Tag: Chateaumeillant wine tours

Wine tastings and wine tour Paris Day Trip

This summer’s must-have apéritif: the Kir Berrichon

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When you come to France, whether you’re taking a wine tour around the Loire Valley or skiing in the Alps, you will no doubt want to take part in the wonderful French tradition of apéritif (or apéro for short).

If you are not familiar with this daily French ritual, apéro simply means pre-dinner drinks. With a few nibbles, of course.

One French author famously called it the evening prayer of the French. And it really is the perfect way to relax and unwind with friends or family, before you start your evening meal.

Here in Le Berry, the apéro tradition still reigns strong. But as well the more traditional glasses of rosé gris or sparkling wine, the locals have a delicious local speciality apéro drink called the Kir Berrichon.

If you want to try this tasty tipple and bring a little bit of Le Berry chez vous, then why not try our simple recipe?

Make your own Kir Berrichon with Châteaumeillant red wine

Serves: 8 people (or 6 if you want larger glasses!)

What you’ll need:

  • 1 x bottle of Châteaumeillant red wine (the Gamay and Pinot Noir grapes used to make this area’s fruity, light reds, make this wine the perfect apéro), chilled
  • A few splashes of crème de mûre (a blackberry liqueur), around 30ml per glass

Method:

Chill your red wine for a few hours beforehand. Although it may seem a little unusual to drink cold red wine, Châteaumeillant reds work wonderfully well as a refreshing summer apéro and make a fun change to the more traditional rosé gris on a hot summer’s day.

Take eight wine glasses and pour a splash of crème de mûre into each. How much you put in, depends on personal taste. Start with a little – you can always add more!

Divide your Châteaumeillant red wine between the eight glasses and serve with a few bouchons de chèvre (little wine-cork-shaped goats cheese pieces that are perfect for apéros) from the local market. If you can’t get your hands on these little delicacies, you could chop up a full-sized goat’s cheese instead.

Santé!

Why not come to Le Berry and try some of this area’s delicious wine and cheese?

Goûts du Berry offers half and full day wine tasting tours around Châteaumeillant. If you want to discover some other vineyards in the Berry region, we also offer day trips to Sancerre, Quincy and Reuilly.

Fancy something a little different? Get in touch about our Bespoke Tours and for that extra special break in the French countryside, we also offer a luxury Wine and Food Adventure in partnership with a local château.

3 reasons why Châteaumeillant wine is so special

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If you are visiting the centre of France, a vineyard tour around Châteaumeillant should be on your ‘must do’ list. But why should you spend your hard-earned cash on a winery tour around this relatively unknown AOC? Here are just some of the reasons why visiting Châteaumeillant’s vineyards should not be missed…

1) Châteaumeillant is full of smaller, family-run vineyards

One of the best things about visiting Châteaumeillant is that it is jam-packed full of smaller family-run vineyards, which means that you will get to meet the people who actually make the wine. Not their PR or marketing manager. But the people whose livelihood it is to grow the vines and turn the grapes into our favourite drink.

One of the other positives about visiting smaller, family-run producers, is that things that have been automated by other, larger winemakers, are still done in the traditional way, making for a much more interesting visit.

2) The history of Châteaumeillant is fascinating

We may be biased, but we think that Châteaumeillant has one of the most intriguing histories of any French wine producing area, bar none.

Only a couple of years ago, another 2,000 year old cellar filled with amphores was unearthed, the like of which has reportedly never been found anywhere else in Europe. The great mystery surrounding why these amphores were there and indeed why they were kept intact instead of being recycled and used as something else (like paving material) still remains unanswered today.

3) On a vineyard tour you will get to discover this area’s delicious rosé gris

We know we are always banging on about Châteaumeillant rosé gris, but we promise you that when you taste it, you will understand. With wonderfully dry with fruity, almost zingy notes, Châteaumeillant’s rosé gris will go perfectly with everything from a BBQ to a pizza and is absolutely the perfect drink to enjoy on a hot summer’s day.

Taking a Châteaumeillant winery tour is the best way to find your favourite producer (we bet you’ll struggle!) as you will be tasting a range of different wines, including Châteaumeillant’s light and fruity reds (we’ll let you into a little secret here – they make a wonderful Kir Berrichonne – check out our next week’s blog for a recipe for this!).

Want to go on a Châteaumeillant wine tasting tour?

Goûts du Berry offers half and full day wine tasting tours around Châteaumeillant. If you want to discover some other vineyards of the Berry region, we also offer day trips to Sancerre, Quincy and Reuilly.

Fancy something a little different? Get in touch about our Bespoke Tours and for that extra special break in the French countryside, we also offer a luxury Wine and Food Adventure in partnership with a local château.

Châteaumeillant wine tours, Loire Valley, France, Wine tours and tastings, Sancerre, Quincy and Reuilly plus Paris day trips

Why tasting rosé is a must on a summer wine tour

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There’s no question about it. A summer wine tour has to include rosé.

Sales of rosé wine are positively booming. Some believe this is due to its more accessible image compared to white or red wine. Others put it down to how tempting its tones of pink look in a wonderful, summery Instagram shot.

Or maybe it’s just because nothing can beat a good glass of chilled rosé as a summertime apéritif.

Now, we’ll let you into a little secret. Here at Goûts du Berry, we love to drink rosé all year round. Whether we are lounging in front of a roaring log fire in the winter or sitting at a pavement café in a sun-drenched French village on market day in the summer, watching the world go by, rosé is our drink of choice.

Luckily for us, we are based in Le Berry, where some of France’s most delicious rosé is made. Yes, you guessed it, it’s Châteaumeillant’s delectable rosé gris.

Here are just some of the reasons why tasting rosé as part of your wine tour is essential.

Wine tours are great for tasting rosé wines that aren’t available for sale elsewhere

One of the best things about going on a wine tour is that you get to taste rosé wines that you simply can’t buy in your local supermarket.

Many winemakers produce wine on much too small a scale to send their wines to large retailers. A wine tour will give you the opportunity to taste wines that you may have otherwise missed out on.

Rosé goes great with brunch

This may seem a bit random but bear with us.

Being on holiday gives you the opportunity to have a break from the normal routine and take your time over your meals (on a side note, it’s fine to sit so long over breakfast that it actually turns into lunch – right?). Brunch is a frankly genius invention that is perfect to take your time over in the French sunshine.

And the good news is that rosé goes amazingly well with brunch, particularly with eggs.

So next time you’re on a wine tour on your holidays, why not pick up a bottle of rosé and enjoy it with your brunch the next day? We promise you won’t be disappointed. Which brings us neatly to our next point…

Rosé will never disappoint you

We’ve all been there. We’re about to head back home from our holiday, only to realise that there’s no way we can leave without buying a bottle or two of the local tipple to take back and share with our family and friends.

But what tasted so amazing when you were watching the sunset on a warm summer’s evening abroad, no longer tastes anything like you remember when you get it back to Blighty.

Rosé, on the other hand, will never, ever disappoint. Whether you’re drinking it whilst picnicking amongst the vines where the grapes grew or during a cold, November evening with friends at home, it is going to taste just as good. Why? Because rosé is simply delicious. Wherever, whenever.

Discover Chateaumeillant’s rosé gris…

There’s nothing nicer than spending a day with friends on a wine tour in France discovering the local tipple.

At Goûts du Berry, we offer wine tours around Châteaumeillant, where you can discover what makes this little-known AOC’s wines so wonderful.

We now also offer day trips to Sancerre, Quincy and Reuilly.

If you want to make a weekend of it, our French Wine and Food Adventure makes the perfect mini break. And with flights from London Gatwick, Southend, Stansted, Bristol, Leeds Bradford, Manchester, Nottingham and Southampton, you could be here in less than 2 hours!

Right, now where’s that glass of rosé…

Wine tasting: What exactly are wine legs and what do they mean?

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If you have ever been wine tasting, you’ll have probably heard someone mention wine legs.

In this blog, we’ll take a closer look at this rather strange-sounding phenomenon and discover what it actually tells us about the wine that we’re tasting.

What are wine legs?

Also known as “tears of wine” in France, wine legs are the streaks of wine that form on the side of your wine glass when you swirl the wine.

They happen because the alcohol in the wine on the side of your glass evaporates, leaving behind the liquid, which falls back into your glass.

Note that it’s not possible to create legs inside a closed bottle of wine, as no evaporation can occur in this environment.

Try putting your hand over your glass of wine and see if it makes any difference to the legs.

Interestingly, the same wine can also have different legs, depending on how warm or humid the place is where you are tasting the wine.

If you’re interested in more of the science behind this, take a look at NASA’s website (yes, you read that right – NASA!).

What do wine legs mean about the wine you are tasting?

In all honesty, not a lot. It was once thought (and indeed is still kind of a wine urban myth) that looking at a wine’s legs could tell you something about the quality of the wine you were drinking.

This is simply not true.

What wine legs actually tell us, is how much alcohol there is in the wine. So, if you have lots of “legs” running down the side of your glass of wine when you give it a swirl, it’s a good indication that the wine you are tasting is on the higher side when it comes to alcohol content.

Additionally, the “legs” from a sweeter wine will tend to run more slowly down the side of your glass.

In short, wine legs indicate alcohol content and/or how sweet a wine is likely to taste. Nothing more.

Can I guess the alcohol content of the wine by looking at the legs?

It is possible to take a rough guess at the alcohol content of a wine, by looking at the legs or tears on the side of your wine glass.

Some experts say that they can even tell if a wine’s alcohol content has been marked incorrectly on the bottle, by looking at its legs.

Find out more about wine tasting

If you’re new to the world of wine, why not take a look at our Ultimate Guide to Tasting French Wine?

Plus, you can take a tour with us around the Vineyards of Châteaumeillant, a Loire Valley AOC and one of France’s best-kept secrets.

The 5 best foods to eat with Gamay wine

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One of the three grape varieties used to make wine in Châteaumeillant, a Loire Valley AOC, Gamay is famed for creating wonderfully light-to-medium bodied red wines with a beautiful purple hue and glorious floral and fruity aromas and flavours. This, together with its natural acidity, makes Gamay a really versatile wine, which can be paired with a surprisingly wide variety of foods.

In this article, we’ll take a look at some of the best foods to enjoy Gamay wines with:

1. Fish and seafood

Normally, when we want a wine that goes with fish, we automatically reach for a bottle of white.

However, because of its high acidity, Gamay is the perfect wine partner to contrast with an oily fish such as salmon or tuna.

Indeed, it goes really well with a whole range of seafood, including lobster and mussels.

So next time you fancy a fish supper, swap your usual white wine for a glass of Gamay (ideally from Châteaumeillant, of course!). We promise you won’t be disappointed.

2. Charcuterie

Gamay also goes really well with fatty or salty meats, such as those found on a charcuterie platter.

It also tastes marvellous with cold leftovers from your Christmas dinner – you heard it here first!

3. Cheese

A lovely fruity Gamay is the perfect partner for a wonderfully creamy cheese. Think an oozing Brie or even a Saint-Nectaire.

It is also delicious with the local goat’s cheese. Coincidence? We think not.

4. Enjoy Gamay as an aperitif

If you’re looking for a red that would work well as an aperitif before your meal, Gamay is perfect. Its low tannins and high acidity mean that it is easily drinkable on its own or with a range of different nibbles for your apéro. 

Plus, it’s so versatile, that you could even carry it on through the starter and into the main course, if you wished!

5. Our picnic wine of choice

Due to its amazing ability to go well with a really wide variety of foods, including cold meats, cheese and even strawberries, Gamay has to be our picnic wine of choice.

So next time you’re on the lookout for a bottle of wine to take on a romantic picnic lunch, why not try a Gamay?

Tasting wine on a wine tour around Châteaumeillant

If we have whet your appetite, why not book your Vineyard Tour around Châteaumeillant, a Loire Valley AOC and one of France’s best-kept secrets? We look forward to showing you around!

Want to learn the secrets of how to taste wine before you head out on your tour? Take a quick peek at our Ultimate Guide to Tasting French Wine.