A bottle of rich Cremant d'Alsace from Pierre Sparr makes an excellent accompaniment for an elaborate cheese and charcuterie spread.

This bottle was provided as a media sample. As usual, all opinions are my own and no other compensation was received. 

We’ve started an accidental trend of bringing bottles of Cremant d’Alsace on vacations. Last year I shared two bottles that went on the road with us, and we recently continued the tradition by taking a bottle of Pierre Sparr Cremant d'Alsace Brut Reserve to share with friends at the Culinary Cabin in Tahoe. 

Our trips to the Culinary Cabin are epic feasts that go on for days. Occasionally, our friends Lucy and Drew invite us, along with a few other friends, to their family’s vacation house for little getaways that basically turn into cooking camp where we all switch off making amazing meals. In addition, there are often some pretty delicious cheese hours – happy hour, but with cheese. Our friends Dee and Drew joined in on the most recent trip, and these two turn out some phenomenal cheese spreads. (That’s not a typo, they’re both Drews. We refer to them as Northern Drew and Southern Drew respectively based on where in the state they live.) When combined with the tidbits and extra treats that the rest of us added in, the cheese hours were taken to another level this trip. 

In addition to a slew of cheeses, we also had quite a bit of charcuterie, condiments, and other goodies like olives on the table. On the night we opened the bottle of Pierre Sparr, Northern Drew also conjured up a couple of extra appetizers with the other guys as sous chefs to enjoy including crispy chicken skin, roasted mushrooms, and saucy tomatoes with grilled bread. There were also  two pots of rillets on the table, one made of rabbit and one of the pork rillets I shared in this post.  (I can now affirm that these freeze quite well.)  In the end, this cheese hour was so abundant that it completely did away with the need for dinner. 

  

Pierre Sparr Cremant d'Alsace Brut Reserve

12.5% ABV | Average Price: $21 

I’ve shared quite a few bottles of Cremant d’Alsace here over time, so I’m not going to go into a long description here, but very simply put, Cremant in sparkling wine that is made in the style of Champagne (aka traditional method or méthode traditionnelle) that come from regions other than Champagne. In this case, the wine comes from Alsace in northeastern France. 

Image borrowed from Pierre Sparr's website.

Maison Pierre Sparr has a long history spanning many generations. The family’s winemaking origins date back to 1680 under Jean Sparr. Starting in 1785, François Pierre Sparr began increasing the vineyard holdings. Jump ahead a few generations, and Charles Sparr turned his attention to developing the business, trade, and winery’s wine aging practices. His son, Pierre, became the head of the company at the age of 20 and developed the business further, and became a pioneer in estate bottling in Alsace. His motto was: “invest, progress and maintain.”

Map borrowed from WineFolly.com.

Alsace was one of the French regions most devastated by the World Wars due to its location right on the border with Germany. The domaine’s vineyards were completely destroyed during WWII. Pierre Sparr worked very hard to rebuild the domaine back to its previous prestige. His sons René and Charles continued the work and increased the vineyard holding and developed European markets for the company. The winery is now in its 9th generation in the family, and they have Corinne Perez as the current winemaker.

Today the domaine owns 15 hectares of vineyards, and they source from an additional 130 hectares supplied by well-experienced winegrowers. I couldn’t find much on the winery’s vineyard practices, however, their site does note that they do not use chemical fertilizers and they limit their yields for quality control. 

Image borrowed from Pierre Sparr's website.

Their Cremant d'Alsace Brut Reserve is a blend of 80% Pinot Blanc and  20% Pinot AuxerroisGrapes for this wine are whole-cluster pressed, with the varieties being handled separately. The wine is fermented and held in stainless steel tanks, then the still wines are blended and bottled, and then the wine spends 12-16 months on the lees before release. Find tech sheet on this wine here and here for additional details.

I found this to be a rich style of Cremant d’Alsace with lots of baked pear and apple notes. On the nose, there were pretty floral notes as well. On the palate, there were also flavors of toasted nuts and honeyed mead-like notes, at the front, and then move into fresher notes of lemon towards the mid-palate and finish. There was a creamy feel to the texture of this wine. 

This was generally a very friendly wine when it came to pairing. I can’t think of anything it clashed with on our extensive cheese and charcuterie table. Sparkling wines in general tend to pair well with fried foods, and following in that tradition, this wine paired really well with the crispy chicken skins. It also matched particularly well with the two types of rillets spread on grilled buttery bread, managing somehow to both mirror the richness of these meaty spreads, and then cleanse and lift the palate at the finish. Sweet items that you tend to find on a cheese plate like fruit, jams, confitures, and mostarda can be tricky to pair with dry wines in general, but this wine worked better than most in my experience, perhaps thanks to the richness of the fruit and the nutty flavors. This was particularly true when these sweeter items were accompanied in a bite with savory charcuterie or salty cheese. 

The wine worked generally well with most cheeses, but as there were too many on the table to discuss them all individually, I’ll just spotlight one that I really enjoyed with the wine – Brillat-Savarin Affine. We’ll take a closer look at the cheese momentarily, but I really enjoyed how these two worked together. Similar to how the wine worked with the rillettes, the wine matched the cheese’s decadent texture, but then refreshed the palate at the close of a sip.

See this post for more on Cremant in general and this post for more on Cremant d’Alsace specifically. For more on the region of Alsace, check out this post. 

Brillat-Savarin Affine

Brillat-Savarin Affine is a bloomy-rind, soft-ripened triple cream cow's milk cheese that is soooooooooo silky, creamy, and delicious that Dee refers to it as the “unicorn cheese.” 

This version comes from Fromagerie Delin and they give the following description of the cheese and its history on their site: 

This cream-enriched cheese has a rich and varied history. In fact, it was to pay tribute to Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1755-1826), an illustrious figure in the French Revolution and above all a lover of fine gourmet foods, that Henri Androuet had the idea of naming a cheese after him around 1930.

It is a soft cheese made from a lactic curd that has been enriched with cream before maturing. It can be eaten fresh, in which case the softness and creaminess will dominate with creamy notes and a hint of acidity and freshness.

With the maturing process, its attractive bloomy rind appears after a few days and will give it a more assertive character. But once again, it is the creaminess and suppleness of the cheese that are the dominant characteristics. Nuances of hazelnut and mushroom coming from the rind complement the creaminess, imparting all its aromatic complexity.

Brillat-Savarin has been a PGI since 2017, with a production area extending from the south of the Ile-de-France to Burgundy. We are fortunate to have a production site in both these areas. You’ll really be able to taste the difference.

I think it can occasionally be hard to find – adding to why Dee calls it the “unicorn cheese,” but you can find this version here.

In terms of flavor, I found it to be mild in flavor with a pleasant sour tang, but the true joy of the cheese is the luscious texture. As I mentioned, It was a lovely match with our bottle of Pierre Sparr Cremant.

Cheese this good has a tendency to disappear!

*****

Both Pierre Sparr’s website and VinsAlsace.com have many more pairing ideas for wines from the region – check out their websites for more inspiration. 

I received two additional bottles of Cremant d’Alsace as samples for participation in this month’s French Winophiles event. Sadly, Greg and I got stranded on vacation on the east coast with COVID (luckily not too bad) and the other bottles are waiting for me at home. Perhaps the bottles of Cremant were a lucky charm on previous trips, as we had managed to avoid the plague up until now.

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• Cremant Wine Battered Perch; Michigan and French Classics Collide on A Day in the Life on the Farm
• A Thai Green Curry Lesson + Willm Crémant d’Alsace Brut Rosé on Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Crémant d’Alsace: An Elegant Sparkling Wine from France on Grape Experiences
• Crémant d’Alsace - Exploring the Nuances of France’s 2nd Favorite Sparkling Wine on Crushed Grape Chronicles
• Crémant d'Alsace: A Candidate for Your House Bubbly on Food Wine Click!
• Crémant d'Alsace Paired with Summer Fish Menus on Always Ravenous
• Crab Crêpes Compliment Crémant d'Alsace for Summer #Winophiles on Wine Predator
• Cheese Hour at the Culinary Cabin with Pierre Sparr Crémant d'Alsace Brut Reserve on Somm's Table
• Porch Sipper of the Year: Crémant d’Alsace on Keep the Peas
• Crispy Fishwich + an Organic Cremant d'Alsace from Charles Bauer on Wineivore
• Try This Traditional French Sparkler For Modern Drinkers on L’Occasion

We met at a friend’s place way back at the start of 2020. She had a sparkling personality, but I didn’t get her name. Thankfully, I did get a picture and the social media hive mind helped me to figure it out. Still, when the world shut down a few weeks later, I figured it was unlikely we wouldn't see each other again anytime soon. 

I didn’t forget her though. She was a little sassy and stuck with me. But I’m sure you can imagine my surprise when she showed up at my place out of the blue much later. I was absolutely delighted to receive her . . .  as part of a set of sample bottles. I celebrated our reunion by making her some lobster risotto – to which I added a pinch of cayenne to match her sass.

Sometimes failing to get the name of a wine you really enjoyed can feel like a case of missed connections. I was particularly excited to receive this bottle because my mystery lady/bottle was a bit of an oddball. It’s an unusual style from an unexpected region of France. The Château Tour des Gendres Pétillant-Naturel is a blend of Chenin Blanc and Sauvignon Blanc from Bergerac, which you might know as the home of Cyrano, but isn’t as well known for its wines. Perhaps her eccentricities are a part of what makes this lady/bottle so beguiling. 

Château Tour des Gendres Pétillant-Naturel 

Château Tour des Gendres is a family affair. Vincenzo de Conti arrived from Italy and settled down in Bergerac with his wife and kids in 1925. The family farmed the land, but it wasn’t until the 1980s that they began making wine. Luc (Vincenzo’s grandson) settled on the property with his wife Martine. He inherited some old vines on the property and then added more plots later on. His cousin Francis joined them later on and brought 20 more hectares of vines in the Saint Julien d’Eymet and Grand Caillou areas, and took charge of the vines, which are now farmed organically.

The property, however, has a much older history. In the 12th century, the vineyards belonged to Bridoire Castle, owned by Marquis Foucault. His son-in-law (or gendre in French), Mr. Peyronny, was the owner of the ancient Gallo-Roman villa that is now  ‘Tour des Gendres.’  Most of the vineyards that originally belonged to the Castle were wiped out by phylloxera,  so they now only cover about a tenth of the original area.

The Château Tour des Gendres Pétillant-Naturel 2019 (average price $25) was very refreshing with notes of gold and green apples, lemons, white flowers, and saline minerality on the finish. It was bright and lively but also had a little texture as well, which is what made me think it would work well with the creaminess of a risotto incorporating seafood. It was indeed a delicious match as the bubbles and minerality of the wine refreshed the palate, while the wine texture matched that of the food nicely, as desired. 

Sadly, I couldn’t find much about this specific wine on their website, but luckily the bottle came with a card full of information that I will share with you here. 

Bergerac

Bergerac is in South West France, along the Dordogne River. It’s just to the east of Bordeaux, which is probably the main reason that the region isn’t really thought of in terms of wine, despite having produced it since Roman times. Unfortunately, it’s living in the shadow of a giant of a wine region that historically used its power as a port to block wines from other areas from getting out without being heavily taxed. The area also produces many different styles of wines – red, white, sweet, and as we see, sparkling. The grapes and styles are generally also similar to what you’d find in Bordeaux. You’ll find Merlot, Cab, Cab Franc, Malbec, Sauv Blanc and Semillon, just as you would in Bordeaux, and the sweet wines of Monbazillac are made in the same way as Sauternes, with grapes affected by botrytis.

Because Pét-Nats don’t fall within the specifications of the region, this particular wine is classified as a Vin de France (VdF). 

Map borrowed from Wine Folly.

Black Pool Matt’s Wine Club 

This wine came to me as a sample from Black Pool Matt’s Wine Club, a wine club by Matthew Gaughan of Matthew's World of Wine and Drink. It’s set up so that you can pick from several themes to suit your interest. This wine was included in the  “(You Make Me Feel Like)” club which focuses on producers who are practicing or certified organic, biodynamic, and/or use low-intervention, natural winemaking techniques. You can also buy directly from the website, although selections may vary depending on availability.

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The rest of the French Wineophiles Blogging Group (#Winophiles) are also exploring the wine of South West France this month. Be sure to check out their posts:

• Camilla at Culinary Adventures with Camilla: Garlic and Herb-Rubbed Standing Pork Rib Roast + Château Laulerie Bergerac Rosé 2020
• Robin at Crushed Grape Chronicles: Fish, cheese, and red wine. Exploring the Basque region of Irouléguy
• Jeff at Food Wine Click!: Deconstructed Tartine & Domaine de L’Astré Pèlroge
• Deanna at Wineivore: Organic Negrette & Manseng Wines from SW France Paired with Southwest Sliders
• Jane at Always Ravenous: Affordable Wines from Southwest France: Tasting & Pairings
• Cindy at Grape Experiences: A Taste of Southwest France: Nature Secrète Saint Mont 2018 and Sauteed Duck Breasts with Mushrooms
• Gwendolyn at Wine Predator: Mauzac? SW France’s Domaine du Moulin Features This Unusual Grape in Methode Ancestrale Sparkler
• Wendy at A Day in the Life on the Farm: Visiting the Wines of Southwest France outside of Bordeaux
• Lynn at Savor the Harvest: Gascony Surprise: Meet Domaine de Joÿ in Southwest France
• Linda at My Full Wine Glass: Two Tannat-based wines from Southwest France

Today we’re going to bring the bistro home. We’ll keep things relaxed, but elegant, and above all tasty with an easy-going red blend from the Loire Valley and a simple spread of pork rillettes with a salad and fresh-baked bread. No need to overthink things – just kick back and enjoy. 

A Cocktail of Loire Valley Red Grapes

We’ve visited the Loire Valley in north-central France, several times before, and we’re likely to head there many more times in the future since I find it to be a treasure trove of affordable, food-friendly wines. Ideal for accompanying a bistro meal.

Map borrowed from WineFolly.com

It’s a long region that follows the Loire River from the center of the country to the sea. Because it’s such a long region, the terroir varies A LOT, and there many different grapes are grown throughout it. Among the red grapes, the variety it’s probably best known for is Cabernet Franc, but there are many others, many of which you don’t hear all that much about. Today’s wine includes two others. Côt makes up the majority of the blend, along with Cab Franc, and a splash of Gamay, the grape that is usually associated with Beaujolais. 

Côt is really just the local name for a grape we’ve explored many times before – Malbec. Here, Malbec tends to take on more herbal and earthy notes, and will usually have higher levels of acidity than versions from Argentina, and even when compared to its homeplace of Cahors since the Loire is cooler and farther north. It’s not as common in the region as it once was, but isn’t unusual to find it in red blends from the mid-Loire regions like Anjou and Touraine, and often as a part of this trio with Cab Franc and Gamay. 

Anne-Cecile Jadaud Côtillon Rouge 2018

Anne-Cecile Jadaud is an oenologist and she usually works in partnership with viticulturist Tanguy Perrault. The couple met while teaching at the lycée viticole at Amboise. Each of them spent a decade working in a wine before starting their own project together. For her part, Anne-Cécile, spent that time working as a consulting enologist in southern France before returning to the Loire (she’s a native of Tours) to teach and make their wines. The Perrault-Jadaud wines focus on Chenin Blanc. The couple works eight hectares of organically-farmed vines near their home and winery in Chançay, in the northeastern portion of Vouvray.

Image borrowed from FieldblendSelections.com

Anne-Cecile also loves red wines, however, and she also makes a few red cuvées, which she bottles under her own name. Today’s wine is one of these. The Côtillon Rouge 2018 is a red field blend made from grapes from a friend’s vineyards that are about to be certified BIO/organic. (There was also 2019, but from what I’ve seen online that one was all Côt.)  

While I wasn’t able to find a tech sheet on this specific wine, the rest of Perrault-Jadaud wines are made via natural fermentations and with as little SO2 as possible, and I don’t doubt that this was the case for this wine as well. There was no oak used on this wine. 

As we took our first sips of the wine, Greg commented that this was “a wild red,” and it definitely had a wild edge. A cotillon is a French country dance, so I think this wine is Côt in a playful dance, perhaps even a raucous one as suggested by the label. It’s a natural wine and certainly had that slightly feral quality natural wines often have, so perhaps it’s not for everyone. There was a bit of brett in the mix, and it might have also benefited from decanting, although I didn’t do so this time. However, accompanying the wine’s wild side there was rich, dark, bright fruit. On the nose, there were blackberries and black cherries, along with lots of herbs and wildflowers. On the palate, the fruit was dark and juicy, seasoned with white pepper, a bit of game, and stony minerality. While the alcohol on this wine was only 13% ABV, it read as a bigger wine, and there was plenty of freshness to add vibrancy.

The Pairing: Rillettes des Tours

I bought this wine via the Garagiste newsletter ($16.81) which noted:

As far as no-thought, “bistro” reds are concerned, this VERY RARE and sumptuous hand-made treat    (courtesy of 2018 and Anne-Cecile Jadaud) is at the top of the bargain heap. It will pair with everything from grilled burgers to cassoulet to a plate of thinly sliced San Daniele to a no-fuss afternoon throwing touchdown passes with your 10 year old.

I liked the bistro allusion, as well as the ideas of charcuterie and richer, even gamey fare. That was all playing in my mind as I looked for cooking inspiration online. Then I came across a recipe for Rillettes des Tours, which seemed to bring everything together perfectly. It’s exactly the kind of thing I’d order at a bistro-style restaurant. It’s a bit decadent, yet easy-going, and even comes from the same region as our winemaker and wine to boot.

If you’ve never had rillettes (pronounced “ree-yets”), it’s kind of like pulled pork meets confit, meets a very rustic pâté. The pork (or other meat) is slow-cooked in fat for several hours, then is shredded up and covered in fat. It was originally meant as a preservation technique because covering the meat in fat creates an anaerobic environment that protects the meat from spoiling. It’s not at all hard to do, but it does take a long time, so just be sure to plan in advance. 

I used this recipe from Epicurious, although instead of using fatback as indicated by the recipe, I used bacon fat. I always reserve bacon fat whenever I can because it’s delicious, so I had about a cup on hand, and I saved myself from having to buy an extra ingredient. It worked perfectly, although I think I could have easily gotten away with cutting down the amount to ⅔ cup or even ½ cup. The recipe indicates that you should wait two days before eating the rillettes, but we waited only about 8 hours and they were delicious as was. I split the total amount into three small containers and will be storing two in the freezer so that we’ll be set up for future bistro nights. The total amount created by the recipe would be A LOT for two people to eat in one sitting. 

We spread the rillettes on crusty homemade bread and ate them with pickled veggies and mustard. They made a perfect pairing for the wine as the wine cut through the fattiness of the rillettes, while their richness helped the to tame the wine’s wild side. 

I served a salad with goat cheese and sliced Anjou pear (to keep with the theme) and a vinaigrette made with an aged balsamic vinegar that was slightly sweet alongside the rillettes and toast. The salad didn’t really pair with the wine, but I’d argue that a salad is an almost necessary counterpoint to the rich rillettes. 

It was an altogether delightful meal that succeeded in bringing the bistro vibe home. 

*****

For more posts related to the Loire Valley check out:

• Cooking to the Wine: Brendan Stater-West Saumur Les Chapaudaises and Chicken Thighs with Apples and Onions  
• Champalou Vouvray Brut and a Very Lazy Cheese Night
• Old World / New World Cab Franc Explorations  
• Cooking to the Wine: Domaine Huet Vouvray Clos du Bourg Moelleux Premiere Trie & Pork Tenderloin with Citrus Gastrique 
• Bringing the Bistro Home with Anne-Cecile Jadaud Côtillon Rouge and Pork Rillettes
• 2 oz Pours: 16 French Wine Values
• Crémants for Going Out and Staying In (Psst! They're Your New All-Purpose Bubblies!) 
• A Wine & Cheese Night #MadeinFrance

• Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm is sipping Domaine de Marcoux Lirac La Lorentine to Celebrate Women's History Month.
• Jeff of Food Wine Click! invites us to Celebrate French Women in Wine: Anne-Sophie Dubois
• Jane of Always Ravenous talks about Women Behind the Wine: Domaine Weinbach, Catherine Faller.
• Martin of ENOFYLZ Wine Blog is sharing Champagne Louise Brison: A Tradition of Women in Charge.
• Robin of Crushed Grape Chronicles opened Delphine Vesselle and Domaine Jean Vesselle Rosé de Saignée, Brut from Bouzy.
• Deanna of Wineivore discovered A Mathilde Chapoutier Rose for $4?
• Linda of My Full Wine Glass found Château Larrivet Haut-Brion: A place for women in traditional Bordeaux.
• Susannah of Avvinare introduces Arnelle Cruse, A Look at the Cru Bourgeois.
• Camilla of Culinary Adventures with Camilla is sharing A Medieval French Peasant Dish and French Winemaker Sisters.
• Terri of Our Good Life writes Here's to France's Women in Wine and to Rebecca Rosenberg'sBook Champagne Widow.
• Gwendolyn of Wine Predator paired Champalou Fille’s 2020 Vouvray with French Favorites.

February is all about the love. 

There’s Valentine’s Day of course. My husband and I also celebrate our wedding anniversary a couple of days after that. I love love and I’ve written several posts in the past in honor of both of those days. But as celebrating Galentine’s Day on February 13th has increasingly gained traction, February has also become a time for women to celebrate our female friendships. I actually met my childhood best friend on Valentine’s Day, so for me, the two things have been tied together as of way back. So, today I thought I’d raise a glass in honor of Galentine’s Day and all my girlfriends, even if we’re about a week past it. 

Image borrowed from Bustle.com

I’m lucky to have several groups of awesome women in my life, without whom it would’ve been REALLY hard to get through the last couple of years. I’ve been feeling sentimental lately (and a bit cooped up) and have been going through memories of good times with some of these ladies. Many of these memories are centered around food and wine, and today I thought I’d share one of them. 

Last September, a group of my besties decided to rent an AirbnB in Windsor, California for what was basically just a big adult girls’ sleepover. While we were in Sonoma County, and we did make an obligatory stop at Ridge Vineyards in Lytton Springs  (it’s a group favorite), this weekend wasn’t about wine tasting. It was the first time this group was able to all get together in person since the start of the Zombie Apocalypse, so this was mostly about just getting to hang around a pool together without kids or partners, and laugh and ride the wonderful emotional roller coaster that is an extended period of time with a big group of ladies. It was also a chance to be responsibly irresponsible and drink and eat too much. 

Most of our group at Ridge. A couple of other members of the group met us later at the house.

As is often the case in these types of scenarios, I offered to run point on cooking lunch and dinner on our pool day. (Don’t ask me to do breakfast – I’m NOT a morning person.) My friend Selin had picked up some beautiful branzino at Costco for the occasion, and I picked up a few more things at the grocery store, and with her and a couple of others as sous chefs, I prepared a very pretty and tasty spread, if I do say so myself. The best part is that this was incredibly easy. When I say easy, it was EASY – this lunch was prepared while chaos was going on around all around me, and as you might guess, while being just a wee bit tipsy. 

The branzino were simply stuffed with a mix of garlic, herbs, and lime and grilled on the BBQ. We added some roasted zucchini and a salad as sides, and the lunch feast was served. A non-recipe follows, but it really about as simple as that.  My friend Dee brought a magnum of Palmer & Co. Champagne for the occasion – because nothing says it’s a party like a mag of Champers! 

Champagne Palmer & Co. Blanc de Blancs

Winery at Champagne Palmer & Co. Image borrowed from promotional materials.

Champagne Palmer & Co was established in 1947 by seven grower-families with the common goals of “harmony, balance and the pursuit of excellence.” All of Palmer’s vineyards in the Montagne de Reims subregion of Champagne are classified as Premier Cru or Grand Cru. This represents more than 500 acres and over 50% of their vineyard area. The rest of it lies in the Côte de Sézanne area, the Côte des Bar and the Marne Valley, for a well-rounded selection. 

The company is also committed to sustainable winegrowing and winemaking. In 2019 they inaugurated a new, state-of-the-art HQE (High Environmental Quality) certified winery near their vineyards in Montagne de Reims. The winery incorporates a wide set of techniques and technologies to be as sustainable as possible including a gravity-flow system that utilizes the slope of the land and a water purification system that uses plants’ root systems to clean wastewater. 

For more details on the winery and its innovations, check out this interview by Jill Barth of L’Occasion with Rémi Vervier, managing director of Champagne Palmer & Co. for Forbes.

The Blanc de Blancs we enjoyed on our girls’ weekend is made up of 100% Chardonnay. Their B de B wine is typically aged on the lees for 5 years, and 8 to 10 years in the case of the Magnum. Find additional details on the wine here.

I did not take a proper tasting note for this wine – I was having too good a time during this lunch for note-taking. However, in my memory, it had bright fruit with lots of lemon mixed with some round stone fruit notes, hints of white flowers, and minerality on the finish. It paired beautifully with the food and hysterical laughter. 

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The rest of the members of the French Winophiles (#Winophiles) blogging group are exploring Wines of Romance this month. Check out the rest of their posts to keep the love going.  

• Susannah of Avvinare is "Falling In Love All Over Again, With Champagne".
• Robin of Crushed Grape Chronicles shares "Finding the right wine for Romance…we chose a trip to the Loire". 
• Camilla of Culinary Adventures with Camilla is "Keeping It Spicy: Blackened Salmon + Domaine Lafage Cuvee Nicolas 2018".  
• Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm says "Love is in the Air and We are Spicing Things Up with a Cahors Wine paired with an American Steak".
• Cathie of Side Hustle Wino tells us "Love is on the Table".
• Terri of Our Good Life  sings "Wild Thing, I Think I Love Le Pont Bandol and Wild Caught Orange Roughy" 
• Gwendolyn of Wine Predator dishes up a twofer with "It’s Loveuary! Romance from France: Fun Fondue, Coq a Vin" and "Clink sustainably: Create climate conscious conversations with Bordeaux Wines and Stemple Creek Ranch Beef "