Finally I’m back home after 2 weeks of agitated travelling, and I have lots of stories to tell from my trip to Shanghai, and some more from my subsequent getaway to Paris. But let’s start time-incoherent with a blind-tasting that kicked off my weekend in Paris. I was a guest at my friend Didier’s home and, as usual, we couldn’t meet without popping a few corks. We each added a couple of bottles to this tasting and they were served to us mixed and blind by Didier’s wonderful wife Mizuki, who has developed a hand for pouring the right bottles. Of course, I mostly brought German wines, as I also know Didier has a weakness for these (one among a few) and they’re rather hard to get in France. Here’s the first half of the tasting, dedicated to the white wines.

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After the party comes the afterparty, and after the food and wine presentations at OFF comes the wine degustation at home, between chefs, food lovers and bloggers.

And since our thirst had grown during the day, it was good that there were a few bottles standing around. Of course, my deed was to bring some Rieslings from Germany and represent to a certain extent my country, also knowing that these wines are basically unavailable in France.

We started off with some Ulysse Colin Champagne. Blanc de Blancs Extra Brut is dry to the bone, but still with a delicious fresh minerality: what a nice way to rehydrate your body. Then as a contrast, a Riesling from Read the rest of this entry »

Had this recently when gathering with friends. Unfortunately I didn’t take notes, but I do remember that everyone seemed to enjoy it! Good wines fuel good times, or the other way around.

A quite appealing Chenin Blanc from the Loire by natural wine maker Eric Morgat. Read the rest of this entry »

French wine law doesn’t allow declaring the vintage on a “Vin de Table”, the most basic of classifications in the AOC system. Thus, some vignerons who apply their own rules on winemaking and mostly coming from the Vins Naturels branch have to be quite imaginative for letting their customers know what’s in their bottles. This bottle I came accross, a Gamay from de Loire region by négociant-winemaker Olivier Lemasson shows a drawing which indicates the vintage -pretty cool, huh?

Wer kennt die Côte Roannaise? Diese AOC gehört zwar zum Großgebiet der Loire, liegt aber fernab von den Gebieten um den Städten Tours und Angers, nämlich in der Region Auvergne, gar nicht so weit von der beschaulichen Stadt Clermont-Ferrand, die vor allem wegen des Reifenkonzerns Michelin bekannt ist. Read the rest of this entry »