Day 14 (part 1)
Marvellous Tasting at Chateau de Minière
This, our first outdoor tasting of the trip, was marvellous.
In gorgeous sunny weather, and overlapping with the local pony club, we enjoyed
meeting the crew at Chateau de Minière at Ingrandes de Touraine. Here, we tasted their excellent Bourgueil wines.
Owner Kathleen was unable to be present but Anna, Stephen
and Anissa helped us through the tasting, a lovely leisurely one that included
sparkling, rosé and red, all from the Cabernet Franc grape.
There is a long line of feminine tradition here, now being maintained
by Kathleen. The estate was handed down through a line of women for two
centuries ever since Marie-Genevieve d'Espinay married Martial du Soulier in
1767 and brought him the property in her dowry. In 1995, Bertrand and Evelyne
de Mascarel acquired Minière from the last descendants of Marie-Genevieve,
Margarède and Diane du Soulier.
In 2010 Sigurd and Kathleen Mareels - Van den Berghe acquired
Minière and will continue the further development of the vineyard and chateau. One of those many developments is making the vineyard
organic and that is almost complete.
Left to right: CL and yours truly (centre) pictured with Chateau staff Anna and Stephen. Thanks to Anissa for taking the pic. |
Back to the current wines. All were impressive but our
favourite and perhaps the favourite of everyone on the estate is the Vignes
Centenaires 2009 made, as you might expect, from vines of an average 100 years
of age, some as old as 110! Also ordered were some Chateau de Minière 2009 and
2010.
We just could leave the sparkling rosé behind and so a few
bottles of that are also on the way to Ireland along with some “specialites
artisanales” of the house including Morello Cherries au vin de Minière.
Chateau de Minière is a lovely place to visit, right in the
heart of the Bourgueil vineyards and close to the magnificent Loire river, and
you may read more about it here.
We had planned to go boating on the Vienne and the Loire in
the afternoon but that fell through when not enough passengers turned up at
Chinon. The boatman declined to start up even though the four of us present
offered to make up the difference to the required six, according to their leaflet,
saying the minimum was eight! Had to make do with a spell in the pool as the
temperature reached 28 degrees. Not a bad consolation!