Geektime in Angers

The Chateau with a sprinkling of snow
Just when I thought I had geeked out enough on Organic or Biodynamic wines in Montpellier, here came the real geek shows in Angers, in the Loire Valley: La Renaissance des Terroirs, La Dive Bouteille, and the new Salon des Vignerons Bio (because another one is what’s really needed…), one after another. Basically three days of non-stop small producer Organic, Biodynamic or Natural wines being poured by the winemakers themselves, usually in absolutely stunning settings.

The center of Angers
Angers is a small lovely city in the Loire Valley. It’s very old, and sort of looks like what I imagine a scrubbed down medieval 5th and 6th Arrondissement in Paris would look like without all the knights, the peasants or the Plague. It’s always a pleasure to be there, even if in winter it can be pretty cold and humid. Luckily, we have lots of yummy wines and delicious food to keep us warm.

The Renaissance des Appellations Show
First up: La Renaissance des Appellations at the ancient Greniers St Jean. This stunning setting almost overwhelms you when you enter, with high ceilings, gorgeous wooden arches and stone pillars embracing the thirsty crowd. The room is quickly filled with Natural, Organic or Biodynamic fans, both journalists and buyers. Some of the favorites of the geek crowds are always in attendance (Pinon, Huards, Larmandier, etc…), and their tables are always crowded. There are also lots of interesting new producers, and it's a thrill to discover something new and delicious. Still, despite the increasing quality of the wines, there are still way too many bad examples using their labels as marketing tools. Natural/Organic/Biodynamic should not be an excuse for sloppy winemaking.

The Chateau de Brézé
The next day was the Main Event that I'd been really looking forward to: La Dive Bouteille. If I thought the Greniers St Jean were beautiful, the Château de Brézé outside Saumur, where this tasting takes place, is absolutely stunning. This breathtaking castle has very steep moats that were never filled with water, and there are stairs that lead to caves cut into its sides, where the tastings were held.

The caves fill up
This tasting is much more informal, as the winemakers stand next to overturned barrels and pour you their wines. You pretty much spit onto the cave floor, which is always fun. Each cave has several regions, and you can find some pretty amazing wines here. Again, there are some crappy ones too, but that’s to be expected. There’s a lot more energy here among both the presenters and the attendees, it’s more like a wine geek festival than a business meet and greet like the Renaissance. Which is fine by me.

Jean-Pascal and Pascal say "bonjour"
I was joined by my Muscadet producer Jean-Pascal Aubron and my Azay-le-Rideau winemaker Pascal Pibaleau, both of whom have a natural curiosity and love discovering what their neighbors are doing (warning, I’m biased about them as I think they’re doing some great work, so deal with it. It’s my blog after all). As we bounced from barrel to barrel, it was so thrilling to hear them compare notes with their friends. Why’d you do this? Why’d you do that? How’s this turning out? As a wine-lover, and someone who loves learning how things are made, this was beyond cool. And MAN were some of those wines good.

The new Salon des Vignerons Bio de la Loire
Finally, the newest show on the block arrived, and this was more like a Renaissance-light than something completely different. That said, there were many more small and younger wineries, which can be both good (high quality, exciting wines), and bad (high prices, small production, or just plain bad wines). Pascal was showing his wines here too, so it was great catching up with him as he’s such a wonderful person, full of warmth and humility despite the quality of his wines.

That night, Jean-Pascal drove in from his winery in Vallet to join us for a long, delicious and wine-soaked dinner, my last one in Angers for a week. I said my sad farewells to them, only to be reminded that we’d be seeing each other in a few days at the huge Salon des Vins de la Loire.

Finally, off to BURGUNDY!!!!
Cheers!

PS: Here's a full album of pictures from La Dive Bouteille for your enjoyment.
PPS: There are also picture albums of Domaine Sauvaire-Reilhe and Chateau la Croix des Pins in that Facebook folder.

A Day on the Farm

 

Well, summer's the slow season in the wine business, so I've been planning for Fall and watching my expenses. Well, trying to do that last one. And, it's been brutally hot in New York, I mean just disgusting. So, an escape from the steamy city seemed in order last Saturday, damn the torpedoes. Of course, it just happened to also be one of the most beautiful days we've been blessed with in a long time, with barely a hint of humidity to glisten one's skin. Fantastic!

Heading north on the MetroNorth train, we found ourselves surrounded by lush greenery and a beautiful working farm, in all its colorful, smelly glory. It always amazes me that if you travel barely 20 miles due north of Manhattan and its steel and concrete canyons, you can find yourself in a wild oasis. Here, outside the picturesque town of Tarrytown, is the Blue Hill at Stone Barns farm complex.

Here, the "farm to table" concept is practiced to the utmost. Crops are rotated, animals change pastures with the seasons, and everything is self-sustaining. All the food grown here is used in the two Blue Hill restaurants, the one at the farm as well as the one down in the city.

 

Truly addictive tomatoes
As expected, the foodstuffs are incredibly tasty. In fact, looking at these tomatoes again, I know I'd do unholy things for more of them. Yes, they're that good, with snappy skin and juicy flesh that just screams REAL TOMATO.

 

Peppers anyone?
Peppers were bright and alive, but man those tomatoes... I'm in love. Did I mention that I'd do very naughty things for more of them?

 

As we wandered the grounds, we were observed by a happy looking herd of black and brown cows, lazing in the afternoon sun.

 

Elsewhere, a shed full of seemingly very happy turkeys gobble-gobbled and hopped around, looking at us with curiosity. Maybe we were the main attraction to them?

 

Further down the road, very big Berkshire pigs rolled around in the mud and snorted and followed their keepers to get their meal, also seemingly quite happy to be out and about and free to roam their pens. I'm no animal expert, having grown up mainly in cities, but these seemed really content and relaxed, never fearing people. There was definitely a relaxed air about the whole place. This probably translates into the quality of what is grown and made here, as we would discover later that night.

 

There were other sheds and small barns, where different things were stored. Here, French Rose garlic was hung to dry, the door open to let the breeze tease them.

 

In a greenhouse, onions sat in long rows, drying out slowly.

 

Lettuce, bright and vibrant, sat happily in the dirt of the greenhouse, soaking up the heat and light.

 

The path back to the restaurant was lit by brightly colored flowers, a welcome invitation to enjoy all the farm has to offer.

 

We sat down for an early dinner, knowing that Blue Hill here has no menu. It's just a tasting of what's fresh that day. You can, however, choose 5 or 8 courses. As you can imagine, we chose the long dinner, and settled in for what was to become one of the best meals I've eaten this year. Everything was so alive with flavor and color and aromas, I just wanted to bask in almost every dish's glory. I won't put up pictures to tease you, plus I'll be honest and say that I don't recall all that we ate (there were, as you can imagine, more than a few bottles of wine consumed as none of us was driving).

BUT, the main take-away from this experience was that when vegetables are grown in healthy conditions, and when animals are free to explore and roam at their leisure, everything tastes better and fresher and frankly cleaner. It just feels RIGHT. And that's something we should all be striving for, even in the cities.
Cheers!