First a virtual winemaker and now a virtual trip to France
The Wine Club only meets every other month, well it did but during the pandemic and lockdown we cannot get together, share wines and generally have a jolly time, so we now meet every month, we can meet and hear speakers from the other side of the world, we can re-run the Wine Club's visit to the Loire region France last year and for our last meeting that is just what we did.
Last June 7 of us and Bob the dog visited the confusingly called central region of France but the Eastern end of the wine making area of the Loire. We wanted to taste and get to know the wines of the area, the area famous for the two famous wines of the Loire, Sancerre and Pouilly Fume.
We have taken one or two such trips in the past, it is done with what's sometimes called, a light touch, we all go independently and meet up in area. In this case we had a Air BnB in the village of Fussy, close to the town of Bourges.
All worked well and we tasted and bought a number fo wines.
Our main interest was the wines, but not from Sancerre but rather the communes that are close to the town but are often overlooked or eclipsed by the world famous Sancerre AOC.
Sancerre itself produces app 18 million bottles of wine each year. It is a massive industry, by comparison the areas we saw where producing some outstanding wines.
The AOC are
Qunicy
Menetou Salon
Reuilly
and slightly further afield, Touraine.
We also visited the town and vineyards in the Pouilly Fume area, based upon Pouilly Sur Loire
The striking aspect to these wines is how different they are but how much the same they are. Let me explain. They are all made with sauvignon blanc grape, all grown in the same area or nearly but, and it a very large but, their taste differences are distinct and different, not better or worse but different. So yes a very interesting trip, terrific wines, a great evening allowing usto to return to it.
The talk(s) were given by Renata and John, Chris and myself, the after dinner treat was a suitably obscure quiz, of a visual nature by the very able quiz maestro Martin Marais.
Our next meet in this way will be (ABW) on July 3rd but more info will be coming in due course.
Once again a huge thanks to all the support and encouragement given and seen over the last few months, all greatly appreciated.
B
