Bordeaux 2017

A while ago I stumbled upon a Canadian website that clearly deserves attention. It would have made sense if not me, but Dwayne, the Canadian, would have come up with it, but he hasn't.

This is what I have seen on the web:Bu sur le web. Aurélia Filion tells about wine, in a contagious manner, mostly about natural wines from France. She does that in very intelligible, articulated French (because it is Québécois I guess), and in a few cases also in English.

As an example I show you the French and English version of Mme Filion sharing with us the biodynamic Anjou blanc 2009 from René and Agnès Mosse. As the Dutch importer I am inclined to say that it is good wine (which is an understatement), but I rather have Aurélia say it. Because she says it very clear, and besides that she's nice to look at.

My favourite part is in the French clip, when Aurélia smells the Anjou and shouts out: "ET ÇA SENT BON!!" (while doing a sort of disco thing with her arm). It totally makes you …

Dwayne Perreault – To continue from my last posting, which had more to do with the viticulturalist aspect of winemaking, I will now turn to the actual making of wine, which begins with the process of adding yeast to the grape juice, the basis for the wine. Mas des Dames, being an organic estate, wishes to avoid using yeasts which impart flavours, so "levures naturelles," or natural yeasts are used. These actually come from Syrah vines from Guigal in the Rhône.



The question might be asked: why not just use natural yeasts which exist in the vineyard, but oenologist Xavier Billet explains that this at all costs is to be avoided. Some of these yeasts may be from the Saccharomyces cerevisiae family, but others (Brettanomyces, etc.) not. These are unpredictable yeasts which can rapidly turn wine into vinegar, or not. But one chooses for certainty.

The adding of yeast is a delicate process. One kg of dried yeast (for 50 hl, or 20 gm/hl) is added to a 10 litre bucket of water at 35°…

Friday afternoon 27 January there will be a wine and oyster tasting in downtown Amsterdam, in the red light district. Famous OestermanMarcus van den Noord will present his oysters, while you can taste the wines from laVieleVin and Bolomey Wijnimport. French wines only!

This tasting will start around 17h so you could consider having dinner afterwards in one of the many restaurants in this part of town (for example Lastage, Blauw aan de Wal or good old Nam Kee).

Location: Oudezijds Voorburgwal 59 Amsterdam
Date and time: Friday 27 January from 17h00 - 20h00
Admission: presumably around € 20 per person


Grotere kaart weergeven

This last weekend of January not only has a good start, it also has a good finish! Because: Sunday 29/1 the second Amsterdamse Wijnmarkt will take place. Seven specialized and Amsterdam-based importers will then present their wines. Specialized means that these importers do not cover a wide range of wines, instead they all focus on one specific country:

France: Vleck…