Thursday, April 26, 2012

Wine tasting

I just remembered some photos from a couple of weeks ago. We drove down to the Vienne Valley, near Chinon, to buy some wine and meet some friends for lunch. Our first wine stop was a place we've known for many years, but we hadn't been in a while.

Our car parked outside the tasting room; the château is outside the photo to the left.

It's the Château de Ligré and they make a variety of Chinon AOC wines along with some vins de pays (varietals that are not covered by the AOC label). One thing we like about Ligré is that they sell wine en vrac (in bulk). One of the employees takes us down into the cellar (on the freight elevator!) to taste from the barrels, then fills up our ten-liter containers for us. Ten liters is just over thirteen bottles worth.

On this visit we got ten liters of Chinon red (cabernet franc) and ten liters of vin de pays blanc (sauvignon blanc). The sauvignon is not an AOC grape in Chinon as it is where we live. But I like sauvignon blanc and wanted to try theirs. It's not bad, but there's a producer across the river from us that makes a sauvignon that I like much better.

6 comments:

  1. You're the only car there! How do they stay in business? You must be buying a lot of wine.
    m.

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  2. Well, that's handy! (The across-the-river sauvignon producer)

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  3. Walt,

    I checked in guests from France last night. Very nice. They wanted a "good place" to eat. I suggested The Buttery in Lewes. They came back after dinner and told me they loved it. A compliment from a Frenchman (and woman). Viola!

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  4. I really enjoy cabernet franc and buy a bottle at my local winery but of course I cannot recall the wine. I just recognize the label. What's that say about my memory? Perhaps too much wine. ;-)

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  5. mark, some more people showed up as we were leaving. But I'll bet they have a large list of clients (like restaurants and other retail outlets). And us.

    judy, we do live in wine country, after all!

    ron, cool!

    bosguy, is there such a thing as too much wine? ;)

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  6. The place looks nice and peaceful. There’s something about a quiet looking place, which makes it a good place to store, make and sell wine, don’t you think? Anyway, good luck on your future wine tasting! :)

    Jessie Henn

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