Susan and I had a rare opportunity to have dinner together (our work schedules are way outta hand) on Saturday. A great past experience took us to Bistro 7 on Third Street just north of Market. Chef/Owner Michael O’Halloran has a wonderful “farm to fork” ethic, and presents a weekly menu based on what he finds available.

We brought 2 bottles with us, even though we knew we wouldn’t finish either. We’d had the Clos du Poyet Muscadet before, but Susan hadn’t yet had the Barbera d’Alba Serra Boella from Paitin. I’d just done a tasting with Giovanni Pasquero-Elia in our New York store, and knew she’d love it.

The highlights of the meal were the escargot with the Muscadet, an outrageous pairing of pulled pork in a densely-flavored rosemary sauce with the Barbera, and the Rhubarb/Strawberry concoction that ended the meal. This is a wonderful BYOB that seems to fly under a lot of folks radar, but it’s busy, so I imagine everyone who knows about it is trying to keep a “secret.”

Posted by David Moore

Located on southern facing slopes of the river Cher in the heart of the Touraine district (southeast and about 20km from Tours) where Vincent Ricard farms approximately 17 hectares of vineyard planted largely to Sauvignon Blanc, along with small parcels of Chardonnay, Cabernet Franc, Gamay and Cot (Malbec).

Clos de Vauriou is a single vineyard planted to organically farmed Gamay, which is hand-harvested and de-stemmed, to produce this plump wine.

Bright acidity and a pleasant leafy undercurrent on the finish balance primary, plumy aromatics and a lush texture. Excellent with roasted root vegetables, coq au vin, or smoked meats.

Regional History
The Loire River runs 635 miles from the Cévennes Mountains in southeastern France to the Atlantic Coast and flows through (or near) over 60 different appellations. During its long history, the hillsides along the banks provided well – drained soils on which to grow grapes, and the river itself provided a transportation network to outside markets.

The village of Thésée on the banks of the River Cher (a small tributary of the Loire) is sprinkled with troglodytic dwellings carved into the hillsides. Wines from this village qualify for Appellation Touraine, a broad expanse of land that covers much of the vineyards East of Tours.

Regional Foods
The lower half of the Loire River, the longest in France, runs through more than forty wine appellations, among them Sancerre, Pouilly-Fume, Touraine, Vouvray, Chinon, Saumur, Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil, and Muscadet. This broad valley, noted for its big skies and big chateaux, doesn’t boast an indigenous cuisine. Nevertheless, the rich soil and the varied landscape provide a bounty of raw materials for a cook.

Diverse livestock are raised on local farms; the Atlantic coast and the river itself supply plentiful fish; vegetables and grains are harvested from the large, well-tended kitchen gardens seen everywhere. So one drinks Muscadet with Atlantic oysters and pike au beurre blanc, Vouvray with friture de la loire (fried freshwater fish) or pork rillettes. Rillons, little fists of pork belly, might be enjoyed with a glass of Montlouis.

The reds of Chinon and Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil often accompany jugged hare, pork with prunes or venison. Reds from Touraine with chickens, and “steak frittes.” Restaurants offer baked cod, escargot, frog’s legs and freshwater fish pate with Pouilly-Fume.

© Moore Brothers Wine Company

Sancerre “Chêne Marchand” Domaine du Carrou
When the famous taster Pierre Bréjoux headed the I.N.A.O (the governing body that regulates wine in France), he observed that while tasting the greatest wines of Sancerre, “…one would like to have a throat as long as a swan’s neck.” His I.N.A.O never classified the vineyards of Sancerre, but if that ever happens, the chalky, sloping Chêne Marchand in the hamlet of Bué will be at the top of the list of its Grands Crus.

Dominique Roger has 0.37 hectares of forty year-old vines in Chêne Marchand, the crown jewel of his Domaine du Carrou. In most years, this tiny parcel yields fewer than 200 cases of round, elegant Sancerre.

Dominique Roger:
If you visit Dominique Roger (photo) at his Domaine du Carrou in Bué, don’t expect to spend a leisurely time indoors tasting the latest vintage and hearing all about the new Vaslin press or the Tronçais barrels from a famous cooper in Burgundy. Dominique Roger won’t try to impress you with his tools. But if you can keep up with him on a brisk climb through his immaculate, steep vineyards, you’ll learn a lot more about wine, and maybe find that you suddenly care a lot more about who grows it and where it comes from than you ever did before.

This wine:
This citrine-yellow wine has delicate nectarine, white peach and pink grapefruit in the nose, along with a suggestion of cassis and walnut, which on the palate turns to pistachio. There is fine minerality in harmonious balance with what Klaus Peter Keller calls “inner density” and lively acidity. This is sublimely elegant Sancerre.

As always at Moore Brothers, this elegant Sancerre was shipped and delivered to us in refrigerated containers, so it tastes exactly the same as it tasted at Dominique’s home in Bué, when I drank it with the tiny goujons, gardons, and eperlans, – fresh from the Loire, that Danielle Roger dipped in milk and seasoned flour, then fried and served in heaping mounds on large heated plates.

I thank you again for your continued support of sustainable viticulture, and the stewardship of these special traditions.

Greg Moore

Ménetou-Salon Cuvée le Charnay Jean-Max Roger
Here’s a shimmering, elegant Loire Valley Sauvignon Blanc that I’ve drunk at least twice a month since it arrived here a year ago.

Last Friday at home, alongside a buttery  crusted fillet of halibut with parslied new potatoes and wild rice,  this wine was perfect: sapid and vibrant, and a textbook example of a beautifully evolved wine at its peak. On Sunday I bought a case, of which eleven bottles remain (I couldn’t resist). But I plan on one or two at least, for a picnic of  Monterey Chèvre,  New Canaan tomatoes, and a baguette from  Rubiner’s,  with Beethoven and Mendelssohn on the lawn at Tanglewood later this summer.

Jean-Max Roger:
The Rogers have been winegrowers in Bué, a tiny hamlet outside of Sancerre, since the early seventeenth century. Jean-Max Roger inherited four hectares of Sancerre vineyards in 1970, to which he has added another twenty, along with five hectares in nearby Ménetou-Salon.

Like his cousin and neighbor Dominique Roger, Jean-Max combines a deeply felt respect for tradition with a willingness to apply sensible innovative methods. His neighbors in Bué thought he was crazy when he abandoned chemical herbicides in 1990, and planted grass between alternate rows of vines.

If you visit his compact winery in the heart of the village of Bué, he probably won’t be there (even if you made an appointment). He’s much more likely to have forgotten the time, and to be out among the vines.

This wine:
This pale yellow wine has beautiful white peach, pink grapefruit, and fennel in the nose, along with a suggestion of cassis and walnut. On the palate there is nectarine, citrus zest, fennel, and flinty minerality, with lots of dry extract: what Klaus Peter Keller calls “inner density.” The finish goes on and on.

As always at Moore Brothers, we selected this lovely wine in a direct, personal relationship with the grower. It was shipped and delivered to us in refrigerated containers, and over the past year it has ripened beautifully in our perfect, temperature-controlled facilities. It won’t taste better, even if you drink it in the lovely old tasting room at the winery in Bué, with Thibault or Etiènne Roger filling in for their father.

I thank you again for your continued support of family farms, and for your participation in the stewardship of these special traditions.

Greg Moore

Touraine Sauvignon Domaine de la Potine Vincent Ricard
Oh my, I do live a charmed life, and I’m grateful for it. But I don’t always pay as much attention as I should. Just ask Sue.

So for the days when I can’t remember what she told me she’d planned for dinner, I keep a few bottles of what I call “really adaptable” wines in the fridge. There’s usually a clean Provence rosé or a fresh Barbera available; and a dry Riesling, of course; but I always try to have a Loire Valley Sauvignon Blanc on hand. There is nothing quite as versatile. It happens that this amazing wine was there last night, just when I needed it to accompany a filet of hake roasted with a mustard and yogurt sauce.

Wow. I thought I knew my friend Vincent Ricard’s Domaine de la Potine inside and out, but this bottle was singing.

This is startling, terrifically concentrated wine, with aromatic complexity and minerality not found in Pouilly-Fumés at three times the price.

Vincent Ricard:
When he took over the family estate in 1998, Vincent Ricard immediately quit the Oisly-Thésée Cave Cooperative, which had been founded by his grandfather, and began estate-bottling the wines. He never looked back, and is now one of the Loire Valley’s most admired young producers.

The Domaine de la Potine comes from a 2-hectare parcel of Sauvignon Blanc planted on a gentle slope of sandy clay-limestone that looks over the river Cher. The farming is organic, incorporating practices taken from the discipline of  biodynamics,  which Vincent encountered during a brief stage with François Chidaine in Montlouis. The wine ferments in stainless steel cuves, and is bottled in late winter.

This Wine:
This hand crafted, organically grown Sauvignon Blanc has a limpid delicate yellow color with flashes of pale green. Grapefruit, lemon zest, boxwood, and fresh herbs dominate the nose, with Asian pear, bitter honey, and ripe black currant on the palate. A long, persistent finish. This is especially good with fresh goats cheeses, but the wine is very adaptable (I like it with red-sauced pasta).

As always at Moore Brothers, this wine was shipped and delivered to us in refrigerated containers. You won’t find it in better condition, even if you drink it at Le Bon Laboureur in Chenonceaux, one of the best restaurants in Touraine, only a few kilometers from the winery.

I thank you again for your continued support of small-farm viticulture.

Greg Moore