Champagne Monsigny from Aldi

 We drank some of this Champagne at a friend's house over Easter. My wife and I recognised this as very good champagne even though we had never really heard of it. Subsequent research on the web identified the Champagne as an Aldi "own brand" . This Champagne had won prizes at blind tastings.

https://www.aldipresscentre.co.uk/product-news/aldis-15-champagne-crowned-best-in-the-world/

I wouldn't say that this is the best Champagne I have  ever drunk and neither would my wife who was born in the region. However in is an exceptionally well blended Champagne from Philizot based in Reuil in the north of the Champagne region.

This Champagne is worthy of prizes especially as you can buy in for around £15 a bottle from Aldi supermarkets. Aldi must have some very talented wine buyers. 

My wife and I are also worthy of a prize as we recognised that this was really good Champagne even though we had never heard of it. It is exceptional value for money, so it is certainly worth trying.

https://finewinemaster.com/monsigny-champagne-no-iii-brut-aldi-review/

Back to tasting whole bottles of wine

 We have just finished the celebration period. I have got Type2 diabetes so there cannot be a celebration that it is gone, but I have reduced my blood glucose levels so that I no longer need to take medication to regulate my blood sugar to safer levels. This does not mean that I can celebrate with a glass of wine everyday, and when I do have a drink it is usually nor more than a 250 ml glass or red or white wine. Most usually  drink less than 250ml and so does my wife. We have reduced our drinking so much that most of the time we drink a glass of wine from a box, this means that we do not waste wine as opening a bottle is most often too much. Box wines can be reasonable so they are nothing to write home about.

Over the Christmas and new year period we had friends around and this gave us the opportunity to drink whole bottles of wine without wastage. 

These were some of my favourites:

Marks and Spencer Classic Picpoul de Pinet white 2024. This wine must be drunk when young. The wine was a lovely classic example it went perfectly with sea bass a real gen and not too expensive. I recommend  highly if you can find it in their supermarket.

Marks and Spencer Pauillac 2017 red from Rothschild Laffite. This wine was rather expensive but it was worth it. It is from the famous chateau. It really has classic  Bordeaux taste and character. Some of the commentators on their website were not impressed, but my wife and I were and so were our guests. This wine could be cellared a lot longer to improve in the bottle . If you feel like splashing out why not buy 2 bottles of the 2017 vintage  Drink 1 and cellar the other one properly for 5 years. I am 74 years ,hopefully I can survive 5 years more to enjoy a second bottle. Was drunk with roast beef.

Waitrose Louis Latour Bourgogne rouge. Red Burgundy is one of my favourite wines. This is a classic wine from a really good producer. Burgundy wines are horribly expensive now that we have left the EU and experienced a drop in the value of the pound and governments have used our exit from the EU as an excuse to put up the duty. Burgundy is expensive in France now so UK lovers have been hit with a double whammy. What a shame. We drank this wine with organic chicken and what a delight. Try some if your pockets can bear the thought of being emptied. 

Drinking good Burgundy helps me forget about the politics of leaving or re-joining the EU, and watching news programmes about rich paedophiles who should have just stuck to drinking a good bottle of wine rather than committing abuse. 

I feel that there will be more Wineblogs to come when I open a really good bottle this month with our best  friends from France.

My sense of smell and taste has returned completely

 As I have mentioned before I had a couple of courses of strong antibiotics last year and my senses of taste and smell were adversely affected; so much so that I was hardly able to appreciate a glass of any wine let alone the good ones. However, my issues were resolved when I visited some wonderful National Trust gardens in Kent. The air was full of floral perfumes and this seem to reawaken my senses. I can now appreciate a good wine and food tastes better. 

Unfortunately my diabetes ,which I contracted last year at the same time as I contracted a serious abscess on the lung , means that I have to be very careful what I drink and how much. Sweet wines are now off the agenda for me unless I take a very small sip, so is beer as both drinks are loaded with dangerous , for me, carbohydrates. Red wine is ok and so is still dry white wine in small quantities. I do not drink any more than 250ml of wine with a meal at any one sitting and I only indulge on 1 or 2 days a week. I no longer share a bottle of Champagne with my wife as it is difficult to save the remaining half a bottle and retain the bubbles.

We have taken to drinking Crémant wines from Bourgogne or Alsace. These white wines are made by the Champagne Method. Crémant de Bourgogne sparklers are sourced with grapes from soil similar to the Champagnes in the far south of the Champagne region and taste very similar. A good quality Crémant is delicious and if you waste the wine because two of you cannot drink a whole bottle you are not losing much money. Crémant is  well worth tasting and you won't be disappointed. I find it better than Cava or Prosecco as it is more refined.

I highly recommend both Crémant de Bourgogne and Crémant d'Alsace for special occasions and they are a lot lighter on your wallet.

Wine in a paper bottle

Recently we drank some wine in a paper bottle. Ii can't remember which wine it was so it would not have been a high quality one. I think it is quite a good idea as long as the bottle is recyclable. The wine in the paper bottle is stored in a plastic pouch much like  the wine in a box. The advantage of this type of wine delivery is that it is cheaper to bottle  and the bottles are lighter so it is cheaper to transport them. It is also easier on your back if you are taking a couple of bottles to a party, a barbeque or picnic.

Some of the disadvantages are: that the wine won't keep as long as wine bottled in glass; it is less romantic if you are trying to impress a potential girlfriend or boyfriend  by de-corking a conventional bottle;; and it is not suitable for laying down good wine, as I doubt that wine that is worth aging the wine produced for these bottles.

Litter is another problem, as irresponsible people could leave them lying around after a picnic or barbeque in a public place, but this could apply to all other sorts of enclosures.

All in all, I think it is a good idea provided the whole of the packaging can  can be disposed of in  environmentally friendly way. There is no doubt that the idea will catch on , so three cheers for the inventors and designers.

https://frugalpac.com/frugal-bottle/

Champagne Bauser NV Brut

 I found this Champagne in a boulanger or a bakery in Troyes. The house id situated in Les Riceys in the the Côte des Bar of Champagne. The Côte des Bar is itself situated in the south of the Champagne region.

Champagne Bauser nv is produced from 100% pinot noir grapes and you can tell this from the taste which is quite strong for a Champagne. The soil in the south of the Champagne region  is different to the north of the region as it is derived from limestone rather than chalk. The champagne has its own distinctive taste which is the hallmark of a good wine but the wine also retains the character of the region which is different to the character of wines from the north. In terms of value for money it is excellent,  we bought this basic bottle for around 20Eur. It was a bargain when you realise that the prices of champagne are sky rocketing. We opened the wine with friends who also thought that the wine is of a high quality.

I am glad that my sense of taste is now starting to recover quite well, it is a pity that my favourite wines are now so expensive that I am reluctant to buy them  even though we can still afford them. i am hopping that reduced demand will bring the prices down. Because I have now got diabetes I cannot drink more than one or at most two glasses of wine with a meal and I do not drink every day of the week, so expensive wine is now reserved for when we have friends around. 

Thank heavens for producers such as Maison Bauser who are doing their best to make champagne at acceptable prices. We shall be visiting Les Riceys in July of this year and we shall certainly look out for Maison Bauser, who also make Les Riceys table wine. This wine is really worth trying if you can find it outside of the the region or if you are in Les Riceys why not buy a bottle or two.

https://champagne-bauser.com/en/content/6-history

https://maisons-champagne.com/en/appellation/geographical-area/the-cote-des-bar/

Bar dans l'Aube

Wordchester Valley Culver Hill White 2022

 This wine is from the Cotswolds from a vineyard and winery near Stroud, and fine wine it is too. Usually I am not too impressed by English table wines, but this one is different. The wine is estate produce with grapes picked in their own vineyards. It is produced from a blend of Bacchus, Ortega and Pinot Blanc grapes. Although it bears no relation to the grape blends of the Loire Valley, for me it is reminiscent. The wine is dry on the palate and smells and tastes of green fruits including a scent of apples. We drank it with fish in the company of my niece and her husband. All of us were impressed by the quality of the wine, the taste of which lingered quite long on the palate. We drank the wine while dining at the Bear Hotel on Redborough common perched on a hill which overlooks the Stroud valley and the river Severn below. Our whole meal was excellent; we ate by the fireside in the main bar with a large fire, which kept out the cold from outside. The restaurant staff had no objection to us choosing to eat in the main bar rather than the official restaurant. The menu was the same. The Bear did not have single or double Gloucester cheese on the menu which was a bit disappointing as it is a local cheese  made from Gloucester cattle. Nevermind the local wine made up for the missing cheese. Luckily my tasting buds are beginning to recover, so I was able to tell that the wine had its own distinct taster, which is the hallmark of a vey good wine. If ever you are in the area it is worth looking up the vineyard to buy and drink  a bottle or two to consume with good food. The wine is quite expensive but it is worth trying if only to see that some English wines are very well produced and taste good. I recommend it thoroughly 

https://www.woodchestervalleyvineyard.co.uk/shop/culver-hill

Pommard 2011 Premier Cru Bourgogne Rouge.

 A friend of mine bought this wine in France, and it is a blend of  premier cru wines from the appellation. Luckily, my sense of taste seems to be returning after taking some strong antibiotics for a chest abscess.

We drank this wine, with friends, at Christmas 2024 with pheasant. My wife and I and our friends agreed that the wine went down very well with the game and tasted just as a premier cru wine should on the palate. The wine was recognisably superior and a level above standard Bourgogne Rouge, and it ought to be given the price at over Euro 60 for a bottle. The wine had aged well and did not taste too strongly of oak but it tasted and smelt very good. The tannins had softened and the wine was of medium body and dry on the palate. The taste lingered for a long time. It had all the hallmarks of a very good wine. 

Now that I have got Type 2 diabetes I am limited very much so on how much alcohol I can consume, even though I am not taking insulin.  This means that I cannot enjoy wine in the quantities that I used to. I am now limiting myself to a couple of small glasses of wine a week. My wife and I have decided that it is not worth opening an expensive bottle when we have to save the wine for two or three days by using vacuum seals and pumps, we are, therefore, only going to open a decent bottle when we have company. This means that I cannot write about the wines that I love so often or drink them. I was thinking of not continuing with the blog , but there are still issues to write about when I can find time between exercise routines to keep my blood glucose levels done. I wish everyone a happy and fruitful New Year, and good health. 

Château Briot red 2019

A friend of ours gave me this wine. It is prize winning Bordeaux red from the Entre-Deux-Mers region. It represents exceptional value for money . Unfortunately, my sense of taste has not comeback fully, and perhaps it never will. On a recent trip to France I noticed that I could taste Champagne and other white wines much better, and was just about able to assure myself that the sparkling wine was not Prosecco , not that my family in France, who are all from the Champagne area, would dish up anything else. That was as far as my taste buds would allow.

My wife tasted the Château Briot and agreed that it was a typical example of Bordeaux red and  a superior one. Perhaps she should start writing this blog, in her own name, to save me from continuing embarrassment. 

https://www.vinatis.co.uk/65547-chateau-briot-2019?r=bing_uk&ids=shopping&msclkid=6a7e530581481d15de6635f6695577da

St Nicholas Abbey Barbados 20 year old rum and my sense of taste

 We have a friend who regularly goes to Barbados for a holiday. The other day we joined him and his wife at their place for a meal. At the end of a delicious meal our friend got out a bottle of St Nicholas Abbey rum which had spent 20 years in the cask. As I am now a diabetic, I have to limit my alcohol consumption especially after two small glasses of wine with a meal. I asked him to pour a minuscule of this most expensive liquor so that I could smell and taste a little. This rum is very expensive in London, and a bottle of this superior 20 year old will set you back over £500. It is cheaper in Barbados but still remains expensive.

Imagine my surprise when I sipped this rum; it did not taste foul and tasted very good, my sense of taste was coming back. My sense of smell had also improved enormously and I was able to smell cinnamon, apples, oranges and spices just as the producer described. I was delighted.

https://stnicholasabbey.com/Rum/Our-Rums/

https://lochsofwhisky.com//st-nicholas-abbey-20-year-old-barbados-single-cask-rum-1659?msclkid=e92a758531911dfd572a1350abce1d26

This was the best rum I have ever tasted , not that I have sampled many. My friend also produced the remnants of other bottles that he had brought back.. The twenty year old tasted and smelt by far the best. We both agreed that the 23 year which is much more expensive, was inferior to the 20 year old. A 15 year old bottle came close and so did a 12 year old. It just goes to show how important branding is when deciding the price of a spirit or a wine. The age of the drink does not always mean that an older "vintage" will taste better. Spirits do not improve in the bottle with age unlike wine. If you age a wine for too long it can ruin the taste no matter what the brand is or how expensive it is.  This was a marvellous tasting session even though I had to sip minuscule amounts of the rums.

I was relieved that my sense of taste is returning, and  now I can just about appreciate white wine.

Last night my wife and I shared half a bottle of Château Lanessan 2015 red. I could recognise that it was a Bordeaux but I could not go much further than that in assessing the quality or provenance of the wine. I still have a long way to go and I fear that my sense of taste will never return to normal. Hopefully, my fears are unfounded, as the full taste of wine is such a pleasure for me.

Sense of taste again

 I am just about able, now, to appreciate red wine now that I have stopped taking antibiotics for a month.  However , I won't be winning any wine tasting prizes. White wine still tastes awful to me. Also to complicate matters I contracted diabetes at around the same time as my chest complaint. I don't know whether the two complaints have exacerbated one another: some doctors think yes and others think no,  The diabetes means that I have to limit what I drink to one glass of wine with food, which is no big deal for me, as I rarely used to drink more than a 250ml glass of wine per sitting especially in my latter years. However, the days of drinking half a bottle on rare occasions are gone.

 Whenever, I went to a wine-tasting I always used to spit out the wine after sampling it. Hopefully, my sense of taste will come back fully and I shall be able to taste and recognise all good wines and do plenty more spitting.

It is surprising how bad it is to lose your sense of taste: I almost lost it completely when I contracted Covid19, but it came back very quickly. In some respects a heavily modified sense of taste is worse, as some foods and wine taste foul especially foods like smoked fish and some fruits. The fruitiness of wine is covered up by a horrible bitter taste. I hope that I never have to take antibiotics again, but they did save my life if not my sense of taste. The quality of your life is considerably reduced when you become "taste blind", and I don't wish this on anyone.

Sense of taste coming back but slowly

 My sense of taste is coming back after I stopped taking Antibiotics for my chest complaint. I can just about perceive red wine as being pleasant. The other day, in a café, I drank a glass of Italian Sangiovese, but I could not appreciate the full taste of the wine. I could not identify where the wine came from. I could smell the wine as being pleasant but my taste buds made the wine taste a little bit bitter. White wine tastes foul for me now including my favorite tipple: Champagne. 

The other day some friends came around for lunch; my friend, Rob, likes a glass of whisky; so I poured him a shot of the Bowmore. I joined him  by filling my glass with one millilitre of this golden treasure. I could taste the whisky properly even though it was diluted with water; so I thought there were some hopes. Later we opened a bottle of Pouilly-Fumé: it taste so foul that I could not bear to drink it ,even a small glass.

I have been assured by others , who have been in the same position, that my sense of taste will eventually return. I am now a type 2 diabetic, but I can still drink red and white wines as they have little or no carbohydrate content.  I have to be careful, however, not to consume too much alcohol, but this does not bother me, and it never did even though I over-indulged occasionally. I can no longer over-indulge, but I have the will power to control myself. I wouldn't care at all if I never drank sprits again. I would not be too disappointed if I could not drink beer ever again, although I would miss a pint of the best draught ale. I would ,however, be bitterly disappointed if my sense of taste never came back sufficiently, so that I can enjoy a glass of good wine and identify, some of the time, where it comes from, either France, Spain or elsewhere. I am keeping my fingers crossed for an eventual recovery. 

I've lost my sense of taste, this is a desperate situation for me

 Recently I have contracted two illnesses, one of which landed me in hospital. I was hospitalised because of an abscess on my lung which lead to a pleural effusion which after weeks of antibiotics has not fully cleared. I also contracted type 2  diabetes. Both conditions are affecting one another. The antibiotics have played havoc with my sense of taste; strawberries taste both bitter and sweet, anything with a bit of salt such as smoked salmon tastes exceptionally salty, the taste of wine is ruined. Because of the diabetes I have decided not to drink much alcohol until I can manage my blood glucose easily. It's a good job I am not an alcoholic so there was no cold turkey.  I don't know what to do, as writing a wine blog is more or less useless until I get my sense of taste back, but I might just stick to writing about major issues.

We are having guests a the weekend for the first time in weeks. I shall share quater glass of champagne with them and a very small glass of red in the vain hope that  that the red will taste half decent.

I shall report back, but I do not hold out much hope until I am well finished with antibiotics.

Domaine Michel Caillot Pommard Premier Cru 2011

 We got this wine from France and it cost 60 Eur a bottle, but don't think that I am rolling in money. The Domaine is based in Mersault. We drank it with some special friends. It was immediately identifiable as a top red Burgundy and it had all of the characteristics of the region. We drank it with poultry. This wine is superb with food but it is light enough to drink on its own, but not at a barbeque please. The 2011 is at the height of its maturity and it won't be long before I open the second, and our last bottle, with some special friends. You could tell that it is superior wine, but does it deserve such a high price? Well to me it does even when I have paid less for a wine that tastes almost as good. The wine world needs such good producers and they deserve my support. 

The price of standard Burgundy has gone up so much, even in France , that I am now reluctant to buy it, but I can still, just about, find a bargain. In a restaurant you would be expect to pay around 150 Eur, so it is best to buy the wine at a wine merchant and enjoy it with good food and friends at home.

Like everything else, as the prices rise higher and higher the margins of better quality become smaller and smaller. This is why I limit myself to paying no more than 15 or 16 pounds for a wine in the UK. I should expect a really good wine for that, but 5 years ago my limit for a really good wine was 10 or 11pounds.

Wine is becoming so expensive that many people will be put off from drinking it , this could be a disaster for the wine industry in general. I hope that I never see the day when I can't enjoy a really good wine such as Michel Caillot's Pommard, even if it just once a quarter.

 

Christian Pattat Appassimento 2021 and another wine strong in alcohol

Some friends brought this wine around when they came to dinner but we didn't drink it at the time.

We saved it for a couple of weeks and drank it by ourselves with some beef stew on one evening and with some venison stew the following evening. The wine is similar in style to Valpolicella Ripasso and Amarone from Italy. The wine is from Puglia in southern Italy and is produced from a blend of several Italian red wine grapes and I get the feeling that the wine is not produced from a single vineyard.  Appassimento  wines are produced form withered grapes which augment the sugar content. 

This wine is full bodied and tastes of concentrated red fruits. The wine is not dry but it does not taste sickly sweet whatsoever.  It is strong in alcohol at 14.5%. The tannin is well integrated for a 2021 vintage which has matured in oak. It will easily keep for another 3 years. It is a very good quality wine at a reasonable price. Like all good wines it goes well with food and our beef and venison stews went perfectly with it. This is not really a wine for drinking on its own because of the alcohol content and its powerful taste. The wine clears the palate. I recommend this wine it  and compares well with Amarone but it does not achieve the same quality. However, on a cost to quality basis it is more than competitive. Enjoy it. 

https://www.nakedwines.com/products/christian-patat-appassimento-2021

Recently, we went to France to a party in the Ardèche, here we sampled another wine which was strong in alcohol at 15%: Château Mossé 2019 rouge Côtes du Roussillon. I only took one sip of this wine to taste it as I was driving. But everyone else who was drinking the wine agreed that it was of very good quality and had a taste typical of the region. This wine went well with a mixed meat couscous. Another excellent wine for drinking with food rather than on its own .It is well recommended.

Château Mossé Côtes du Roussillon Rouge 2019

100 ml wine tubes "come off it": just another gimmick

 British wine drinkers are supposedly turning to 100ml tubes of premium wine  to reduce their wine consumption. This comes off of the back of dry January. 

Drinkers may want to consider this;  £5 for a 100ml tube for Azevedo Vinho Verde 2022 is rather a lot of money, it is the equivalent of  £37.50 for a 750 ml bottle. A 750ml glass bottle of this wine is £14.95. Your best bet to reduce the cost of your drinking would be to buy a regular bottle and drink it with a partner in two stages. You can easily reseal a bottle of wine and keep it in the fridge for a couple of days or use a vacuum system which will often keep wine for a week in a fridge.. If you can't face drinking a whole bottle of wine then why not pour the wine into a stew and cook off the alcohol. For the price of a couple of  100ml tubes you could afford to throw away a half bottle of this wine. The wine in the example is standard wine and  tastes very good but it is not premium wine, do you really want to pay a lot of money for what is less than a standard small glass of wine?

I can't help but think that the wine industry is using hyperbole to market their products to make up for the general trend for people to drink less. It's another ruse to extract money from you.

The best thing that the individual could do would be to drink less, but to spend their £37.50 on a genuine premium wine in the bottle and drink it with friends, rather than just slugging down a tube of ordinary wine all on your own .

Another gimmick is dry January, I am never going to indulge in this unless I get too ill to enjoy a glass. Nether my wife nor I drink too much and most weeks we have at least 3 days when we don't drink. My opinion is that if you drink so much for the rest of the year that you have to abstain for one month, then you are already damaging your health and you would be better of, health-wise, to give up completely.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/jan/27/britons-smaller-higher-quality-alcoholic-drinks

As for the ban on 250ml glasses, I think this is another gimmick. Sometimes, I treat myself to a large glass of wine when I don't have to drive. I do this to ensure that I don't order a second 175ml glass. I control my drinking and I do not need to observe the blandishments of others to make sure that I don't drink to much. I don't drink more than a sip if I have to drive and in some countries I do not drink anything if I have to drive. It is all my choice, I do not need the health authorities to tell me what to do.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/large-wine-glass-ban-cuts-drinking-by-76-study/ar-AA1nbZX9

Machine learning programs and algorithms can identify which wines originate from which bordeaux vineyards

Machine Learning programs and algorithms can identify which wines originate from which Bordeaux vineyards. This is a development which we could see coming. A team from the University of Geneva have analysed and completely identified the chemical components of 7 wines of various vintages from Bordeaux châteaux. The wines were all from renowned estates. This means that wines can now be protected from fraud. The researchers trained the computer programs to identify each wine  based on a "chromatogram" analysis. The "chromatogram" was produced by vaporising a wine from the estate and analysing the components. The program could identify the particular terroir for the individual vineyard. This provides proof that terroir is influential in both the taste and quality of a wine. The algorithm was shown to be "100%" accurate  when  identifying a wine from its particular estate.

This technique could be used to identify every wine that is being produced. The program could be used by government authorities, retailers and wine buyers to identify fraud and wine substitution to ensure that consumers know the provenance of a wine. This is a particularly useful development and is a very good reason for deploying "AI" or Machine Learning techniques.

Anything the machine can do could be done by a human being with the exception of  analysing a wine quickly and using the programs to analyse thousands of wine in short order.

This "Machine Learning" technique is, however, a double edged sword. If the components of a wine can  be analysed  with such effectiveness then it would be possible for a "Machine Generating" program to completely duplicate a wine, so that it would be impossible for a human being, or another machine, to tell whether the wine had been produced by natural means or not. What would happen to wine fraud then? It would be impossible to detect a fake.

 A "Machine  Learning"  program could even mimic the year to year differences in weather and terroir. A machine would be able to tell whether a wine was any good or not so human judgement could be superseded and eliminated. What would happen to wine mythology and investment in powerful brand names and vintages?  The whole of the wine business would be disrupted.

What will happen when a wine simply becomes a commodity produced by a machine? Viticulture could be eliminated from the wine production process along with  natural vinification. New brand names could appear based on the effectiveness of a wine algorithm, there will be no need to  cellar an artificial wine as the aging process could be built in to the algorithm. Wine making will become completely standardised and homogenised; any differences in taste will result from plug-in programs. All this will be coming soon; so I think that I might take to drinking beer instead but of course there would also be "AI" produced grog. Maybe a glass of "AI" water will have to suffice.

https://www.decanter.com/wine-news/ai-can-pinpoint-which-estate-bordeaux-wines-come-from-with-100-accuracy-518702/

Franciacorta DOCG white Italian Sparkling Wine

 We tasted this sparkling wine as an apéritif when we joined our friends for dinner. Our host is a bit of a wine expert and asked us to guess the wine blind. I didn't do so bad as I guessed in was a high quality Prosecco; at least I got the country right. My wife was a little more circumspect. She has got a really good sense of smell. She was holding the wine at waist level and the look on her face was a picture. I could tell from her expression that the wine was not Champagne well before she expressed an opinion. She is from the Champagne region of France.

The wine turned out to be Franciacorta Brut NV from the Brescia province of Lombardy in northern Italy. This sparkling wine is made by the champagne method. The wine is very fine and of excellent quality with a "biscuity" flavour  reminiscent of Champagne. You can also taste the umami flavour of the yeast after the wine has rested on its lees. The wine was bone dry and has very fine bubbles. Franciacorta is produced from Chardonnay grapes in gravel and limestone based soils and the taste resembles Crémant de Bourgogne which is also produced by the champagne method from grapes grown on limestone soils - mostly Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. It is of much higher quality than most of the Prosecco produced in the Veneto region. Most Prosecco is not produced by the champagne method, so the secondary fermentation takes place in a tank.  There are, however, some higher quality Proseccos that are made by the champagne method, hence my confusion, or that's what I like to think. 

Why did my wife not even have to taste the wine before she recognised that it was not Champagne? She grew up in Champagne and is completely familiar with the wine, she doesn't need to become "all analytical" she just recognises Champagne by its smell and doesn't even have to taste it - like I do. She never gets it wrong like me, as I have mistaken an English sparkling wine for Champagne at a blind tasting.

My wife and I had not tasted Franciacorta before, but we shall drink more of it in the future even though it is more expensive that standard Prosecco. However, we will still stay loyal to the world's best wine like true Champenoises and an honorary male one.

https://www.majestic.co.uk/sparkling-wines/castelveder-franciacorta-brut-23356 

Are we going to see the demise of the wine industry?

 Further to my previous article, I can see more and more problems ahead for the wine industry in both France and the rest of the world, we could see wine production almost disappear in the future , but not in my lifetime.

There has been a huge drop in the demand for wine in France and other countries. Part of the problem for wine producers is a change to the buying power of younger people who are turning to non-alcoholic drinks, and drinks which they consider safer to consume from the point of view of chemical additives. 

Probably, advertising campaigns about the consumption of alcohol are beginning to work especially with the younger generations who are concerned about  the effects of over consuming alcohol on their health. Younger people  are turning to cocktails etc. without alcohol. France has a culture which encourages the development of new tastes so wine is under threat. 

All of us are concerned about the additives in our food; sulphites are added to most wines to act as a preservative, so many young people are reducing their wine consumption to reduce their ingestion of chemicals. Sulphites, however, are added to an enormous range of food and drinks but wine seems to be the strongest target against sulphites.

Even though demand for wine is falling, the price of wine does not seem to be going down, even in France. Many vineyards are being grubbed up  to reduce wine production. Eventually a new balance will be established between production and demand and no doubt  prices will go up. Soon, the majority of the population may only be able to afford wine on special occasions - even lower quality wine. What a shame it will be if the tradition of opening a bottle of good wine with friends disappears.

https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20230825-france-eu-to-spend-200-million-euros-on-destroying-surplus-wine

French wine production and Consumption

 The French like other Europeans are consuming less and less wine, so much so that the French government is purchasing millions of Euros worth of wine to financially support the industry. This excess wine is being converted into alcohol for products such as hand sanitiser.

The reduced consumption of wine has many causes. I believe that the message about not drinking too much is getting through especially to young people. Excessive drinking undoubtedly leads to health problems. Inflated prices are also contributing the to financial woes of the wine industry, reduced production will lead to further price increases. Automation of the wine making process may not be able to reduce the cost of a bottle.

All in all the wine industry faces trouble.

From a personal point of my wife and I hardly drink more than a bottle of wine per week, unless we have friends around.. We are increasingly reluctant to pay inflated prices for our wine and we rarely buy Burgundy in the UK.

Champagne and English sparkling wine prices are sky rocketing so consumers are changing to Prosecco and Cava. Luckily we travel to France often enough to buy  reasonably priced Champagne.

Climate change is affecting Prosecco production so the outlook for sparkling wines is not good.

I hope that the wine industry does not suffer too badly from climate change and demographic effects to cause the demise of the industry. There is nothing I like more than a good bottle of wine with my food and friends, so cheers.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/25/france-fund-destroying-excess-wine-demand-falls

Cuvée des Anges Montlouis-sur-Loire AOC sparkling wine brut by traditional methods

 If you find Champagne too expensive and are bored with Prosecco and Cava and the Southern Hemisphere alternatives, then try this: Cuvée des Anges Montlouis sur Loire AC sparkling wine brut. This dry white sparkling wine is produced from Chenin Blanc grapes in the Montlouis sur Loire appellation near Tours in the Loire Valley. The limestone soils  and climate here are perfect for the growth of the Chenin Blanc grape.

The sparkling wine produced is refined with a medium body and it has a well balanced acidity with a taste of green fruits and lemon. The wine is dry and will clear your palate. It is best as an aperitif in my opinion, but would go down well with a dessert or even throughout a meal. I find it more refreshing than Prosecco and it does leave an unpleasant after taste, like some cheap sparkling wines do. It should not be compared with Champagne in either terms of taste or quality. It needs to be tasted and assessed in its own right. We bought it for about 7 Euros a bottle in France, and this means that is exceptional value for money when you compare taste and quality with cost. You can even buy it in the UK, so try it; I think you won't be disappointed.

https://www.vivino.com/GB/en/montlouis-cuvee-des-anges-brut/w/1420627