The Grape Varieties of Champagne

By Ed McCarthy and Mary Ewing-Mulligan from French Wine For Dummies

In most cases, Champagne is an extremely complex blended wine — not only a blend of grape varieties, but also a blend of wines from vineyards throughout the Champagne region of France. The blend, called the cuvée, combines the strengths of each vineyard. Champagne is also typically a blend of wines from different vintages.
Champagne is made mainly from three grape varieties:

• Pinot Noir (a red variety)
• Pinot Meunier (a red variety related to Pinot Noir)
• Chardonnay (a white variety)

A few minor grapes — such as Petit Meslier, Arbanne, and Pinot Blanc — still survive in some of the region’s vineyards and are still permitted, but they cannot be replanted and are of little consequence.

About 85 to 90 percent of Champagnes are a blend of about 2/3 red grapes and 1/3 Chardonnay. A few Champagnes (less than 5 percent) are 100 percent Chardonnay (they are called blanc de blancs); fewer yet are 100 percent red grapes (called blanc de noirs). Rosé Champagnes, a small category, are usually, but not always, made from a blend of white and red grapes.
The reason that most Champagnes are blends of Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier, and Chardonnay is that each grape variety has strengths to contribute to the final blend:

• Pinot Noir adds body, structure, aroma, and a complexity of flavors. This difficult variety likes the cool climate of the region, and it grows well in the chalky limestone soil.
• Pinot Meunier contributes fruitiness, floral aromas, and a precocious character (readiness-to-drink sooner).
• Chardonnay, a star performer in the Champagne region, gives freshness, delicacy, elegance, and finesse. For this reason, many producers make a blanc de blancs (Chardonnay) Champagne.

Pinot Meunier is especially valuable because it buds later in the spring than Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. It is therefore less prone to damaging frosts and can thrive in areas like the Marne River Valley, where Pinot Noir and Chardonnay would not be successful. It also ripens earlier in the fall than the other two varieties, thus often avoiding autumn rains. But Pinot Meunier has a disadvantage: Its wines tend to age more quickly than those of the other two varieties. Also, many producers think it is not quite so fine as Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, and therefore do not use it in their most prestigious Champagnes.

Red Grape Varieties

The Most Popular Red Grape Varieties

The most popular red grape varieties today are Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Syrah/Shiraz, and Zinfandel. You’ll encounter these grapes in varietal wines and place-name wines. These red grape varieties can also be blending partners for other grapes, in wines made from multiple grape varieties.

Cabernet Sauvignon

Cabernet Sauvignon is a noble grape variety that grows well in just about any climate that isn’t very cool. It became famous through the red wines of the Médoc district of Bordeaux. Today, California is an equally important region for Cabernet Sauvignon — not to mention Washington state, southern France, Italy, Australia, South Africa, Chile, and Argentina.
The Cabernet Sauvignon grape makes wines that are high in tannin and are medium- to full-bodied. The descriptor for Cabernet Sauvignon’s aroma and flavor is blackcurrants or cassis; the grape can also contribute vegetal tones to a wine when or where the grapes are less than ideally ripe.
Because Cabernet Sauvignon is fairly tannic (and because of the blending precedent in Bordeaux), winemakers often blend it with other grapes; usually Merlot — being less tannic — is considered an ideal partner. Australian winemakers blend Cabernet Sauvignon with Syrah.

Cabernet Sauvignon often goes by just its first name, Cabernet (although it isn’t the only Cabernet) or even by its nickname, Cab.

Merlot

Deep color, full body, high alcohol, and low tannin are the characteristics of wines made from the Merlot grape. The aromas and flavors can be plummy or sometimes chocolatey, or they can suggest tea leaves.

Some wine drinkers find Merlot easier to like than Cabernet Sauvignon because it’s less tannic. Other winemakers feel that Merlot isn’t satisfactory in its own right, and thus often blend it with Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, or both. Merlot makes both inexpensive, simple wines and, when grown in the right conditions, very serious wines.

Merlot is actually the most-planted grape variety in Bordeaux, where it excels in the Right Bank districts of Pomerol and St. Emilion. Merlot is also important in Washington state, California, the Long Island district of New York, Northeastern Italy, and Chile.

Pinot Noir

The Pinot Noir grape variety is finicky, troublesome, enigmatic, and challenging. But a great Pinot Noir can be one of the greatest wines ever. The prototype for Pinot Noir wine is red Burgundy, from France, where tiny vineyard plots yield rare treasures of wine made entirely from Pinot Noir. Oregon, California, New Zealand, and parts of Australia and Chile also produce good Pinot Noir. Pinot Noir’s production is limited, because this variety is very particular about climate and soil.
Pinot Noir wine is lighter in color than Cabernet or Merlot. It has relatively high alcohol, medium-to-high acidity, and medium-to-low tannin (although oak barrels can contribute additional tannin to the wine). Its flavors and aromas can be very fruity or earthy and woodsy, depending on how it is grown and/or vinified. Pinot Noir is rarely blended with other grapes.

Syrah/Shiraz

The northern part of France’s Rhône Valley is the classic home for great wines from the Syrah grape. Rhône wines such as Hermitage and Côte-Rôtie are the inspiration for Syrah’s dissemination to Australia, California, Washington state, Italy, and Spain.
Syrah produces deeply colored wines with full body, firm tannin, and aromas/flavors that can suggest berries, smoked meat, black pepper, tar, or even burnt rubber (believe it or not). In Australia, Syrah (called Shiraz) comes in several styles — some of them charming, medium-bodied, vibrantly fruity wines that are quite the opposite of the Northern Rhône’s powerful Syrahs.
Syrah doesn’t require any other grape to complement its flavors, although in Australia it is often blended with Cabernet, and in the Southern Rhône it is often part of a blended wine with Grenache and other varieties.

Zinfandel

Zinfandel is one of the oldest grapes in California, and it therefore enjoys a certain stature there. For decades, wine authorities were uncertain of its origins. They have finally proven that Zinfandel’s origin is an obscure Croatian grape.
Zin — as lovers of Zinfandel call it — makes rich, dark wines that are high in alcohol and medium to high in tannin. They can have a blackberry or raspberry aroma and flavor, a spicy or tarry character, or even a jammy flavor. Some Zins are lighter than others and meant to be enjoyed young, and some are serious wines with a tannin structure that’s built for aging.

White Grape Varieties

The Most Popular White Grape Varieties

Chardonnay, Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, and Pinot Gris/Pinot Grigio are the most important and popular white grape varieties today. The wines made from these grapes can be varietal wines, or place-name wines that don’t mention the grape variety anywhere on the label (a common practice for European wines). White grapes can also be blending partners for other grapes, in wines made from multiple grape varieties.

Chardonnay

Chardonnay is a regal grape for its role in producing the greatest dry white wines in the world — white Burgundies — and for being one of the main grapes of Champagne. It's also used in a huge amount of everyday wine. The Chardonnay grape grows in practically every wine-producing country of the world, for two reasons:

• It’s relatively adaptable to a wide range of climates; and
• The name Chardonnay on a wine label is a surefire sales tool

Most Chardonnay wine receives some oak treatment either during or after fermentation. This is because the flavors of Chardonnay are very compatible with those of oak, and many wine drinkers love the flavor of oak. For the best Chardonnays, oak treatment means expensive barrels of French oak; but for lower-priced Chardonnays it could mean soaking oak chips in the wine or adding liquid essence of oak.
The Chardonnay grape has fruity aromas and flavors that range from apple — in cooler wine regions — to tropical fruits, especially pineapple, in warmer regions. Chardonnay also can display subtle earthy aromas, such as mushroom or minerals. Chardonnay wine has medium to high acidity and is generally full-bodied. Classically, Chardonnay wines are dry. But most inexpensive Chardonnays these days are actually a bit sweet.

Riesling

The great Riesling wines of Germany have put the Riesling grape on the charts as an undisputedly noble variety. Riesling shows its real class only in a few places outside of Germany, however. The Alsace region of France, Austria, and the Clare Valley region of Australia are among the few.

The common perception of Riesling wines is that they’re sweet, and many of them are — but plenty of them aren’t. Alsace Rieslings are normally dry, many German Rieslings are fairly dry, and a few American Rieslings are dry. Look for the word trocken (meaning dry) on German Riesling labels and the word dry on American labels if you prefer the dry style of Riesling.

Riesling wines are often light-bodied, crisp, and refreshing. High acidity, low to medium alcohol levels, and aromas/flavors that range from ebulliently fruity to flowery to minerally are trademarks of Riesling.

Sauvignon Blanc

Sauvignon Blanc is high in acidity with pronounced aromas and flavors. Besides herbaceous character (sometimes referred to as grassy), Sauvignon Blanc wines display mineral aromas and flavors, vegetal character, or — in certain climates — fruity character, such as ripe melon, figs, or passion fruit. The wines are light- to medium-bodied and usually dry. Most of them are unoaked, but some are oaky.
France has two classic wine regions for the Sauvignon Blanc grape: Bordeaux; and the Loire Valley, where the two best known Sauvignon wines are called Sancerre or Pouilly-Fumé. In Bordeaux, Sauvignon Blanc is sometimes blended with Sémillon.
Sauvignon Blanc is also important in Northeastern Italy, South Africa, and parts of California, where the wines are sometimes labeled as “Fumé Blanc.” New Zealand’s Sauvignon Blanc wines in particular are renowned for their fresh, flavorful style.

Pinot Gris/Pinot Grigio

Pinot Gris (gree) is one of several grape varieties called Pinot: There’s Pinot Blanc (white Pinot), Pinot Noir (black Pinot), Pinot Meunier, and Pinot Gris (gray Pinot), which is called Pinot Grigio in Italian. Pinot Gris is believed to have mutated from the black Pinot Noir grape. Although it’s considered a white grape, its skin color is unusually dark for a white variety.
Wines made from Pinot Gris can be deeper in color than most white wines — although most of Italy’s Pinot Grigio wines are quite pale. Pinot Gris wines are medium- to full-bodied, usually not oaky, and have rather low acidity and fairly neutral aromas. Sometimes the flavor and aroma can suggest the skins of fruit, such as peach skins or orange rind.
Pinot Gris is an important grape throughout Northeastern Italy and also grows in Germany, where it is called Ruländer. The only region in France where Pinot Gris is important is in Alsace. Oregon has had good success with Pinot Gris, and more and more winemakers in California are taking a shot at it. Pinot Grigio is one of the best-selling inexpensive white wines in the United States.

10 Most Expensive Cognacs

10 Most Expensive Cognacs

10. $5,000 Courvoisier L’Esprit Decanter

9. $5,500 – Jenssen Arcana


8. $6,000 – Hine Triomphe Talent De Thomas Hine Crystal Decanter

7. $6,400 – Frapin Cuvée 1888

6. $7,500 – Martell Creation Cognac In Handcarved Baccarat Decanter

5. $7,900 – Le Voyage de Delamain

4. $12,900 – Hardy Perfection 140 years Cognac

3. $55,000 – Remy Martin Cognac Black Pearl Louis XIII

2. $200,000 – Hennessy Beaute du Siecle Cognac

1. $2 million – Henri IV, Cognac Grande Champagne

The Most Expensive Cognac in the World

Posted by Carissa Bongalosa on April 13, 2013

"Wine is life." The precious DNA of Cognac embodied this quote. No kidding.
For more than a century, Cognac Grande Champagne was kept in barrels by the descendants of French King Henri IV (1553-1610). Claudine Dudognon-Buraud sold the king's finest booze to Paolo di Verachi, the sole owner of the Diamond Sterling recognized for his Guiness World Record's most expensive tequila bottle.
Artist -jeweller Jose Davalos intricately molded 24-carat yellow gold, sterling platinum, and 6,500 certified brilliant cut diamonds as housing to the historic cognac. This  inflates the price of Henri's cognac from mere thousands to 3.4 million USD - the most expensive cognac to date. But, why cognac?
Verachi attempted to sell in Dubai the first luxurious wine - the Tequila contained in a luxurious bottle made out of gold, platinum, and diamonds. However, Europeans and Arabs do not think highly of tequila saying it does not have the "luxury spirit". Verachi persevered to satisfy their whims and wishes; he cleverly changed the liquor bottle's contents from tequila to cognac. We'll see if it works.

What Are The Mother Sauces?

What Are The Mother Sauces?

In the culinary arts, the term "mother sauce" refers to any one of five basic sauces, which are the starting points for making various secondary sauces or "small sauces."

They're called mother sauces because each one is like the head of its own unique family of sauces.

A sauce is essentially a liquid plus some sort of thickening agent along with other flavoring ingredients. Each of the five mother sauces is made with a different liquid, and a different thickening agent — although three of the mother sauces are thickened with roux, in each case the roux is cooked for a different amount of time to produce a lighter or darker color.

Below we will break down the five mother sauces and show examples of some of the small sauces that can be made from each mother sauce.

1. Béchamel Sauce Recipe

Photo © Michael Newman

Béchamel is probably the simplest of the mother sauces because it doesn't require making stock. If you have milk, flour and butter, you can make a very basic béchamel.

Béchamel is made by thickening hot milk with a simple white roux. The sauce is then flavored with onion, cloves and nutmeg and simmered until it is creamy and velvety smooth.

Béchamel can be used as an ingredient in baked pasta recipes like lasagna, and also in casseroles. But it's also the basis for some of the most common white sauces, cream sauces and cheese-based sauces. Here are some of the small sauces made from béchamel:

• Crème Sauce
• Mornay Sauce
• Soubise Sauce
• Nantua Sauce
• Cheddar Cheese Sauce
• Mustard Sauce

Where did the Name Cocktail Originate?

Where did the Name Cocktail Originate?
There are as many stories behind the origin of the name cocktail as there are behind the creation of the first Margarita or the Martini. As always, some are preposterous, some believable and who knows, one may be the truth. None the less, the stories are interesting.

• A popular story behind the cocktail name refers to a rooster's tail (or cock tail) being used as a Colonial drink garnish. There are no formal references in written recipes to such a garnish.
• In the story in The Spy (James Fenimore Cooper, 1821) the character "Betty Flanagan" invented the cocktail during the Revolution. "Betty" may have referred to a real-life innkeeper at Four Corners north of New York City by the name of Catherine "Kitty" Hustler. Betty took on another non-fiction face, that of Betsy Flanagan. Betsy was likely not a real woman, but the story says she was a tavern keeper who served French soldiers a drink in 1779 garnished with tail feathers of her neighbor's rooster. We can assume that Kitty inspired Betty and Betty inspired Betsy, but whether or not one of the three are responsible for the cocktail is a mystery.
• The rooster theory is also said to have been influenced by the colors of the mixed ingredients, which may resemble the colors of the cock's tail. This would be a good tale today given our colorful array of ingredients, but at the time spirits were visually bland.
• The British publication, Bartender, published a story in 1936 of English sailors, of decades before, being served mixed drinks in Mexico. The drinks were stirred with a Cola de Gallo (cock's tail), a long root of similar shape to the bird's tail.
• Another Cocktail story refers to the leftovers of a cask of ale, called cock tailings. The cock tailings from various spirits would be mixed together and sold as a lower priced mixed beverage of (understandably) questionable integrity.
• Yet another unappetizing origin tells of a cock ale, a mash of ale mixed with whatever was available to be fed to fighting cocks.
• Cocktail may have derived from the French term for egg cup, coquetel. One story that brought this reference to America speaks of Antoine Amedie Peychaud of New Orleans who mixed his Peychaud bitters into a stomach remedy served in a coquetel. Not all of Peychaud's customers could pronounce the word and it became known as cocktail. This story doesn't add up, however, because of conflicting dates.
• The word Cocktail may be a distant derivation of the name for the Aztec goddess, Xochitl. Xochitl was also the name of a Mexican princess who served drinks to American soldiers.
• It was an 18th and 19th century custom to dock draft horses' tales. This caused the tales to stick up like a cocks tail. As the story goes, a reader's letter to The Balance and Columbian Repository explains that when drunk, these cocktails made you cock your tail up in the same manner.
• Another horse tail supposes the influence of a breeder's term for a mix breed horse, orcock-tails. Both racing and drinking were popular among the majority of Americans at the time and it's possible the term transferred from mixed breeds to mixed drinks.
• There's a quirky story of an American tavern keeper who stored alcohol in a ceramic, rooster-shaped container. When patrons wanted another round they tapped the rooster's tail.
• In George Bishop's The Booze Reader: A Soggy Saga of Man in His Cups (1965) he says, "The word itself stems from the English cock-tail which, in the middle 1800's, referred to a woman of easy virtue who was desirable but impure…and applied to the newly acquired American habit of bastardizing good British Gin with foreign matter, including ice." Of all things, not ice!

When was the Cocktail Created?

When was the Cocktail Created?

People have been mixing drinks for centuries, but it wasn't until the 17th and 18th centuries that the precursors of the cocktail (the Slings, Fizzes, Toddiesand Juleps) became popular enough to be recorded in the history books. It is unclear where, who, and what went into the creation of the original cocktail, but it seems to be a specific drink rather than a category of mixed drinks during that time.

The first published reference to the cocktail appears in the Farmer's Cabinet (Amherst, New Hampshire, April 28, 1803). The spoof editorial tells of a "lounger" who, with an 11 a.m. hangover, "…Drank a glass of cocktail - excellent for the head…" InImbibe!, David Wondrich attributes the first known cocktail recipe in print to Captain J.E. Alexander in 1831 who calls for brandy, gin or rum in a mix of "…a third of the spirit to two-thirds of the water; add bitters, and enrich with sugar and nutmeg…"

What is a Cocktail?

What is a Cocktail?

The official definition of a "cocktail" according to the modern Merriam-Webster Dictionary is "an iced drink of wine or distilled liquor mixed with flavoring ingredients." That's a pretty broad definition, but reflects the modern practice of referring to almost any mixed drink as a cocktail.

The first published definition of the Cocktail appeared in an editorial response in The Balance and Columbian Repositoryof 1806. This read: "Cocktail is a stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water and bitters." It is this definition of ingredients that we continue to use when referring to the 'ideal' cocktail.

Piña colada

Type	Cocktail
Primary alcohol by volume	Rum
Served	Blended with ice (frozen style)
Standard garnish	pineapple slice and maraschino cherry
Standard drinkware	goblet, copo grande, hurricane, tiki, or pint
IBAspecified ingredients*	30 ml (one part) white rum 30 ml (one part) cream of coconut 90 ml (3 parts) pineapple juice
Preparation	Mix with crushed ice until smooth. Pour into chilled glass, garnish and serve.

The piña colada (Spanish: piña, pineapple + colada, strained) is a sweet, rum-based cocktail made with rum, cream of coconut, and pineapple juice, usually served either blended or shaken with ice. It may be garnished with a pineapple wedge, a maraschino cherry or both. The piña colada has been the official beverage of Puerto Rico since 1978.^[1]

On August 16, 1954 at the Caribe Hilton’s Beachcomber Bar in San Juan, Puerto Rico by its alleged creator, Ramón "Monchito" Marrero. Apparently, the hotel management had expressly requested Monchito to mix a new signature drink that would delight the demanding palates of its star-studded clientele. Monchito accepted the challenge, and after three intense months of blending, shaking and experimenting, the first piña colada was born. This story is credible because the piña colada contains coconut cream as one of the primary ingredients, and the coconut cream of "Coco López" (which is the pioneer) was invented in 1954 in the University of Puerto Rico by Ramón López Irizarry. This story is confirmed by José L. Díaz De Villegas in his book Puerto Rico La Gran Cocina Del Caribe.Origin

Popularity

This cocktail has been famous in Puerto Rico since 1978, and it became more widely known after Rupert Holmes released his song "Escape", commonly known as "The Piña Colada Song".

Preparation

There are many recipes of how to make a piña colada but the one that his friends tell in the book of José L. Díaz De Villegas to be the original recipe created by Monchito, is the following: Pour 3 ounces of coconut cream, 6 ounces of pineapple juice and 1½ ounces of white rum into a blender or shaker with crushed ice, and blend or shake very well until smooth. Pour into chilled glass, garnish with pineapple wedge and/or a maraschino cherry.

Variations

• Different proportions may be used. For example, 1 part rum, 2 each of pineapple juice and coconut cream.
• Dark rum may be used.
• Amaretto colada — amaretto substituted for rum^[3]
• Avo Colada - Add 1/2 an avocado to blend
• Belizean piña colada — evaporated milk instead of coconut cream
• Caribou Lou - Malibu Rum, pineapple juice and 151 rum
• Iguana Colada - piña colada with Midori
• Jackolada - Add 1/2 part Jack Daniels
• Kahlúa Colada — substitute Kahlúa for the rum
• King Henry or Chi Chi — vodka substituted for rum
• Lava Flow — strawberry daiquiri and piña colada blended together^[4]
• Marula Colada - Amarula instead of rum
• Miami Vice — 1/2 strawberry daiquiri poured over 1/2 piña colada (use frozen versions of each, and do not blend together)
• Staten Island Ferry — coconut rum and pineapple juice over ice
• RumChata Colada - Add 1 1/2 part RumChata (horchata rum) with 1/2 part Malibu (coconut rum)
• Virgin piña colada or piñita colada — without the rum

Ricard Twist'R: the new ritual.

And avant-garde, the Ricard Twist'R object opens a new ritual to discover Ricard flavored. No need to 'shaker', you just have to "twister." 

Explanation: This unique object is placed on a glass  long drink, and discover a new way of consuming Ricard mix, with grenadine syrup, almond, mint, grapefruit, cassis, ...

Simply serve a Ricard (Ricard 2cl. + 10 14cl of water. + Ice cubes) and then return to the glass Twist'R Ricard previously filled with syrup. It remains only to rotate the ball to mix the ingredients, then remove Ricard Twist'R to enjoy.

Ricard Twist'R is available on the store Ricard Place  http://www.ricard.com/twistr  , and in 2000 schools by April.

Cheers,

Château du Breuil, medals wazoo.

Breuil 

Tripling medalist SALON AGRICULTURE

Chateau du Breuil Calvados famous house, received three medals at the Salon of Agriculture: a nice reward for the Norman property has continually seek quality in the development of its products.

Chateau du Breuil received two awards in the category Calvados Pays d'Auge: a gold medal for its Calvados "Reserve Lords XO" 20 years of age and the silver for its Calvados 15 years of age. In total, the Château du Breuil got half awards for this category since 4 were distributed in all.

These two beautiful awards are followed by a gold medal awarded to the liqueur Calvados "Coeur du Breuil."This is the 4 th time the liquor is winning. She also received the Excellence of the Ministry of Agriculture Price two years ago. 

First light liqueur Calvados house Château du Breuil, "Coeur du Breuil" is drunk fresh as 24 ° alcohol only. Consume neat, on ice, or as a base for long drinks and cocktails, the liquor Breuil is distinguished by its taste and refreshing fruit , from the subtle blend of Calvados Chateau du Breuil, unique alcohol falling within its composition, and apple juice.  Average retail price: 17,50 €

Calvados "Reserve Lords" of Chateau du Breuil 20 to 25 years of age and under 41 ° volume.  has been selected among the most noble and old Calvados winery Château du Breuil. By already mahogany color and strength in tannins, it gives pleasure rather large and meaty aromas.  Hints of spice, roasted coffee, dried tobacco and a long finish.  Average retail price: 65 €

Calvados Chateau du Breuil "15 years old" is a blend of Calvados aged 15 and older, who have aged in oak barrels.  A beautiful brown color, very intense nose with vanilla first to finish with woody notes. There are a few notes of apple and quince with a cool finish on fresh nuts.  A well melted powerful, rich and voluptuous both alcohol aroma.  Average retail price: 50 €  Cheers,

Wine Explorers: The only comprehensive inventory wine ever made!

The primeur Bordeaux are always an opportunity to strengthen the links between old friends. Thus, after two years of wandering in the sensory world of libations I found those who will be the wine that was in Brazza West Africa: Wine Explorers.

Oriane Grouvel and Jean Baptiste Ancelot have a crazy bet they intend to execute well: make a journey of exploration of the wine world. Human memory is the first time that such a mission was born.

In this figure gives an impressive projection:

92 countries

912 days census

250 wine regions targeted

1500 vineyards listed

25,000 wines tasted

The project is based on a simple and effective conclusion. Only 18 wine-producing countries are frequently cited by the press, 19 wine producers countries are not mentioned in the press, and 54 countries are rarely if ever mentioned in the press.

The analysis is as follows: 80% of the wine world is unknown to the general public. Oriane Jean Baptiste and we will keep their discoveries on a daily basis via their facebook page:  wine-explorers

The project is nearing completion, but the patrons are always welcome. And if you also take part in the adventure by participating in the arming of the caravel of Wine Explorers?

Cheers and good luck,

Langlois-Chateau, the scenes of wine.

If the wine has no secrets for the professional, it keeps for the neophyte many mysteries: why some wines are more red than others? Why do some wines will keep longer than others? What is the difference between a semi-dry or sweet dry wine? What are the techniques to get bubbles in the wine? 

Located on an exceptional edge of the Loire, Langlois-Chateau website has decided to open its doors to the public to provide answers to questions that arise naturally all wine lovers. 

Guided tours of the entire site to understanding everything that gives it a very special soul. The wine and wine theory is disclosed in the classroom of the former village school which now belongs to the domain Langlois-Chateau. 

Between maps, near the blackboard behind her blouse teacher is Michel Launay who is in charge. A real character with a legendary gab that you unveil its course but not by Englishmen into French.

Langlois-Chateau, home of the famous Loire Valley, established since 1885 in Saumur, is known for its wines. It operates 71 hectares of vineyards on the finest AOC (Saumur, Saumur-Champigny, Sancerre) and sparkling wines (Crémant de Loire) make this home a great value in the Loire Valley. I recommend the White Samur old vines. Chenin Blanc expresses notes of citrus and exotic fruits. It's divine!

Cheers,

Top 10 most consumed cocktail in the world: not the Mojito is infact not go!

Thibault Daumain , the rising star of French graphic design was asked the following question during a afterwork: What is the best selling cocktail in the world?

Actually I had no idea. I first thought of a trend-based cocktail spirits of the world's best selling ahead vodka, rum and whiskey. It is a Chinese liquor, Baijiu. The official rankings do not take into account because it is a regional alcohol. My second thought was for the famous "little wet" Cuba: Mojito.

In France the most requested cocktail is actually the Mojito. It represents 80% of cocktails served. But international Mojito does not enjoy the same reputation. Evidence, it is not even in the top 10 most requested cocktails in the world! It must be borne in mind that the U.S. has some influence on the ranking. Here is the ranking so far:

Adios Motherfucker # 1

# 2 Amaretto Sour

# 3 Caipirinha

# 4 Woo Woo

# 5 New Orleans Hand Grenade

# 6 Gin Tonic

# 7 Bloody Mary

# 8 Blue Lagoon

# 9 Pina Colada

# 10 CCC

Interesting  is not it? What do we revise our classical and shake up preconceptions Franco-French. As our brains have the tendency to forget everything that exists after the first step of the podium I will simplify the description cocktail: Focus on the most requested cocktail in the world that bears sweet name Adios Motherfucker.

Cheers,

F.

ADIOS MOTHERFUCKER

2 cl Tequila

2 cl rum Caribbean

2 cl vodka

4 cl lime juice freshly squeezed

2 cl Blue Curacao

2 cl gin

6 cl lemonade

1 barspoon white sugar

In a glass tumbler filled type ice add all ingredients except the lemonade. Made to turn the ice barspoon then lie lemonade. Add a straw and serve immediately.