Brasserie Blanc - Berkhamsted

Once again,I had an excellent meal at the Blanc Brasserie with my good friend and colleague Patrick.

The Food and Wine

We choose terrine of smoked hock for starters. Patrick chose Plaice for the main course and I chose Shirred Eggs with smoked Salmon, a dish I had never tried before but was eager to try. As usual the food could not be faulted as it was full of flavour. But what wine do you choose to go with all that?




Brasserie Blanc has an extensive wine list. On this occasion we did not want to push the boat out so I selected Domaine Begude Sauvignon Blanc 2011. The wine was perfect; it tasted fresh and zesty with a hint of nuts, citrus fruist and grapefruit. It is produced in the Limoux region of southern France at an altitude of over 1,000 feet on north east facing slopes. The wine therefore reflects the character of a cool climate.

Domaine Begude grows its wines on clay and limestone based soils.  This type of soil suits the Sauvignon Grape very well. The wine is classified as Pays d'Oc IGP which is a new classification under the Appellation rules. It has a protected geographical indicated name. Domaine Begude grows its vines using organic methods.

The wine went perfectly with the fish and smoked hock and just about held its on with the eggs and smoked salmon. I always find it difficult to select a wine to go with  eggs. The mineral and smokey aspect of the wine, however, did match the salmon and I felt that I had just about got away with the choice.

The Limoux region is probably more famous for its sparkling wine, Blanquette de Limoux, which is an excellent alternative to Champagne, but it has a character of its own.

Domaine Begude is difficult to obtain in Britain but if you do come across it I thorough recommend it . Majestic Wines were stocking Domaine Begude Rosé.

The Cheese board

Contrary to English tradition we ate cheese before dessert; my wife is French and she would "kill" me if I did anything else. I was particularly impressed by the Deauville creamy cheese from Normandie and the Bleue de Gex which was much milder and less pungent than most blue cheeses that I have tasted. We were  recommended a sweet wine to go with the cheese-  French Muscat of course. 

Dessert

Lemon sponge pudding washed down with the Muscat and this was delicious.  After coffee and Armagnac it was almost time to wander off, well pleased.



Atmosphere and Service

Joanna the manager has created a very friendly atmosphere. The Brasserie reminds me so much of France but of course the customers are British so Raymond Blanc has got things working just right. The attention to detail is very good and Natalie, our waitress, was able to describe all the cheeses. The wine, food and service was top notch.

Why is it a favourite restaurant?

Patrick loves to come because of the access and the no nonsense welcome. He won't mind me saying that he has multiple sclerosis. Sometimes he can walk and sometimes he has to use a chair. Yesterday he could walk and he got home easily after a half bottle of wine. If you want to find out more visit his site www.aid4disabled.com.

Château Laroque Thomas Bordeaux Supérieur Red 2010

Our friends brought a bottle of this wine from France. It was simple delicious. It had soft tannins with a blackberry and blackcurrant flavour and the taste remained on the palate for a long time. The wine is from the right bank of the Garonne river and I suspect that it has a substantial quantity of Merlot in the blend. It went down really well with free range chicken followed by mature cheeses. This wine won a silver medal at a wine competition in Lyon. I can understand why, as it is a high quality product. You can find it in French supermarkets for around 6 euros a bottle. I would gladly pay 8 or 9 pounds for this wine in a British supermarket.

If only I could find excellent wines like this for about 5 pounds in Britain. I would be a very happy man. No wonder it won a prize.  2010 was a good year for Bordeaux red.

The next time that you are in France, I recommend that you buy a couple of bottles; one to drink now and the other to keep in a cool dark place for a few more years. I am sure that this wine will improve with age.

2012 a good and bad year

2012 has been a good year for South Australian wines the weather conditions have been perfect for the production of high quality grapes and high quality wine. After successive bad years the Australian wine industry deserves some luck. The good year in Australia has been counter balanced by poor growing conditions in Northern France especially in the Champagne region.

In Champagne the growers have been beset with all sorts of difficulties with late frosts in April and heavy rain for most of late spring and early summer. The poor weather conditions have caused coulure when the vine flowers fail to to set and pollinate properly. Vines are self pollinating plants which need dry and breezy conditions for the pollen to spread properly amongst the vines. The flowers in Champagne did not all pollinate at the same time so the vines fruited at different times which adds to difficulties to tending the fruit and harvesting it. The poor weather conditions also caused millerandage where the fruit fails to develop properly. The cold wet weather did not help the fruiting bodies of the vines.
 To add to all this the vines were afflicted by both powdery mildew and (Oidium) and downy mildew (Peronospera). The treatments applied by the growers were washed off the grapes by the incessant downpours.

The good weather conditions in Australia and poor ones in Champagne cannot just be blamed on luck.
There is no doubt in my mind that man made climate change is altering the weather. This has been predicted by climate scientists who not only use climate models to predict the changes to the climate but who have also researched the climate of the past to make predictions. The greater extremes of weather events and the greater variability of the weather is caused by global warming which has increased the average temperature of the atmosphere and the amount of water vapour in the air. There is more energy in the atmosphere to disrupt normal weather patterns. As we pump more and more carbon  di-oxide  into the atmosphere the likelihood of  us experiencing extreme weather will increase. Some years vine growers will benefit but overall I expect that climate change will create more and more serious problems not just for viticulture but for all forms of agriculture. We are damaging the atmosphere and we shall also damage the quality of our most preferred beverage. How stupid is that?

1996 Mountadam Cabernet Sauvignon

My Australian friends gave me a bottle of Mountadam Cabernet Sauvignon from the Eden valley in South Australia. I saved it for a special occasion and opened it last weekend before some friends arrived. Unfortunately the cork was faulty and it broke in the neck of the bottle. Even though I tried hard, I was unable to extract the cork without leaving substantial pieces in the bottle. I had to open a bottle of red Bordeaux to go with our lunch. I couldn't serve wine with pieces of cork floating in it.

My friend and I did taste the wine it was still excellent after all those years in the bottle with concentrated flavours of blackberries and black fruits. The wine was still going strong and was not on the downward slope.

I sealed the bottle with a rubber cord and vacuum pump. My wife and I will finish off the bottle after I have filtered it. I think a tea strainer might do the trick.

Maybe there is a case for using screw caps but will a wine age as well? Pulling a cork, a natural one, still holds romance for me, especially for wines as good as this one.

Château Cos d'Estournel - 1996

My good friends served this wine with Sunday lunch recently. I am lucky to have such good friends. This was one of the best Bordeaux reds I have ever tasted. 1996 was a very good vintage. Château Cos d'Estournel is located in the commune of Saint-Estèphe which borders onto Pauillac to the south. The Château itself is a magnificent sight. The wine is a second class growth but in no way does it have a second class taste or quality. The 1996 vintage is ready for drinking now; it is highly concentrated wine which is full of fruit with a strong nose and taste of cloves and vanilla. The wine has extremely long length on the palate and the tannins are softening and ripening. Even so, this wine could easily be kept ten years longer.

My wife and I tasted it blind and I guessed that it was from either Pauillac or St Julien but I was not surprised when I was shown the bottle. This was not a bad guess as I have not drunk a lot of wine from Saint-Estèphe. How anyone could narrow the commune down further I do not know?  But, you would have had to have drunk or tasted an awful lot of wine from the area. I was able to tell that it was exceptionally good wine from my training.

I looked up the prices of the wine on the web: a bottle of the 1996 vintage will cost you around £110.
Compare that to a bottle of 1996 Château Latour (Grand Vin) which is about 5 times the price. Château Latour is a brand name which is more highly prized by investors but from a drinkers point of view it is not worth the extra premium.

The price of Château Cos d'Estournel is also inflated by the fact that it is on investors' lists. However, if you want to have a taste of the high life and want to spoil yourself for a special occasion then it is worth the price. It is red wine heaven on earth.

Lucien Jacob 2008 Gevrey –Chambertin “En Songe” AOC.

I reviewed this wine on the 26th of March 2011 and wrote in my tasting note that it would improve with bottle age. See my blog of that date. Luckily my prediction turned out to be right; over the last 15 months this wine has improved considerably and the cherry flavour typical of Burgundy reds is really starting to reveal itself. The tannins are softening and this wine is starting to become elegant. A good English friend who is a connoisseur of Burgundy  agreed with me that this was a superb wine when we sampled it last March so I am glad to be in good company.

We drank this wine with some French family and friends, one of whom was a connoisseur of Burgundy, and her eyes lit up when she saw the label. She was not disappointed, the wine went down well with a free range chicken. Isn't great when your opinions are confirmed by experts from both sides of "La Manche"? Just like all good Burgundy, the wine also went well with cheese. We tried some Red Leicester from the village of Long Clawson in the county of, yes you have guessed it, Leicestershire. The Long Clawson dairy also makes some delicious Stilton. The village is well worth a visit if only to sample the cheese.

Lucien Jacob 2008 Gevrey-Chambertin “En Songe” should improve in the bottle for a good many years to come. Buy it, if you can find it, but be prepared to pay more than 10 pounds a bottle.

Torres Gran Coronas 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserva

This is another superb wine from Miguel Torres, of Catalonia, who is one of my favourite producers. This wine is made from Cabernet Sauvignon grapes blended with a small proportion of Tempranillo. The wine is matured in oak. There are hints of vanilla, liquorice and  stone fruits on the nose. The wine is at its peak for drinking both now and over the next four or five years. The nose is reflected strongly on the palate which has a strong and concentrated flavour of blackcurrants with tobacco, vanilla, liquorice and clove. The wine is medium to full body and the softening tannins are well integrated with the acidity. The concentration of flavours and long length indicate that it is a very good quality wine. It matched a superb West Country  roast lamb dish cooked by some French visitors. This wine has its own style which is strongly reminiscent of both Bordeaux red and Rioja red:  this flavour was slightly disconcerting at first but I soon forgot about it when I tucked into the lamb. The wine also went down well with a mixture of French and English cheeses. It competes well with both high quality Bordeaux and Rioja red.

I cannot remember where I bought the wine or how much I paid but it can be bought on the internet for around eleven pounds a bottle. Because of its individual taste, high quality and its ability to age well I rate this as a superb wine. It should not be taken lightly as it is designed to be drunk with a hearty meal. I recommend it highly as  it would be difficult to find a better wine at its price.