All posts tagged: French wine

Chateau Franc Maillet

Wine More Time – Bordeaux Wine Bar

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I am going through an adjustment phase after I got back from the Burgundy tour; feeling burnt out and lazy. During my tour, I started to miss Bordeaux just after 2 days and became rather desperate for Bordeaux wines after the third day, finding myself counting down to the last day of the tour. The feeling that I had developed about Bordeaux wines, kind of a comfort thing, was so unexpected and surprising that it seemed that my relationship with Bordeaux and Bordeaux wines had gone into a deeper stage in our time apart, like in “Absence makes the heart grow fonder.” I didn’t realise I would miss you this much, the charming small streets, the vibrant energy and all.

Château Mirebeau 2002 / Château Labegorce 1998

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The more wine I taste and study, the more complicated and confused I’m getting. New discoveries have destroyed some of my previous knowledge about wine completely. Passion fruit, for instance, is the aroma I associated with NZ Sauvignon Blanc, which I like, but according to wine chemistry, it is one of flaws in wine, and so is the nutty aroma. Recently I’ve been obsessing with chemistry of wine, and some of the questions I had about “sulfite reduction and aromas” caused by the lack of oxygen have been answered through extensive reading and listening. Wine is becoming science at the moment, but I can’t wait to get back to tasting it as fantastic and delicious alchemical grape juice and just enjoying it. The biggest confusion came in a series of tasting events in the last week including Salon de Vignerons Independants, where I detected all kinds of aromas that I had only heard of but hadn’t smelt before. Some wines had very unmistakable off-odors such as cat’s pee, burnt match and cooked cabbage beyond the …

endive filo

Soirée Gastronomique et Cave du Vin / Endive – Duck – Cheese

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Last Sunday I organised a petite soiree with a lovely Scottish couple, two gorgeous kids and my mentor, to whom I feel indebted in many ways. We all have one thing in common: love for food, wine and natural life. I hadn’t decided what to make up until the very day of the soiree. I used to make a big fuss with dinner parties in the days when my culinary obsession was starting, making several big grocery shopping trips and thinking up recipes for days, to impress people . A dinner party was a perfect occasion where I could test new recipes on people. Over 4 years have pasted since then and now I am more relaxed in a way or I don’t care as much as I used to about the success and failure of gastronomic evenings. Now my evening revolves more around wines and chats rather than geeky recipes.

Bordeaux Oysters and Sauternes

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Besides foie gras, Bordeaux is also well-known for oysters and I always take advantage of fresh and plump oysters whenever I am here. I used to eat a lot of oysters in Sydney as I lived close to the big fish market, but I must admit that Bordeaux oysters are the best in the world. They are so fresh, big and tasty, plus there are nice Bordeaux white and rose wines to accompany them. I used to go down to the Quay on a good Saturday for a brunch and for shopping at the farmer’s market.

Wine Talk (sulfites) and review – Château Mirambeau-Papin 2008 at l’oenolimit

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I am quite annoyed and sad because I’ve lost the draft of my review of St-Emilion. I don’t know what’s happened. Yesterday I had finished writing and save it before I went out  to meet an expert in oenology and food science. That is just life…maybe my blog got hacked by a pro-St-Emilion because my blog was full of disappointment and disgust at times toward the St-Emilion’s money business and bad wines. I used to use another program for drafting but I stopped it recently and this thing happened. Anyway…let’s not look back and move on. Recently I’ve been having a lot of discussions with people on various subjects such as sulfites in wine, wine headaches, whole berry fermentation, oak barrels, price vs quality, wine export business, etc. I’d met so many people who talk about sulfites and hangover, which I never believed there was any connections because I’ve never had hangovers from eating dried apricots, which contains more sulfites than wine. So I always ask the same question to the people who blame wine …

Review – Portes Ouvertes en Médoc – Part 2

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My journey into the secrets and myths of Bordeaux wine has led me to many things about wine, technical as well as political. I started to feel a bit puzzled, after the visit to St-Emilion last week and the encounters with sommeliers, about the business side of wine industry and the pure love and passion for wine. The more I discover about the politics and dirty deals going on in the wine industry, the less enthusiastic I become about studying. I’ve never been keen on St-Emilion from the beginning simply because it wasn’t complex or savoury for my taste. The wine tasting in St-Emilion last week and an agglomerated cork in  Château Cardinal-Villemaurine Grand Cru Classé, 2009 St.Emilion assured me to steer clear of St-Emilion.