As regular readers will know we have family from the Netherlands staying with us this week. Day before yesterday we drove up to the Cher river and visited Domaine de la Renaudie which produces Touraine wines. We'd read about the domaine and it's wines on Living the life in Saint-Aignan a blog we read regularly.
With impeccably bad timing we arrived "the morning after the night before"! The domaine owners had spent all of Sunday hosting a huge party to celebrate their silver wedding anniversary. In fact when we arrived they were dismantling the marquee. Had we known we would have, of course, come on another day.
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| Patricia discussing Pineau d'Aunis rosé |
Nevertheless, Patricia Denis was absolutely charming and took time and care to discuss the Domaine's rosé, white and red wines with us. Tasting them was a really interesting and enjoyable experience. We particularly liked the Perle de Rosé, made exclusively from the Pineau d'Aunis grape, and bought a half case as well as another of Chenin. My cousin and her partner prefer reds and were very taken with the Cabernet. Several half cases will be heading north to the Netherlands.
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| Tasting is hard work! |
While tasting and talking with Patricia we once again were reminded how small the world is. She asked where we lived and when we said Charnizay she looked slightly startled and asked if we knew a particular family. Yes we replied the family in question farm sheep about 300m away. In fact, they are one of our closest neighbours. It turns out her daughter's long term boyfriend is the son of the family!
We had a great time and will be back to buy reds in the autumn.
Today we headed to Loches for the Wednesday market. It was bustling and we stopped for a coffee and some great 'people watching' before going round the market and picking up the things we needed. We bought delicious black cherries and some other food items. My cousin found small gifts to take back to the Netherlands.
Colourful scenes in Loches. Some of the soaps are going to the Netherlands!
6 comments:
Hello Niall and Antoinette:
It is so good when one has visitors to take time to explore some of the places that otherwise one might not make the effort to see. Your wine tasting experience sounds to have been very enjoyable and so wonderful to have the expertise of the owner to guide your choices. And, the market in Loches looks so vibrant and full of interest. Your visitors will certainly have excess luggage on their return!
I bought my everyday (when I am in France) shopping basket from the market stall in your last picture. Loches market is great fun - I hope your visitors enjoyed it !!
We also found Patricia very charming and helpful. You may have read about our friends Chris and Sally, who regularly go to La Renaudie, and have chosen the wines for their son's wedding. When we visited we brought some back for our neighbours and they have given us an order for 3 cases! We shall be visiting again in the summer.......
Talk about a small world... Patricia and Bruno are neighbors of ours and own most of the vines behind our house! They're very nice people and they make great wine! Ken took our visiting friends from California over to meet them and taste wine just two weeks ago.
It sounds like a great way to spend a day. Lucky visitors!
@Jane & Lance--it is certainly fun being tourists :-) and the number of purchases grows daily...
@Jean--where would we be without the baskets? We have one we bought years ago on the market in St Antonin le Noble Val [way down south]
@Gaynor--didn't know this was the Domaine your friends visit.
@Walt--it's Ken's fault :-) His post about taking your California friends to La Renaudie gave us the idea to try them :-)
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