Life is too short to drink bad wine

This Domaine is one of the best in Sancerre if not the best. He makes bone dry Sauvignon Blanc from silex and limestone soil as well as some marvellous Pinot Noir that resembles burgundy. You can visit him in his small winery downtown Sancerre, somewhat difficult to find as it is not advertised like certain others, but well worth a visit and taste. The best red is called "Belle Dame" Pinot Noir and is deep dark coloured wine like a Burgundy from the northern part, with smoky, toasty, wet wool smell and a long great taste. It´s nothing like the other Pinot Noir from Sancerre which is normally light fruity and more Beaujolais like. For white (just Sancerre or Sancerre "Romains" ) both of them are excellent dry fruity wines with lots of mineral stone flavours and well balanced finish. Its really the Rolls Royce of Sancerre! and is more like a bone dry Chablis then Sancerre! The "Romains" comes from just silex soil and the yield is down to 45hl/ha, way belo...

A couple more of the Beaujolais bought when visiting Fleurie, Chiroubles, St Amour have been tasted. Fleurie "Domaine de la Grand Cour" 2006 by Jean Louis Dutraive was medium light coloured with the typical Fleurie flowery nose and light body. An average good Fleurie for sunny warm days. Another and similar in style was Fleurie "Domaine du Niagara" 2006 by Arnaud Despres . Both of these wines offer reasonable value for money, but are a step behind two other Fleurie namely the Lionel Despret "Madone" and Domaine Chignard "Les Moriers" . All these wines cost around 7€ per bottle.

In the upper part of Rhone they grow a white grape called Viognier. Low yield and steep steep hills means that the wine is not cheap, but oh so good! A wonderful week of warm weather with dinner in the garden every day is culminating with a bottle of the Chapoutiers´s golden liquid called Condrieu " Invitare" 2006.   Absolute faboulous stuff with a very refined and intense bouquet of summer flowers and exotic fruits with a fantastic "golden" nectar like dry taste which is long and full bodied and well balanced. Truly magical stuff and a very very special white wine . An absolute must for those who have never tried it. Save 30€ and its all yours!

This is a second wine of the Grand Cru Classee Ch.Giscours in Margaux. We bought half a case of the 2000 vintage some time back for 13€ per bottle. The 2000 vintage drinks beautifully now and show no signs of ageing. La Sirene de Giscours 2000 is dark deep red with a beautiful nose of dark berries, burnt wood and coffe with a long great well balanced taste. Magic stuff! and its only one bottle left! If you come across 2003 or 2005 you should buy buy! The big question is why bother with a first wine? The second wine here is actually better........ Chateau Giscours

It is suddenly summer and 25c! In desperate need to save some of the wines at home I went down to the cave Bourdin at Bougival with some of our cases and ended up with a case of rose wine the opposite way. A wine called " Le caprice de Clementine" 2007 for only 7 € a bottle. Three went straight into the fridge and one was on the table when the visitors arrived in the evening. The wine had a beatiful pale rose pink colour and smelled beautifully of strawberries and raspberries with a fruity dry taste. Hmmm! Simply great terrasse stuff from Les Valentines in Cote de Provence . The label for 2007 is stupid and confusing, but the wine... http://www.lesvalentines.com/main.swf

Domaine Chevalier from Pessac Leognan in Bordeaux makes fantastic white and red wines. Yesterday it was sunny and warm so we went around to Lotta´s and enjoyed a 1999 Domaine Chevalier red. Top notch quality red which you can drink young and old. In good years and bad years. Always good quality and reasonably priced for the quality. 1999 is still deep dark red with elegant earthy red berries smell and touch of "wet wool". Smooth long balanced taste with amicable tannins. One of our favourites! Score 18,1 points   A bottle of red would cost between 20 to 30€ depending on the vintage. For white add another 10€.   

The weather is heating up! Its gonna be warm warm today! around 24c actually! and what´s better than a glass of cold Beaujolais in the garden for lunch? When we visited Beaujolais we brought home some samples from some Fleurie producers that we had not heard of before. Two have been already tasted (it was nice and warm last weekend u c) "Madone" Fleurie 2006 by Lionel Despres €7 was  more "fullbodied" Beaujolais than normal ones without the sometimes quite sharp aftertaste you find in Fleurie wines. A definite P+ Apparantly the best Fleurie comes from the hillsides close to the Madone statue... At Domaine Chignard they make a Fleurie called " Les Moriers " which is even more "fullbodied". We had the 2006 (should always drink Beaujolais young and slightly chilled) and it was in fact more burgundy like with smooth long lively well balanced taste. We missed the flowery Fleurie smell though... We will back with more notes over the next few days. Pr...

Ch.Fuissè produces excellent white wines under the Pouilly-Fuisè appelation. As in Burgundy and Chablis we are in Chardonnay country. Even though they are close to Burgundy, they are less lime/buttery and more mineral like wines, a bit like Chablis. Ch Fuissè is situated in Pouilly not far from the local church (see picture) and close to Fuissè and to the granite based area of Beuajolais. However this Pouilly-Fuisè is more limestone like Burgundy. The wines from Ch.Fuissè are crispy dry whites that need a bit of time on carafe or in an open bottle to fully show their potential. The taste is mineral like, fruity and a good mouthful with nice integrated acidity. The quality is consistent even in a difficult white wine year like 2003. Ch.Fuissè is open for visitors Monday to Friday before lunch and until 1730 after lunch. Some parts of the chateaux are from the 15th century. http://www.chateau-fuisse.fr/