Comings and Goings in the Sancerrois Carla Harrison has sold the Hotel de la Loire in St-Thibault. This fabulous hotel, right now I am blogging from the Louis XV room, was beautifully renovated by Carla and her husband about ten years ago. She has been a warm and attentive host and I will sorely miss her. In other breaking news: Jean-Paul Labaille has a new seasonal worker. Joining the team at Thomas-Labaille is Elodie LePrêtre who prunes, harvests and does lots of vineyard work with enthusiasm and care. Of course, Elodie is the daughter of Labaille's famous neighbor, Georges LePrêtre, Ithe famed proprietor of Chavignol's world reknowned Musée du Miel. Sales of tartartic acid have dropped off dramatically here, after the banner selling season following the 2003 harvest. I always found it incredible that so many people in the American market complained about the lack of acidity in the 2003 Sancerres when so many 2003s were packed with fake, non-integrated and disagreeable acidity.Our vignerons here were among the few who did not reacifidy and yes the wines were not classic, but they were exotic and natural and time passes and we are on to the 2004s. In other events: there was a guy walking around Verigny yesterday who was a dead ringer for Cleveland-based importer David Shiverick. I stopped him, as I thought it might be Mr. Shiverick himself, but it turned out to be a Dutchman on holiday who was looking for a restaurant. A good part of the Sancerrois was touched by an emormous hail storm last week. There was hail as big as ping pong balls that actually broke car windows in the area. The hail was localized, but it will be a difficult year for many vignerons. Philippe the Depanneur was kept busy replacing car windows and other associated body work after the hail storm. In other news of note: The Thomas/Labaille family is dining this coming Sunday at Jean Bardet's restaurant in Tours to celebrate Claude Thomas' 80th birthday. We started working in Sancerre with Claude, some 12 years ago, and it has been a privilege to know such an authentic and honest vigneron. Happy Birthday! I have to run. A quick breakfast then off to Didier Dagueneau. More later.
I've been waiting for an occasion to pull out one of Claude's bottles. I guess I will do so on Sunday. Maybe two.
I am off to Chicago tomorrow. Are there any retailers that carry your wine located in the downtown area? Could there be one owned by relatives of Philippe the Depanneur?
Sorry i wasn't there to help with the flat.
I'm jealous.
http://153c91041f4f09f1ca42b1b1991cc52e-t.dv30vsw.info 153c91041f4f09f1ca42b1b1991cc52e [url]http://153c91041f4f09f1ca42b1b1991cc52e-b1.dv30vsw.info[/url] [url=http://153c91041f4f09f1ca42b1b1991cc52e-b2.dv30vsw.info]153c91041f4f09f1ca42b1b1991cc52e[/url] [u]http://153c91041f4f09f1ca42b1b1991cc52e-b3.dv30vsw.info[/u] 7df9129406a60e979013b6dbd1fdce93 |