Drinking Sauternes a whole day...

Château d'Yquem

We spent a whole day drinking Sauternes... wonder if that is really healthy? Looking back it wasn't difficult. Wine tasting at the premier cru classé Château Coutet.... Lunch at the one star Michelin restaurant Claude Darroze with three different Sauternes.... and a visit to the legendary Château d'Yquem... tasting a 2008 Yquem was a great way to end a great day! (My anniversary might have had something to do with all this).

This day was organised by the Sauternes tourist office. I very rarely participate in organised events but I really appreciated this one!

I learned that Sauternes is a very small wine district. It represents about one percent of the Bordeaux region total production. The area has a micro climate due to topological reasons. The cold river Ciron falls into the warmer river Garonne, creating morning fog in autumn that spreads over the Sauternes area but is kept within it by the pine trees on one side and the slope on the right side of the Garonne river. Perfect for the Botrytis Cynerea, the fungus responsible for the noble rot necessary to create this sweet wine. And even better with the warm and sunny afternoons, needed to mature the raisin.

I also learned that at Yquem they harvest by hand, raisin after raisin, passing several times by the same grapes to pick them at the perfect moment. They are famous for their quality requirements, so tough that some years they don't even produce a wine with their grapes. (In that case they sell them anonymously as Sauternes grapes...)

Château Coutet

Lunch at Claude Darroze, among many other delicate servings, what about lamb with your Sauternes? (I don't even show the foie gras crème brulée, nor the lobster ravioli or the Aquitaine caviar...)

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Look at the different colors of our three sauternes, the deepest being from 1973... and the other two both 2005.

View over the Yquem vines... the castle is on top of a small hill.

Old traditions...

The Yquem grapes before the fungus start its action.

Apricots, apricots....

Call me superstitious but I admit I gave a hard look at a cucumber for 30 long seconds and then passed.... but I keep buying fresh cherries, strawberrier, melons... and apricots. This time they ended up in a pie... and the result, creamy but still with a point of acidity, was thrilling! (and for once I didn't mind that the children were less thrilled, it only meant more for me!)

After-rugby-dinner in Bayonne

After the Bayonne team had won against cup leader team Toulouse, you can imagine the festivities in Bayonne on a Saturday night.... we had a beer at Aviron Bayonnais, another at a bar in Petit Bayonne before settling down for dinner at Ttipia, a cidrerie. I've already written about my love for these places (Txotx to you!) - a perfect cosy yummy winter activity!!!!!

Rue Cordeliers, Petit Bayonne

Drinks before dinner.... (don't know the name of this place)

Structure detail from Ttipia

Here's the cidre! A help-yourself-system that I have never seen before in a cidrerie.

Kanougas from Pariès in Bayonne

A new culinary discovery! I had heard about Kanougas from Pariès, a soft kind of toffee flavored with coffee, chocolate, vanilla/almonds, chocolate/walnuts, coffee/hazelnuts.... but today was the first time I tried them out. Exquisite... The recipe is secret of course, but their softness is due to adding whipped cream... supposedly...

So if you are in Bayonne, Socoa, Saint-Jean-de-Luz or Biarritz, do make a stop at their shop and try them out! They also sell chocolate and tourons.

Chocolate flavor....

La Table du Lavoir at Caudalie

We went to meet up with friends who after many years as expats in the north of France have returned to their home country close to la Brède outside Bordeaux. First an Osso Bucco like my mum used to make.... thank you Noëlle!

Then lunch at a place I have wanted to get to know for a while, les Sources de Caudalie. It is an hotel, two restaurants and a spa surrounded by vines next to Château Haut Smith. A very smart girl asked herself if she couldn't use the waste from the wine making process to make beauty products... yes, exactly that. Apparently research has showed that the skin of raisins contain lots of highly effiecient ingredients to make your skin look better! I had a look at the price list. You just need 100 euros to get started.... maybe old Santa can help out?

We didn't try any of the massages or baths in wine, but an extremely nice lunch at their second restaurant La Table du Lavoir. The setting, the decorations, the service, the food.... truly an excellent experience!

Sunday lunch at the Viella castle in Madiran

We've been a lot into castles lately. Kind of easy to get used to that kind of environment! This time we went to the Viella castle in Madiran. Every Sunday they serve a gourmet lunch accompanied by four different wines from their own wine production. Excellent idea! I believe it is always easier to fully appreciate a wine when served with food and the extraordinary setting for this meal, in the castle itself, could only make things better.

Viella is considered one of the top domains in the Madiran area. They produce red wine, red dessert wine, dry and sweet white wine. They belong simultanously to the Madiran and Pacherenc Vic Bilh wine classification.

PS It is actually situated in the Gers region; but very close to the border of Landes....
PS 2 The visit, lunch and wines were 30 euros per person...

View over the vines

The grapes are there, but still very very green

The owner Alain Bertolussi received us and made the guided tour.  He made a great guide, in French, and shared his passion and work in a very interesting and open way.

The renovated 17th century castle seen from below

In the heat we appreciated the shade of this green tunnel

Use what you have... and make a different play house!

The chai in what used to be the kitchen

Time to get seated

First a sweet wine with the foie gras

Foie gras and caramelized pears

Sturgeon fish from the Adour river with capers sauce

Some red wine

Local pig with orange sauce and potato gratin

The dessert was to die for... blueberry mousse, fruit stick and chocolate in two ways

I just loved this detail, a lamp made out of bottles!

Some photos that show the transformation of the castle

Admiring the view....

... before we start heading back home

Menu in French:
Dégustation du Pacherenc Moelleux

Mille et une Feuilles de Foie gras de Canard poêlé,
Pommes et Poires caramélisées au Vinaigre de Framboises


Dégustation du Pacherenc sec
Esturgeon de l’Adour, Crème aux Baies de Câprier
Demoiselles de la Mer sur lit de tendres Malabare

Dégustation du Madiran Expression
Carré de Noir de Bigorre, Sauce à l’Orange épicée
Embeurrée de Panais, Cœurs de Camus braisés et Farcis Forestiers

Dégustation du Vinosolis
Duo chocolat noir et Crème Anglaise à la Violette
Trésor de Myrtille

Café Colombie « Nogarolien »

Pontet-Canet, my husband's pet wine

I thought my husband would start to cry. I didn't get any primeurs 2009 from Pontet-Canet, he said. The internet connexion broke off when I was about to pay and when it came back, they were already all sold out. I didn't know what to say. Pontet-Canet is his favorite wine. It felt like being in front of someone who just got their dog run over by a car. What do you say?

Primeur, for those of you who are not that much into wine, is when you buy a wine just after the harvest. You then wait for a year or two before getting your bottles, but you get a good price. Well, good and good, everything is relative. My husband insists to say it is an investment to buy a bottle of Pontet-Canet. I agree, but only if we don't drink them ourselves first - which I doubt strongly.

Pontet-Canet was classified as a fifth grand cru of Médoc in the 1855 classification. It puts it right at the top, but many people - like my husband - thinks it should be placed even better. Knowing that wines like Latour, Lafite and Mouton Rothschild belong to the same area, makes it easy to understand the level of quality I am talking of.  They belong to the great wines of a great wine area.

When we went to visit the Pontet-Canet domain in 2008 it was among my first visits to a wine castle. It was everything I had imagined, a fine castle, century old trees in a vast setting, a passionate and knowledgeable guide, taking us through the vines, the wine making facilities and ending with a tasting. I had imagined it would be a nice visit, but actually it was so interesting and it really made me passionate about seeing other places. Since then we have done many visits, which I still enjoy, but unfortunately I have also discovered that all places are not as good at receiving visits as Pontet-Canet, nor as rigorous with their vines.

At that time, they were sad, because they had been obliged to end the three-year biological farming needed to get a bio certification on the third and last year. Due to a very rainy season they added pesticides to save at least a small part of the harvest. But they were determined to continue. They also told us about their experimentation with using horses instead of machines. Sounds very medieval, but the only reason is to avoid compressing the soil with the heavy machines. Admittedly the horses required more work than the machines...

According to a recent article in Le Monde, Pontet-Canet is the only biological wine farmer in the Médoc area. Wine specialists' agree to say that the Pontet-Canet, already a very fine wine from the beginning, has acquired an even higher level of quality since they introduced the biological farming. Other castles are curious, but so far, they have not had the courage to start. I hope it is only a question of time.

Official site Pontet-Canet where I found the horse photo.

French fast food, here comes some duck again

I am talking about duck again. We do that alot in this part of the world!

This time it might be something you should ask what it is after you have finished, because yesterday my fast food meal was about duck gizzards, duck hearts and cépes in an almost ready to be served preparation. You only need to heat them up a bit in a frying pan and dinner is ready! I served them on top of a salad and a bit of French mustard vinaigrette.

I learned to love hearts in Brazil where they commonly serve barbecued chicken hearts on a skewer. When we started seeing duck hearts in the super market, we thought... let's barbecue them! Delicious!

Duck gizzards are a typical salad ingredient in the Southwest of France. First time I had them, I didn't really know what is was... actually I still don't... it is part of their throat I would say...

Assemblage, the secret behind the Bordeaux wine

Last year we went on a special wine outing arranged by the Bordeaux Tourist Office in cooperation with Les Médocaines, four female wine growers in the Médoc wine area. At the La Tour de Bessan Castle we learned a little about assemblage, the art of mixing different grapes to create a wine. Here they say that assemblage is what gives the Bordeaux wines their soul.

The La Tour de Bessan Castle does not resemble a castle. It's a futuristic creation in the shape of a cube, totally modern. When we arrive we are greeted by Marie-Laure Lurton, the owner, who shows us three different wine glasses in front of each seat. The first glass contains a wine made of merlot grapes, the second a wine made of cabernet sauvignon grapes and the third a mix of the two grapes.


Our first task is to taste the merlot wine and give our impressions. I'm a bit surprised to say that my first impression is... alcohol! It smells strongly of alcohol. I'm right, the merlot grape is strong and has a natural alcohol content of 12-14 percent. Usually the merlot grape gives a wine that is soft, fruity and with little acidity.

Then we try the second glass with only cabernet sauvignon. Here I feel the harshness first, the tannins that make my tongue curl. Then I feel a bit of spiciness and a sensation of volume that was lacking in the first glass. The cabernet sauvignon grape is said to be the king of grapes when it has the right ripeness, it gives a rich aroma, structure from the tannins and taste sensations that last in your mouth. It is a wine that can be kept for a long time.

Finally we try the last glass and are asked to guess the percentage of merlot and cabernet sauvignon. Once again I feel the alcohol strongly, but also that astringency.... I like the mix! But how much of what? I guess that there is more of merlot, but the answer is 85 percent of cabernet sauvignon..... Still got a long way to go before I make it as a wine expert!
 

During this trial we didn't try any wine made with cabernet franc, the third most common grape in Bordeaux. It is common on the right side of the Garonne river and gives and elegant touch, something that is enhanced when the wines are kept. There is also a fourth kind of grape, petit verdot. It represents only five percent of the total volume, because it is difficult to grow, but adds elegance to the final wine.

Grapes are always different, even if they come from the same vineyard and are of the same variety. The vines have different ages, grow in different soils with different exposal to the sun and the climate varies from one year to the other. Most wine makers separate the grapes from different areas and store them separately. This way, when the storage period is over, the wine maker has a palette of tastes to choose from, to mix to create the final wine. This is also to create stability in the final wine, so you can recognise the character of a castle even if a sunny year has made the grapes sweeter or lots of rain has made them watery.

Marie-Laure, the owner, tells us that assemblage is a group activity. I can't work alone, she says, I'm not objective enough! At her castle she works with the wine director, the production responsible and a wine assembly consultant. She compares it to the dynamics of a group, sometimes you have a competent and nice person - but he doesn't fit into the group.

My very best recipe for fresh Asparagus

I admit at once, the recipe I use was created by Michel Guérard, a famous French chef that is responsible for a three star restaurant not too far from where I live. What I love about this recipe, a part from ending up with divine asparagus, is its startling simplicity.

This is the full recipe: Preheat the oven at 200 degrees C. Peel white asparagus, tie them up and cook them for three minutes in salted water. Align them in an oven dish and cover them with light cream. Leave for two hours in the oven.

The aspargus are magnified without losing any of their own delicate taste. Simply delicious.

Serve as they are or maybe with a slice of Serrano ham on the side. As an appetizer for four persons, use approximately 300 g of asparagus and 2 dl of cream, depending on the shape of the dish.

PS The asparagus on the photos are... Spanish.

Time for Asparagus from Landes!

Maybe you know that Landes, where I live, is the kingdom of Asparagus? Last week the Asparagus harvest started here! Finally! One month late, because since winter had been colder than usual, the soil took longer to reach the necessary temperature.  Yesterday I went to get my first shot of fresh asparagus - I say shot because it is very easy to become dependent on the fresh ones - here in Castets at the Copa, cooperative. You buy they in boxes of five kilos! Yeah, it is a lot, but they can be stored for up to three days and also frozen (peeled). In my box you only see the tops, but you can also buy the whole long ones.

Don't believe I am a lonely fool promoting the local products, they are protected by a quality label called IGP - Indication Géographique Protégée - which means that the asparagus from here have a unique quality, linked to this place and that you won't get the same from somewhere else. This is official. Check out for the name Asperges des Sables des Landes.

Why are they so good here? The most important factors are the sandy soil and the ocean climate, both necessary to obtain the finest, most delicate asparagus you have ever seen.  You find three different versions: the white one that grows and matures under the soil, never touched by the sun, the violet one, which gets a tiny bit of sun on its head, and the green one, that grows in the sun. The two first ones must be peeled before they are cooked, the green one can be eaten as it is. They have different taste, where the white one is considered the finest and most delicate. I often chose the green ones for their colour!  Now, let me see, what can I make with my fresh asparagus... boiled, in the oven, soup?