Champagne cork

A tiny bit technical today with the constitution of the cork aiming at sealing a bottle of champagne.

Indeed champagne cork must have very specific qualities to resist a pressure of 6 kg/cm2, which is almost three times the average pressure found in car tires. The top part is made of agglomerated cork  to ensure resistance to torsion, when the bottom part that is in contact with the wine, known as mirror, consist of natural cork in the form of one, two or three pellets, each 6 mm wide. On the top of that champagne cork is nearly as wide as long : 31mm to 48mm.

Finally the word "Champagne" have to be written on it.

 

La Montée de l'épine

Vintage 2012 is not going to be a good one for Catherine and Philippe Delesvaux in the Loire Valley. After endless weeks of rain and very low temperatures fungal diseases developed on the vines. Results of this year's crop are very disappointing : only a quarter of the cabernet franc plantation has been saved from water and there is no cabernet sauvignon this year, which did not have a chance to ripen and finally has rotten. No Montée de l'épine 2012! Grapes were not good enough to harvest them and so will serve as birds food this year.
La Montée de l'épine 2011 ,that already taste very good, will be available at the beginning of 2014.
Luckily there is still some of the 2010 available on the market (www.vinovino.pl) so enjoy it!

Game time

Game birds, wildfold and deer are in full season now so take advantage of those little merveilles and enjoy them with firmly structured red wine from Provence, Champs de la Truffière from Domaine du Deffends.  This  spicy, opulent, concentrated wine with well integrated tannins will work magic with game's strong flavours. Enjoy
 

Dinner prepared by Gilles Grasteau and Thierry Marx for the Association of Sommeliers in Paris

I had a great honour of commenting sweet wines (Sauternes and Barsac) that went with dessert Saint-honoré (Choux pastry filled with  crème Chiboust and vanilla whipped cream) during the dinner for L'Association des Sommeliers de Paris. The  dessert was created in 1847 by pastry chef M.Chiboust of the pastry shop that was located on the Paris street Rue Saint-Honoré, just around the corner of where the dinner gala was held.

 I especially appreciated the buckwheat tagliolini with smoked tea (Lapsang souchong) emulsion and clams prepared by Thierry Marx and paired with medium dry Vouvray.

Benjamin Roffet

 

Dîner de Gala

‘’ Sous le Signe du Partage ‘’

Lundi 29 Octobre 2012

Les Salons du Westin Hôtel Paris-Vendôme

Magnum de Grand Siècle par le Champagne Laurent-Perrier

Four Seasons Hotel George V Paris

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Vouvray ½ sec Domaine du Clos Naudin Philippe Foreau 2005

Commenté par David Biraud,

Mandarin Oriental Paris

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Montilla Moriles ‘’ Fino Electrico ‘’ Toro Albala – Espagne

Commenté par Manuel Peyrondet,

Hôtel Royal-Monceau Raffles Paris

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Saint Emilion 1^er Grand cru classé Château Angélus 2005

Commenté par Olivier Poussier,

Lenôtre Paris

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Magnum Jurançon sec Cuvée Marie Charles Hours 2009

Commenté par Mikael Grou,

Four Seasons Hotel George V Paris

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Passito di Pantelleria ‘’ Sangue d’Oro ‘’ Carole Bouquet 2009 Italie

Commenté par Jonathan Bauer-Monneret,

Hôtel Royal-Monceau Raffles Paris

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Sauternes 1^er Grand cru classé Château Guiraud 2008

Barsac 1^er Grand cru classé Château Climens 2008

Commenté par Benjamin Roffet,

Hôtel Trianon Palace Versailles

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Rhum vieux Martinique J.Bally Reserve Cantarelli 1970

Commenté par Eric Beaumard,

Four Seasons Hotel George V Paris

 Menu Signé

Gilles Grasteau et Thierry Marx.

Le partage du pain du Westin.

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Double consommé glacé de homard

Parfumé au poivre sarrawak.

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Pressé de foie gras, anguille fumée, terre et estuaire

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Pâtes de Sarazin au thé fumé et palourdes

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Poitrine de pigeonneau rôtie

Pomme fondante, jus aux abattis, radis fanes.

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Ossau-Iraty - Alain Perret, cerise confite

Longuet de Fourme d’Ambert, fruits secs au pain des Esséniens

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Saint-honoré

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Café

Macarons

Idealny zestaw na Halloween

Zupa z dyni z mleczkiem kokosowym w towarzystwie czerwonego wina z Prowansji Champs du Bécassier, Domaine du Deffends

Pouilly-Fuissé

Nothing better than a glass of delicious Pouilly-Fuissé for those cold, autumn days...

Vintage 2012

Today we have been out in the vineyards to check the maturity of the grapes and estimate the harvest date.
In order to do that we randomly selected 20 bunches of grapes per parcel, then squized them to asses the ripeness, sugar level and potential alcohol. We estimate that the picking of the grapes in the Maconnais will start around the 15th of September.
The 2012 vintage will be a complicated one for  most of the winegrowers in France with  less grapes than usually due to hails and diseases, especially oiduim and mildew. It is going to be a difficult vintage to manage  with strict grape selection both in the vineyards and in the cellar. Challenging but exciting time ahead of us ...