Wine tastings galore

Decorations leading the way to the tasting

It is that time of year again when all the local winegrowers start to show off their latest wines, just in time for you to stock up for Christmas. This weekend it was the turn of Christophe Perrin who has his wine cellar literally just down the road from us. It is always a must to go there, he has some excellent food producers giving tastings and selling their wares and he and his staff are just so friendly and knowledgeable about the wines they have on offer.

This year it was the chance to taste the 2016 vintage, which has turned out to be a very good year. We tasted his rosé, 3 reds and four whites, good job he is just down the road!

They range from €6.50 for the rosé up to €10.00 for the top end red and white. The two cheaper reds are made from Gamay grapes which is very much frowned upon by Burgundy aficionados, hence the lack of information on the label as to which grapes are used. We only heard massive compliments on the wine and it was amusing to see the look on some people’s faces when they told what variety of grape had been used. Bravo to Christophe for having the guts to try it.

The four whites are all made from Chardonnay grapes, but two have been “matured” in standard tanks and two have been matured in oak casks. In my mind there is no comparison, the ones that had been in oak casks had so much more flavour and had had all the sharp tastes rounded off.

White wine tatsers

As Cees doesn’t really appreciate white wine, I decided it was a bit too extravagant to buy a case just for myself so we settled for a couple of cases of the Chapaize red made from the Gamay and will certainly enjoy sharing it with friends and getting their opinion on the grapes.

We were very generously give a bottle of rosé as a gift and, after cooling it off in the fridge, it went down nicely with the cheese we bought from the La Truffière stand.

Just an after thought, for those interested in the white wine, the Chapaize will no longer be on sale after today because it has proved so popular, he is now down to minimum stock. So happily business is booming for our local producers.