Category Archives: Val de Loire

En France, Chillin’ and Cookin’

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It seems amazing to me that its been a year since I’ve been in France…the gap has not been through choice! It’s just that Mrs Dookes and I have had so much going on in our lives that fitting in a holiday or some motorcycle touring hasn’t really been possible. The situation has frustrated us both, so a few weeks back we grabbed the nettle and booked a short trip to Brittany. Boring stuff can wait!

The nice thing about Brittany, for us, is the lovely friends that we have made here over the years; that started way back when Mrs D was an au pair, long before she met Dookes!!

We caught the overnight ferry to Roscoff and on the spur of the moment decided to drive 200 miles to visit our friend Anne and her vineyard. Yeah I know, crazy, but Anne’s wines are simply heavenly!

Located near Ancenis, in the Val de Loire, the vineyard is a bot of a mix of a traditional Muscadet producer and then something quite exceptional. Anne’s family are very connected to their land, they should be they’ve been there since 1635! As such, they can “read” what the vines are telling them and then react by producing limited “cuvees” of incredible complexity and variation; it’s very true that you have to grab them quickly!

In 2021 the produced Cuvee L’Inedite that was a heady golden wine with just the right balance of acidity and sweetness caused by early frosts as the grapes still hung on the vine. Sadly this has all now gone, but it was wonderful whilst it lasted!

2022 offered different conditions and the result was Fine Fleur, straw coloured, lightly floral on the nose, with hints of honey and again flowers in the mouth. Anne and the team at Domaine des Génaudièrs have done it again, another masterpiece!

Needless to say, the Dookesmobile was pretty quickly loaded up with an adequate amount of the heavenly harvest!!

Our next stop was with our friend Christophe and his delightful house in the middle of the Borcéliande Forest for some much needed peace and quiet. It’s only 150 miles away from Anne’s place, though sort of heading back on ourselves!

Chez Christophe

Borcéliande is a place of legend. An enchanted forest that held sway in the imagination as a place of magic and mystery. It features in the legend of King Arthur, as the home of Morgan le Fay and her Vale of no Return, whilst local Breton legends talk of a forest of fairies and whichcraft..

To me it is a place of serenity, stillness and peace. Somewhere to go to unwind, recharge and start anew; possibly its my Celtic roots that embeds me into Brocéliande, I just feel at home here.

Brocéliande from the beadroom window!

There’s no rest for Dookes yet though. After a day of socialising and driving, I have to cook!

OK, it’s not a big deal, in fact one of my passions is cooking in France as I’m sure I have recounted in the past. I blame my sadly departed mate Floyd for planting the seed, I’m sure he will be looking down on me quietly amused as how it grew!

I have a wonderful old French cookbook “Des Meilleurs Petits Plats Français” that I frequently turn to when in need of a bit of culinary inspiration and as i had just bought a rather nice hunk of Monkfish, Lotte in French, the book was consulted.

Monkfish, off the bone.

Bourride de Lotte et Coquilles avec aioli was the end result, and not at all bad if i say so myself!

This was, naturally, accompanied with a fine white wine, a Touraine from near Angers on the left bank of the Loire.

Here’s to Mrs Dookes my companion on life’s crazy ride!
And here’s to you too Floyd, I still miss you..

Catch you soon,
Dookes

The Birth of The Fine Bubbles

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There’s great excitement in the vineyard this week!

The last of this year’s grape harvest is ready for gathering and it’s also time to bottle last year’s vintage of rosé wine and start it on its way to becoming “Les Fines Bulles”….”The Fine Bubbles!”

Busy days.

Early this morning Alain Beteau arrived with one of his portable bottling plants, built into the back of a medium sized lorry. Alain has four of these vehicles and he serves various vineyards in the Pays de Loire around Nantes and Ancenis. His business saves the yards from having to purchase and maintain their own bottling equipment, which for a smaller producer could be a significant cost.

Today it’s the turn of Pierre-Yves to see his lovely “Murmure” rosé receive its initial bottling and start the “Method Traditionnelle” that will turn it into a wonderful vibrant sparkling wine, “Avec les fines bulles.”

Pierre-Yves keeping an eye on things.

In essence and to greatly simplify it, the wine is bottled into traditional “champagne” style bottles along with yeast and a small amount of sugar, called the “liqueur de tirage.”

It is then stopped with a metal crown cap and returned to the wine cellar to lie horizontally for a second fermentation lasting around 15 months.

After this time, the lees or sediment must be consolidated for removal. The bottles undergo a process known as “remuage,” I think the English translation of “riddling” doesn’t quite hit the mark though! Traditionally this is carried out in special racks that invert the bottle causing the lees to settle in the extreme neck of the bottle.

The lees removal process is called dégorgement, traditionally a skilled manual process where the crown cap and sediment are removed without losing much of the liquid. Modern automated disgorgement is done by freezing a small amount of the liquid in the neck of the bottle and removing this plug of ice containing the lees, before finally adding a small amount of sugar and adding the final traditional “Champagne” type cork….and then waiting another year before it’s ready!

Off to rest for a couple of years!

This “Domaine” is a family concern where passion for the vine and it’s produce has always been central to the family. They have been here a a long time too, since 1635, so I think that by now they really know what they are doing!.

Catch you soon

Dookes

Cooking in France….again!

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It had been a long tiring drive from Roscoff to the Val de Loire. OK, I didn’t make it easy by dropping in on friends across Brittany, but the last 180 miles were particularly tedious, especially the Périphérique around Nantes. We arrived at our friend Anne’s vineyard in time for aperitifs. She makes a rather special Coteaux d’Ancenis Malvoisie white wine that is….well….. to die for! It’s light, sweet, but at the same time quite forwardly acidic…all of which makes no sense at all, until you taste it; it’s heaven in a glass.

The road was telling and hurting, I hit the calvados.

Ask me to ride three to four hundred miles on a motorcycle and i’ll say “OK”…ask me to do it in a car and i’ll likely yawn!

Dookes don’t do cars!

Sunday morning dawned bright, sunny and warm.

I was still feeling yesterday’s miles, plus the effects of quite a lot of Calvados the night before!

Mrs Dookes and I wandered into the pretty village of Oudon and it’s Sunday market.

The Château du Oudon.

Un Marché le Dimanche matin is quite unusual in France and although this isn’t a big one it’s a good one. My mate Olivier was there with his olive stall, yeah, I know, “Olivier des Olives”!!!

I wandered over to Olivier as Mrs Dookes disappeared into her favourite patisserie adjacent to the market.

“Ça va Gallois? “Oui, ça va! Et tu?” “Ça va bien.”

Oliver paused to serve an annoying couple who were allowing their young daughter, of perhaps 10, to choose their olives. Maybe these, perhaps those…what do they tase like? Oliver was patient for a while, then just exclaimed “Ills ont tous le goût d’olive!” “They all taste of olive!” Father then decides and they go away happy!

I feel compelled to buy some saucisson from my friend..”Sanglier, noisettes, et bleu d’Auvergne!” Olivier exclaims, he knows me well!

Olivier looks around and produces a small bottle of Calvados, the Normandy apple brandy.

“Un pour la route eh?” One for the road indeed! The Calvados is rough, warm full of apple flavour and awakens my taste buds.

“Ok mon amis, maintenant tu vas cuisiner pour nous, le suis occupé”

“OK my friend go cook for us, i’m busy at the moment.”

“Cuisine une de ces recettes bâtardes de Normandie que tu et Floyd aime tant!”

“Cook a dish from those bastards in Normandy that you and Floyd like so much!”

We smile at each other. It”s been 13 years last Thursday that Floyd toddled off this mortal coil. I miss him dreadfully.

“OK mom amis, pour tu et pour Floyd!”

I scurry around the marché gathering the ingredients. A poulet jaune, fed with corn plump with yellow fat, haricot verts, carrots, a spaghetti squash, juicy pink garlic and as a surprise and only because a lovely lady is selling it, fresh Gnocchi: Floyd would approve. Oh and a rather special vin blanc du Chinon, one of my favourite Val du Loire wines.

Once back at our cottage I set about preparation: Floyd had a view that cooking shouldn’t be about being tied to the cooker and that the process should allow time to relax and enjoy the moment…so after prepping the chicken we went for a petit promenade along the banks of the mighty river Loire before returning to enjoy the meal and a gin and tonic before!

“Pour un Gallois tu cuisines comme d’un Français!” “For a Welshman, you cook like a Frenchman!” Oliver exclaimed. After a lot of wine and Calvados….that’ll do for me!

Et maintenant, le fromage!..cheese!

Oh…. and a bit more Calvados! I love this country and it’s people.

Here’s to you Floyd! I miss you.

Salut!

Dookes