beaujolais Nouveau, which is legally allowed from midnight on the third Thursday of November (more on that later this week). But did you know... Continue Reading →
With the recent craze for food trucks, I knew it wouldn't be long before we were seeing wine trucks around and about. Last week, I went to hunt down those pioneering this excellent idea in Nantes: the Muscadet Truck and La Cave en Voyage. If you were at the Muscdetours event this weekend, you... Continue Reading →
Following my recent wine buy at La Contre-Etiquette, I tasted my mysteriously labelled bottle of Riesling from La Ligue, a collection of merchant wines created by Loire winemaker Quentin Bourse to see him through the year following a tough harvest. I love the marketing attached with this collection, especially the printed cork. Quentin is a... Continue Reading →
After spending a few good months of this year studying for the WSET Level 3 certificate in wine, I was keen to experience harvest for the first time. So when the opportunity came up to spend a day amongst the vines at Domaine de la Fessardière, 30 minutes from Nantes, I snapped it up, and... Continue Reading →
I discovered last week (after nearly ten years living here) that there are actually some vines planted right in the city centre of Nantes. The Bouffay quarter, better known for its numerous good-value eateries, celebrated its harvest last weekend, but with only 15 vines, it usually produces just two bottles of Muscadet! True urban vineyards... Continue Reading →
