Thursday, June 10, 2010

Today we covered The Loire (lou-r) Valley and Bordeaux (boar-doe).

"In winemaking terms, the Loire is best imagined as a long ribbon with crisp white wines at either end and fuller wines of all types in the middle."
-Tom Stevenson, Sotheby's

That pretty much sums it up. The Loire Valley is the furthest northwest vineyards in France and is definted by the Loire River. It has three important districts: Western, Central and Upper (East) Loire. It is the largest (by area) French wine-producing area. It produces quality wine in all major categories: sparkling, white, rose, red and dessert. The grape used in the Western Loire is Melon de Bourgogne and Sauvignon Blanc in the Upper/Eastern Loire. Look for wine called Muscadet Sevre er Maine (not to be confused with Muscat), Sancerre and Pouilly-Fume.

The Central Loire has the king and queen of Loire grapes: Chenin Blanc and Cabernet Franc, respectively. Look for Vouvray, Chinon, Bourqueill (the second two wines are both Cabernet Franc as a single varietal, they are blended elsewhere in France), Anjou and Saumur.

Bordeaux is THE world's largest producer of fine wines. Bordeaux is characterized by it's blends of up to five grape varietals. It is located in Southwestern France near the Atlantic Ocean. It is divided by the Gironde Estuary and Garonne & Dordogne Rivers. No other region in France has been as advertized and is as well known as Bordeaux. They produce what are called "food wines"-wines that "cry out" to be paired with food of any kind! Bordeaux also has it's own categories of classifications which seem very hard to explain (seeing as we spent an inordinate amount of time with Debbie trying to help us understand these classifications). Almost all producers (Chateaux) were classified. Bordeaux is made up of the Left Bank, the Right Bank and the Entre-deux-Mers. The Bordeaux classifications predate (1855) the AOCs. The Left Bank uses Cabernet Sauvingon (the informing grape-which is the grape that has the most impact on the character of the wine), Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Malbec and Petit Verdot for blending their wines. The Right Bank uses Merlot (their informing grape), Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. However, the most widely planted grape in Bordeaux is Merlot. 25% of Bordeaux wines are white (either dry and crisp or a sweet dessert) wines. The grapes used in making a White Bordeaux are Semillon, Sauvignon Blanc and Muscadelle. Look for wines called Graves, Entre-Deux-Mers and Sauternes. Sauternes (not to be confused with Sauterne no "s") is one of the most famous dessert wines. The grapes used to make Sauternes are Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc. The noble rot (Botrytis Cinerea) is responsible for the sweetness and intensity of these wines! (Noble Rot comes about when grapes are left to mold right on their vines. It gives the grapes an added sweetness.)

For lunch we went to a restaurant called "Snooze"-(another field trip but we walked to this one, lol). A Cook Street grad is the chef there. Snooze is only open for breakfast and lunch and from what I hear, even at 7am in the morning, there is a line waiting to be seated! We sampled quite a bit of the menu-corned beef hash, sausage gravy w/scrambled eggs in a puff pastry, several varieties of eggs benedict, egg salad sandwiches, curried chicken salad wrap and for "dessert" pancakes with caramelized pineapple, syrup and cinnamon butter. Then we waddled back to the school to finish Bordeaux.......most of us wanted a nap!

Tomorrow is a review day. We are going to play "Jepardy"! We'll see how THAT goes. There is SO much to remember. I keep asking myself if I really want to take the ISG exam in two weeks..... Anyway, I'll be studying to night and doing LOTS of reading!

"I drank a bottle of wine for company. It was a Chateau Margoux. It was pleasant to be drinking slowly and to be tasting the wine and to be drinking alone. A bottle of wine was good company." -Ernest Hemmingway, "The Sun Also Rises"