France in Focus

Many years ago in the mists of time, I vaguely remember my parents putting a bottle of blue nun Libfraumilch white wine on the dinner table with Sunday Lunch in the 1950s and being fascinated by the label rather than the contents. When l was old enough to drink the stuff l found it too sweet and not to my taste and couldn't understand the attraction of wine at all. Fast forward to the 21st Century and not only do l still have a fascination with wine bottle labels but now, from time to time, thoroughly enjoy the contents.
This red wine from Cotes de Gascogne celebrates the Fetes des Boeufs Gras de Bazas with a new vintage each year - great label and a pleasant vin de pays.
Madame OBR is a white wine lover and has developed a taste for some Chardonnay wines such as Macon Villages, Poilly Fuisse and Saint Veran. She also enjoys some Graves like this from a local Chateau in Cadillac.
She is always on the look-out for good wines at great prices and recently discovered this refreshing chardonnay in Super U which at €4.50 is a steal. I'm more of a red stuff fan but must admit to enjoying the occasional glass of chilled white wine - How about you - What's you favourite tipple?

OBR, you mention Cadillac as being local to you. Over the years I have spent many happy weekends at Cadillac and around for the annual portes ouvertes. Maybe you have seen the 100+ classic cars that are invited over the weekend. With all the dégustations it's lucky the police always seemed to be invisible.
Sadly it seems that it will no longer be held (certainly not this year anyway)

Madame has excellent taste in white wines judging by the photos.

curtis wrote: ↑Thu Feb 03, 2022 11:33 am OBR, you mention Cadillac as being local to you. Over the years I have spent many happy weekends at Cadillac and around for the annual portes ouvertes. Maybe you have seen the 100+ classic cars that are invited over the weekend. With all the dégustations it's lucky the police always seemed to be invisible.
Sadly it seems that it will no longer be held (certainly not this year anyway)

Yes the wonderful collection of cars was a highlight and will be sorely missed this year. Thankfully the Portes Ouvertes, 27th edition, with 50 chateaux taking part in early June will still be a success. Perhaps some of the individual chateaux will invite old friends and their wonderful cars - let's hope so.

These pictures should bring back some happy memories - taken in 2016 at the Maison des Vins.

OH likes a dry white, the dryer the better, I tried putting an empty glass in front of her and telling her it was the driest I could get, didn't work. Father in law used to like a hock or liebfrau, I was surprised at the cost of such wines here in France and they were not as sweet as his English palate dictated, Mateus Rose was the wine in my courting days,

I have a fascination with corks ie what's printed on them and the metal caps on the top of the cork as some very pretty One of our cats had a fascination with wine corks. We would throw it, he would go to it sit with it between his paws and...........continually sniff it

@Sparkle I've heard of that breed of cat it's a Sommelier Blue

I drink red wine par préférence, but I've been known to drink a good dry white du Sud-ouest, or a Rosé de Provence in hot weather.

My all-time favourite dry-but-fruity white is Colombelle (Côtes de Gascogne) from Plaimont. Although it's classed as a primeur, it stays good for a year, which is as long as I need it to I did a little blind tasting of 5 Côte de Gascogne whites, just to see whether marketing was having a subconscious effect, but no. It was by far the best of the bunch.

Typical German Riesling is nothing like Liebfraumilch and examples are generally very much drier - indeed to my taste at least drier than French Riesling.

That however is a question of current taste and at the start of the last century Riesling was a very sweet affair. While we lived there we had many chances to visit the local vintners and gained a lot of knowledge. Most of these are quite small operations - even the more prestigious ones - and one told us of a visit he got from the Tesco wine tasters. They were very impressed with one of his wines and asked if they could purchase "50 cases". His eyes lit up. "Per week" his heart sank. 2600 cases was more then his annual production.