Author: Thomas Wilcox

Cornouaille.  Cider has seen an explosion in popularity recently. Everyone from large beer companies to small scale New England farms has jumped into the game, and “craft cider” is no longer hard to find.

As with wine, cheese, and other culinary arts, most serious American cider makers have made the pilgrimage to France to study the origins of their craft. What they find is what we’re offering today: traditional, earthy, sparkling cider made on the rugged Breton peninsula.

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Cidre.  Bretagne (Brittany) is a starkly beautiful coastal region, blanketed by rolling green hills and ancient stone walls. The land resembles England or Ireland more than France, and the region’s hardy, independent spirit is evident. For centuries the Bretons have cultivated an extensive network of orchards, pressing a wide variety of apples into their local sparkling drink.

We’ve yet to taste a domestic cider quite like this one from Melenig. The flavors are of earth, apple skins, black tea, and dried fruits; the mouthfeel is woodsy and rustic — a perfect representation of the rugged windblown coast. There’s a hint of ripe apple sweetness when first in the mouth, but the finish is dry and textured.

At 4% alcohol, this is a refreshing, complex, and delightful drink, as affordable as it is delicious. Serve it cold, with goat cheese salad or, if you really want to be authentic, crêpes. We tried it last night with grilled swordfish and roasted cauliflower — a lovely match on a warm summer evening.

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MELENIG Cidre de Cornouaille
Ansonia Retail: $15
offer price: $11.95/bot

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AVAILABLE IN 6-  AND 12- BOTTLE LOTS

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Email Tom to place an order.

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Wine of the Trip.  We’ve tasted a lot of wine over the past few weeks: 40 winemakers, three regions, and several hundred wines in all. Friday night, over Breton oysters and Muscadet in a Nantes brasserie, we made the “Best Of” list — “most memorable meal,” “most exciting new producer,” and “wine of the trip.”

The meal and producer awards required some thought, but the wine of the trip was easy: a 2006 Corton Bressandes Grand Cru from the Domaine Ravaut. At the end of our extensive tasting of newly bottled 2013s a few weeks ago, Mr. Ravaut suggested we try something from a little deeper the cellar. He disappeared for a few minutes and returned with an unmarked bottle.

From the moment it hit our glasses, this wine was extraordinary. The nose was beautiful and perfumed, with notes of flowers and graham crackers; the mouth was dense and velvety, showing raspberry confit, cinnamon, and hints of sous-bois. We marveled at how much of the core structure remained, though softened beautifully over nine years.  It seemed likely to weather the next nine with similar grace.

 

From the Cellar.  Maybe it was our reaction, or maybe Mr. Ravaut was just feeling generous, but we convinced him to set aside a few cases for our Futures group.  Ravaut’s 2013 reds and whites will appear in the July Futures Issue (to be released next weekend), but we’re starting the bidding early for this one.

It’s unusual to have the opportunity to buy Grand Cru red Burgundy with nine years under its belt. But it’s even rarer to find it with perfect provenance — this hasn’t left the vingeron’s cellar since the day it was bottled. Pick up a case for yourself, and the choice of whether to drink now or in a decade is entirely yours.

First come, first served; orders in lots of 6 bottles.

 

 

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RAVAUT Corton-Bressandes Grand Cru 2006
Ansonia Retail: $80
Futures Case Price: $650  ($54.16/bot)

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AVAILABLE IN 6-  AND 12- BOTTLE LOTS

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Email Tom to place an order.

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10:42PM  |  5th arr.  |  Paris

We spend the morning putting finishing touches on three weeks of tasting notes. Over coffee we discuss the final lineup for next week’s Futures Issue, and catch the noon TGV from Nantes to Paris. At Montparnasse we take a cab to the Latin Quarter, where our rental host is waiting.

In a well appointed walk up on the Rue Jussieu, we catch up on emails and begin drafts of the next Ansonia offers, as the avenue bustles four floors below. Our dinner is just steps from our front door in a hundred year old restaurant — rillettes de canard, mozzarella aubergine, and stewed veal. A splash of Armagnac to cap off our final meal. 

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The trip has been long and productive and taxing and fun. After 40 winemaker visits, over 200 wines, and somewhere north of 1800 miles of road, we’ve adopted the rhythm of the continent — an espresso after lunch, a new loaf of bread every day, a check only when you call for it.

The mind’s compass drifts towards the familiar after a month away from home. Travel tends set before us a bigger picture; we look at our country, our lives, our work, all from the perspective of a few thousand miles.  Tiny comforts — pour-over coffee, fast internet, a kitchen table — we take a little less for granted.

But our visits here provide an essential and inimitable connection to our vingerons. There is no way to replicate standing in a vineyard with a winemaker, surrounded by vines his grandfather planted, on land his great-grandfather bought — terroir is made of men and women as much as any earth or stone. They are stewards of the land, coaxing from the ground an exquisite culinary expression of the place that made them as well. 

We hope that through stories, pictures, and the fruits of this ancient beautiful craft, you too can feel a connection to the extraordinary people we find here.

À bientôt.

TW

 

11:42PM  |  Nantes  |  Loire Valley

A morning drive through the Vallée de la Loire — sprawling fields of wheat and corn dotted with grain elevators and crumbling churches. Our first tasting is with a familiar Muscadet producer — pure and expressive wines showing far more complexity than most expect from the grape.

Lunch in a nearby town — cucumber and carrot rapée with a balsamic dressing — then back for another Muscadet tasting at 2pm. These are richer with less minerality and more gras. Our final tasting of the day is with a tiny producer — a small-scale farmer as much as anything else. His Muscadet is crisp and lively, with good length and a pleasant finish.

We drive into Nantes, check into the hotel, and ditch the car. Dinner is fresh Breton oysters — strong flavored and brisk — from just up the Brettagne coast; and a confited hake, with spring peas and squid-ink pasta. We sit out on a square and watch the Friday evening crowd of students pass by, as we compile our “Best Of” list from the trip.

Paris tomorrow, then home.

 

11:45PM  |  Chinon  |  Loire Valley

Coffee, toast, and a collection of homemade jams for breakfast this morning — back for a third time at the utterly pleasant Hotel Diderot in Chinon. Our first appointment is out in the fields east of Chinon; a young producer we discovered a few years ago when he had just started to bottle his own wines. This year’s crop is dense and lovely — pure, unoaked cabernet franc showing dark cherries and graphite.

We stroll through the market in Chinon, full of vegetables, oysters, baskets, and crêpes. After lunch we head west to St. Nicolas de Bourgeuil, for a tasting at a biodynamic producer whose wines are juicy and full of life. Back in Chinon we finish up some work and head to dinner.

Dinner is exceptional — house made foie gras, crusted and roasted mignon de porc, and baba au rhum for dessert. One more jam-filled breakfast tomorrow, then west to Nantes.

 

11:17PM  |  Chinon  |  Loire Valley

We take our coffee in Amboise, near a bridge over the river Loire. Our first appointment is at 9am — a young energetic vigneron with only 3 hectares of vines, which he tends on the weekends. His wines are clear and crisp, all Chenin Blanc, both sec and demi-sec; we sample his pétillant-naturale (single fermentation sparkling wine).

Our second appointment is down the road in Vouvray, a marathon tasting of Chenin blanc that displays its remarkable diversity of styles — very dry to dessert-wine sweet. We taste 15 wines, as far back as 1990, and wonder at the vintage variation displayed among the cuvées.

After lunch we drive past Chinon to the Coteaux du Layon to meet a new vigneron who releases each vintage only 10 years after the harvest. Below their domaine is an extraordinary maze of small caverns, each full of a different vintage of wine, reaching back into the 1960s. Our tasting of six wines begins with 2005 (just released) and ends with 1968 — each wine is distinct and unusual, ranging from very sweet to mid-sweet. They show burnt pineapple, spice, and surprising freshness for their age.

Dinner back in Chinon, oysters and a dry Vouvray. Back to reds tomorrow.