December 17, 2008
By Wink Lorch
Muscat grapes for Clairette de Die
In September, I visited the Diois (pronounced Dee-wah) for a harvest festival for Clairette de Die (pronounced Dee), which ended up being cancelled part-way through due to the torrential rain. I partly went there to see whether there was enough to write about for a mini-micro-region guide for Wine Travel Guides or should that be a mini-region guide? I ended up unsure, but wrote about my visit anyway for Wine Pages. Not really belonging in any major wine region, it’s one of a myriad of tiny, remote wine regions in France with spectacular scenery.
Produced near the town of Die in the mountains east of the Rhône Valley, Clairette de Die is a semi-sweet sparkling wine and about 90% is made by the very switched-on cooperative cellar Jaillance. Jaillance not only provides an excellent tour and tasting, but has over 10% of its members working using organic methods – most commendable. The star of the individual producers in the region is Achard-Vincent who are in the process of converting to biodynamic methods having been organic since the 1970s (when it was de rigeur for all organic growers to wear sandals – this family still does, by the way). They produce a range of delicate Muscat-based Clairette de Die that is just delicious. The festival was lovely, but there is a real dearth of good places to stay in the area. The little town of Die boasts a couple of decent restaurants – the wonderfully wacky organic restaurant Tchai Walla and a more traditional, but very good restaurant, the Vieux Sonneur – neither have websites.
Other obscure regions that could one day be included on Wine Travel Guides include Bugey, next to Savoie; various little regions on the foothills of the Massif Central near the source of the Loire River including St-Pourcain and Côtes de Forez; Vins de Moselle near Metz up towards Luxembourg and several others. In the meantime, at least we do include micro-region guides to Gascony, the Jura and part of Savoie, all of which are pretty obscure, but great fun to visit.
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Vineyard Visits | Tagged: clairette de die, France, wine travel | 
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Posted by Wink Lorch
December 17, 2008
By Jane Anson
Clos des Quatres Vents shop in Margaux
I have been researching my updates for the Bordeaux Wine Travel Guides this week, in the mad rush to get everything done before leaving for Paris tomorrow.
This meant I was up in Margaux yesterday to do a tasting and visit with Luc Thienpont at Clos des Quatres Vents. Luc is the elder brother of Jacques Thienpont at Le Pin in Pomerol – which brings me to a handy tip if you are ever desperate for a bottle of Le Pin when on the Left Bank. Go to the Cave des Quatres Vents because they sell a few bottles. That may seem at best an unlikely scenario, but they sold two bottles at the weekend for a Christmas present for some very lucky husband.
This wine shop opened in July 2008, and now brings the total of wine boutiques in Margaux to three. It has a good range of Thienpont wines (I recommend the Entre deux Mers from yet another brother, called Le Roc du Château Pellebouc), and many others from around the Médoc and Bordeaux – plus decanters, glasses, aprons and other wine accessories. Luc said he is considering opening a wine bar at the back of the shop over the summer months, which would be a great idea.
Margaux still has a long way to go before it rivals Saint Emilion (where are the cafés for a cake and a coffee?), but things are definitely moving in this little Médoc town.
Cave des Quatre Vents, 12, Rue Georges-Mandel, 33460 Margaux. Tél. : 05 56 58 54 51.
Comments Off | Places to Stay, Eat and Shop | Tagged: Bordeaux, Margaux, wine shop | Permalink
Posted by Jane Anson
December 17, 2008
This exciting new development for Wine Travel Guides will give you news and tales from around the world of wine and travel. This will be a multi-authored blog with posts from contributors to our guides and a few others authors too.
Expect the first posts to come on stream during this week, thereafter, we plan to add posts once or twice a week.
Please read About our Blog for more information and come back soon.
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Posted by Wink Lorch
