Chateau de l'Eperonnière

Mathieu Tijou comes from a long winemaking heritage and has a small holding of around 10 hectares surrounding the Chateau de l'Eperonnière in Rochefort-sur-Loire.

He's in the process of developing a business based around oenotourisme offering chambres d'hotes, talks, tastings and dinners for those interested in wine. Here you can come and discover the secrets of growing vines and making wine in beautiful surroundings while having the added bonus of Mathieu who can tell you stories from the 5 generations of winemakers in his family.

We took the opportunity to taste some of Mathieu's wines at the Salon des Vins recently. He's a keen polo player and the labelling of his wines reflects this although we didn't taste the Polo Brut or Polo Rosé sparkling wines on this occasion.

Chateau de l'Eperonnière
Savennières 2008
A lovely light golden colour. Classic Savennières nose with delicate whisky notes. Soft and gentle on the palate with a hint of citrus, grapefruit, pear and honey. Medium body and weight but good. Still young but not fiercely mineral so enjoyable now.

Divin
Anjou Villages 2008
Blackberry forest fruits. Quite light and fruity on the mid palate. 6 months in fut has given it a slightly spicey note but tannins are relatively light and easy.

Rosé de Loire 2009
Pretty pink colour with an almost fluorescent tone. Real strawberry fruit and pear drops on the nose. Very dry on the palate but not austere. The fresh fruit continues through until the end making it refreshing and easy to drink. This will be an excellent summer wine.

Coteaux du Layon 2006
Mathieu is very keen to stress the importance of sugar/acid balance. The wine has a nice golden hue with some slightly greenish tinges. Pears, quince and honey on the nose. Very fruity on the palate - not cloying and a nice balance of acidity to combat the 110g/l residual sugar. Great as an apero.

We hope to be working more closely with Mathieu this year and are looking forward to introducing him to our clients as part of our Loire wine tours.

The Right Cut

Since taking on the pruning at Chateau de Pimpean this year we have had much discussion with pruners, vineyard owners and viticulturists about pruning methods and how best to avoid diseases.

One issue that has come up time and time again is where to make the cut when pruning. We were trained in the UK by a New Zealander who taught us to always cut close to the bud. The reason for this is to avoid the risk of die-back which in turn gives an entry point for disease. In addition, we always cut at a 45 degree angle pointing away from the bud which means that rainwater and sap will not drip on to the new bud but be drawn away from it.

Many vineyards around here seem to cut much further away from the bud - they are equally adamant that this is the correct way forward despite the potential problems with die-back.

Of course, pruning methods will differ from region to region and advice given will vary. I am interested to know if it does actually make a difference so have pruned 3 rows differently (each time making the cut in a different place) and will report back on progress later on in the year.

Row 1 has been pruned cutting close to the bud

Row 2 has been pruned half way between the buds

Row 3 has been pruned as far away as possible from the bud

I'd love to hear from anyone who has practical experience pruning vines. What is your approach and what are the reasons for this?

The Pot de Lapin - Saumur

We've been to the Pot de Lapin a few times before and always had really good food, bistro style, simple, unpretentious and tasty. Last night however was a disappointment which is a shame as we had been looking forward to it for a while.

Absolutely no complaints about the service, people, ambiance or wine - just the food which didn't live up to expectation last night. What did we eat?

Well, I started with Piemontese a la langue - a take on the traditional Piemontese salad of new potatoes and tongue with a little ham, all bound with a mustardy mayonnaise. Flavour ok, quite rich but the tongue was clearly a left-over and was tough. Nigel had the oeufs en cocotte - simple and rich and made using blue cheese. This is one of the signature dishes of the Pot de Lapin and while it was enjoyable we questioned the use of blue cheese in the dish. I would be interested to know if it is always made with blue cheese as the flavour seemed to overwhelm the delicateness of the eggs.

To follow I had thigh of rabbit stuffed with lemongrass and delicate Thai spices with coconut milk. This was extremely tender and tasty - the accompaniments were less exciting - haricots rouge and very overcooked sliced carrots. The presentation was pretty average and I think the dish could have done with something lighter. The other main was beef tongue served in a Tandoori sauce with haricot blanc (white beans) and the same carrots. Our general consensus was that these dishes were of average quality - disappointing.

We enjoyed a reasonable cheeseboard, declined dessert and had a coffee to finish.

Star of the evening was the bottle of La Grande Reserve, Le Mas des Flauzières, Gigondas 2005. Great fruit on the nose, notes of chocolate, black fruits, coffee and smoke led into a rich soft palate with elegant tannins that worked well with the spice in the dishes and did not clash in terms of weight or tannin. We paid 28 Euros for this - good value we thought.

Downside of the evening - paying 50 Euros for the taxi back to Cumeray, a 20 minute drive from Saumur. This equated to nearly two thirds the cost of the meal itself which for 3 courses each, an aperitif, and the excellent bottle of red came to 80 Euros for the two of us.

Castelmaure - AOC Corbières 2006 Grande Cuvée

Decided to drink something from outside the Loire last night. The Languedoc is one of my favourite wine-making regions of France. I just love the grape varieties (Syrah, Grenache, Mouvedre, Cinsault, Carignan for the reds, Marsanne, Rousanne, Grenache Blanc, Viognier for the whites amongst many). The wines just express their roots perfectly and for me have just the right amount of fruit to keep me interested for more than a glass.

This Corbieres has a deep ruby colour. On the nose, the first impression is of sweet stone fruit and plums with a big herbal quality and a touch of ground black pepper. The ripe fruit element continues on the palate but moves and changes to a more savoury style with the spice, herbs and pepper creeping in and then the tannins which although present are well integrated. You can sense the mediterranean heat. It's ready to drink now but will certainly keep for a few years yet. We drank it with a plain char-grilled steak and the match was fabulous. The wine has around 45% Grenache and Syrah with some old vine Carignan making up the blend. 10 - 12 months ageing in French barriques after a period of cuve ageing gives it complexity but by no means does the oak component dominate the palate.

We paid 8 Euros 20 for the bottle and I think it was great value at that.

Quick Apple Tart

A quick apple tart that I make regularly for our Loire Wine Discovery lunches. Almost a storecupboard dessert as I normally have some ready made and pre-rolled puff pastry in the fridge and apples are normally in the fruit bowl.

Ingredients
One circle of pre-rolled puff pastry (or make your own if you dare)
2 Granny Smith apples
Sugar for sprinkling
melted unsalted butter for brushing
Apricot jam/redcurrant jelly

Method

Take the pastry out of the fridge about 10 mins before you want to make the tart. Pre-heat the oven to around 190-200(Gas 5/6).

Unroll the pastry and put it onto a baking sheet using the provided greasproof as your base. Cut a thin strip off the circle and having moistened the edges of the remaining circle, stick this around to form an edge about a centimetre thick (this keeps your apples inside).

Decore the apples and cut into fine slices - I use a mandoline but you can do it by hand. Lay the slices on the pastry disc in concentric circles so they look pretty. Use a pastry brush to paint a layer of melted butter on the top.

Sprinkle with sugar and then bake until starting to brown on top and the pastry is cooked (about 20 mins or so).

When you remove it from the oven you can do one of two things. Either, dust with icing sugar, or if your prefer the glazed look, warm up a couple of tablespoons of apricot jam/ redcurrant jelly and then paint over the apples. Either way it's extremely easy and looks brilliant.

Best eaten straight away but fine cold the next day. Serve with cream, creme fraiche, custard or vanilla ice cream.

Sorry there is no photo - it was demolished before I could get out the camera.

We enjoyed it with a half bottle of Les Quarts de Juchepie 2006 from Eddy Oosterlinck-Bracke. A lovely balance between the sugar and acidity, not too sweet. Lovely dried fruit and marmalade aromas with a touch of butterscotch and caramel - excellent with the browned caramelised sugar and apples on the tart.

Le blog de Les 5 du Vin

Jim Budd and 4 other wine bloggers/journalists have decided to launch a new bilingual blog with each of them posting an article at least once a week. They are: Jacques Berthomeau, Hervé Lalau, Michel Smith, Marc Vanhellemont and Jim.

I'm looking forward to reading their posts both in French and English. So, here's wishing them the best of luck.

More info can be found on Jim's blog http://jimsloire.blogspot.com/search/label/Les 5 du Vin

Vignoble de la Jarnoterie - St Nicolas de Bourgueil

My first stop on Monday at the Salon des Vins was Vignoble de la Jarnoterie. A family run vineyard of 24 hectares within the St Nicolas de Bourgueil appellation, I tasted 4 wines, one rosé and 3 reds.

Full details have been posted on the News section of the le tasting room website. In essence, we found the wines to be light and easy in style with good fruit expression and soft tannins. I particularly liked the Improvisation 2008 which is made from vines 40 - 60 years old and aged predominantly in large chestnut barrels with about 30% going in to small oak barrels for around 6 months.

www.mabileau-reze.com