Lynda's sparkling cake

The menu

Last night and early into this morning we had a great birthday party with Lynda at Hugo Naón's El Nacional in Bordeaux. The food was excellent, in particular the lamb grilled on the parrilla – the special Argentine grill that Hugo had installed in the restaurant and which is the centre piece of the cooking.

Champagne Nicolas Maillart to start

Derek and a glass of Maillart

Lynda


2009 Rémus, Domaine de la Taille aux Loups

Unfortunately Bordeaux doesn't grow Chenin Blanc, so Lynda and Derek had to import some 2009 Rémus in from Montlouis to the party's general approval. Although 2009 is likely to be less long lived than the very precise and classic 2008 Rémus, I think the 2009 fitted the bill better last night as it is rounder and softer than the 2008. It also went very well with the assortment of tapas and charcuterie served for the first course.

2007 Château l'Eglise, Montagne Saint-Emilion

The lamb

Santé!

2007 was a difficult vintage in Bordeaux with the wines not expected to have a long life. However, this softly textured 2007 and I suspect others are drinking well at the moment. This went very well with the delciously succulent lamb. An example of a wine that high not get a high score in a tasting but which was abolutely right for the occasion.

Digestif: 10 ans d'Age, Bas Armagnac, Francis Darroze

Back in August we had lunch at El Nacional and it was clear that there were some teething problems. These have clearly been sorted out as last night was excellent. I gather from Hugo that he is now doing 2000 covers a month, which is considerably more than he thought he would be doing at this stage in the restaurant's first year. Hugo will have to keep this level up as his girlfriend is expecting their first child due next July!

Hugo

 

Hugo and Derek

Young chef

Vivek Singh: Cinnamon Club

bottle chandelier

Jazz pianist who started the evening off

Some more pics:

Lynda and one of the servers

The amazing cake

Derek and Sue

Roalind Cooper: The Wine Year, Merrell £24.95 (US$39.95), 224 pages, hbk, col pics

Roz’s book is about the seasons as she explains in her introduction: ‘Wine is a product of the seasons. From the earliest signs of growth in the spring, through the crucial flowering period of early summer, to the final fruition of harvest in the autumn, the vine’s fate is tied to the annual cycle.’

The book is naturally dived up into 12 chapters taking a month at a time beginning with January. Within each chapter there are four sections: knowledge, entertaining, travel and an interview.

January’s chapter, for instance, starts with ‘growing great grapes’ then moves to entertaining with a sparkle, next visiting the vineyards of Champagne and concluding with an interview with Stéphane Tsassis, the CEO of Champagne Laurent Perrier.

(This is a well-designed book and Roz has taken a refreshingly different approach. Although not nominally an introduction to wine, this would certainly be an interestingly different book for someone looking to learn more about wine.)   

**

James Lawther MW: Finest Wines of Bordeaux, Fine Wine Editions in association with Aurum and University of California Press , £20, 320 pages, photos by Jon Wyand. pbk

This is the third title in the Fine Wine Editions series. It follows the same pattern as the first two (Michael Edwards on Champagne and Nicolas Belfrage on Tuscany) by concentrating on profiling the region’s leading châteaux after an introductory section.

The introductory section covers the history, culture and market; climate, soil and grape varieties; viticulture and winemaking; classification and regulation and Paris 1855 to Parker. James explains briefly and succinctly Bordeaux unique system négociant and courtier system.

The châteaux profiles are from the Médoc, Pomerol and Saint-Emilion, the Graves plus Sauternes and Barsac.

Foreword by Hugh Johnson 

(James lives in the region and his knowledge and understanding of Bordeaux shows in this authoritative book. Fine photos, as usual, from Jon Wyand.)

A TGV arriving at Tours station

The first TGV (Train de Grande Vitesse) arrived in Tours on 30th September 1990 bringing Paris just less than an hour away from Tours. The idea to build a TGV Atlantique network was conceived in 1976. The TGV Ouest has two branches one to Le Mans and the second to Tours. Work started in 1987 and the TGVs to Le Mans and beyond serving Angers, Nantes, Rennes etc. on the existing conventional lines started running in 1989. Those to Tours started running the next year.

The dedicated TGV line stops just to the south of Tours. Work is just beginning on the LGV (Ligne Grande Vitesse) extending the fast line to Bordeaux. The complete line is due to be finished in late 2015/ early 2016. When it opens Bordeaux will be 2.05 hours from Paris (3 hours now) and 1.40 from Tours (2.20 at present). The line is being built in two stages – Bordeaux-Angoulême (service starting in 2013) and Angoulême-Tours.   

Work has just started on the LGV (ligne à grande vitesse) from Tours to Bordeaux). This rail project will connect to the exist high speed rail line from Tours to Paris. When it opens in 2016 Paris to Bordeaux will take just 2 hours 5 minutes to cover the around 600 kms. Eventually there are plans to extend the high speed line down into Spain. 

More details here and here.

I have recently received a review copy of Bordeaux Châteaux – a history of the Grands Crus Classés since 1855 (£22.50; $34.95; 24.95€). This was first published by Flammarion as a hardback in 2004 with editions in both French and English.

This new edition is in paperback. It claims to be a revised edition but I could find no evidence of this when I looked at properties that had changed hands since 2004. May-Eliane de Lenccquesaing is till presented as the owner of Pichon-Longueville and AXA as owning Château Cantenac-Brown. Both properties were sold in 2006 to Champagne Roederer and Simon Halabi respectively. I understand that the economics of publishing wine books don't allow a full rewrite when publishing a paperback edition of a book like this but someone buying the book would expect to find such obvious details have been updated.

Much of the text, especially the profiles, is a paean of praise. A small snippet from an introductory text by Jean-Paul Kauffmann gives a flavour:

'Since 1855, the owners of the châteaux have upheld their sacred duty, devoting their lives to the service of producing great wines whose glory will outlive them. Yet the honour comes with a heavy burden of responsibility. Lower the standards for a moment, and the system will be unforgiving.'

As there have been only two changes of the 1855 Classification since it was published, this is surely a view through rose-tinted spectacles, although doubtless elegant ones.

Photos by Christian Sarramon

Here are some figures from Méteo France on average maximum temperatures for the months of July and August from 1999 to 2009. Unsurprisingly Tours is invariably cooler than Bordeaux, although the gap appears to be less marked in hot Augusts like 2003 and 2009. Although not as hot as 2003, 2009 is noticeably hotter than the rest of the decade. Another indication that if the weather holds up into and through September, 2009 could be a good vintage for those not hit by hail or badly affected by mildew earlier on.

Hotel de Ville, Tours

July	Bordeaux	Tours	August	Bordeaux	Tours
1999	27.9	26.6	1999	27.3	24.9
2000	25.2	22.8	2000	28.5	25.4
2001	25.7	24.9	2001	28.0	26.0
2002	25.1	24.3	2002	24.6	23.8
2003	27.8	26.2	2003	32.1	31.4
2004	25.8	25.3	2004	26.6	25.2
2005	27.7	26.3	2005	27.3	25.8
2006	31.2	30.4	2006	24.8	22.8
2007	24.6	23.1	2007	25.5	22.8
2008	26.1	25.3	2008	25.8	24.4
2009	27.1	25.3	2009	28.8	28.2

The ferry leaving Blaye for the short crossing to Lamarque

Down in Pauillac for your now traditional August weekend staying with friends. A chance to see how the vines are looking down here taste a few of the local wines, although we have bought a supply of Loire wines with us.

Off to Bordeaux early in the morning to Le Marché des Capucins to buy food for the weekend. Drove down along the Bordeaux quayside looking at the sweep of the river and the Place de la Bourse in the soft morning light. Le Marché des Capucins had a wonderful selection of fish, meat vegetables, cheese and butter from a block something I haven't seen for some years – all in all many delicious things.

Capucins area: The Flying Pig restaurant – open until 4am

Shop assistant pretending to be a flying fish

Display of crabs

Bordelaise de Marée

Sign above the fish shop

Campet: lamb and foie gras specialist next to fish shop

Capucins: vegetable market (above and below)


La Table de Don Quichotte: Spanish specialist stall

Customer hesitates over the choice

We bought some very good oysters from Yves Papin


Au Pétrin Moissagais, very good boulangerie

The interior of the shop with the bread oven at the far end