The longest ever wine-tasting?

Vines in water near Chinon

If I say it all began at 10.30am and finished around 4pm,  a few responses would be - tell us something new. You seem to do this all the time in France.  Well, yes! But then the French do it with such style, and in truth it wasn't planned in this way. One thing led to another and suddenly it was four o'clock in the afternoon.

Where were we? At Nicholas and Marielle Pointeau's Le Domaine de la Sablière - terrific young wine producers, over in Crouzilles, who we started visiting about a year or so ago.  A quick/easy drive from Cravant. We've been a number of times for different events. The last was just before Christmas, for their seasonal market. Terrific. There's a walk and porte ouverte coming up in April, so if not before, we'll go over again then. This visit was slightly different as we went with neighbours who had tasted their wine at our place.

If I remember correctly, both Nicholas and Marielle come from wine producing families, but in his case, there was a skip between generations, meaning wine production went from grandfather to grandson. Le Domaine de la Sablière have a lovely range of wines and also are into marketing, which is both well produced and perfectly pitched. They are very together.

Our neighbours Jacqueline (1) & Norbert and Jacqueline (2) & Alain suggested we went over together for a tasting. Great idea. So last Saturday we went, the idea being to come back to our place for an apèro type bite afterwards. There was a slight change to plan.Two of J&N's grandchildren came over, so Jacqueline stayed to look after them and Norbert came with the rest of us to Crouzilles. Afterwards we'd collect the apèro bits and pieces and take everything to Jacqueline and Norbert's house, who live just round the corner from us. That way Jacqueline didn't miss out entirely.

Off we went to Crouzilles. Domaine Sablière have just won a gold medal for their rosé at Angers, so we began with that and then steadily tried all the reds, including L'Ancestrale which is particularly good and was the one that the others had tried at our place. We were with Marielle. Had a great time, a great chat and an excellent tasting. A few purchases were made and then back we came to Cravant. Somewhere along the line after a few glasses of fizzy, including a delicious red fizzy that Marielle had given us to have together and all sorts of little things to eat, coupled with the fact that everyone was having a good time, it was decided to make lunch. The other Jacqueline 2 shot round to collect something from their house. Meanwhile Jacqueline 1 was sorting out salad and cheese. We had a good selection of wine, but then Norbert opened some red. Jacqueline 2 returned with a gorgeous piece of cerf (deer) to be cooked, during which Jacqueline 1 rustled up a potato gratin. It was all fabulous. Then cheese and salad arrived and a chocolate mousse. 

What neighbours!!! What a great time. If I'd thought about it, I should have made a reservation for this coming weekend. Who the hell needs Heston Blumenthal when you've got neighbours like this.