Just one photo today. That's the wine village Sancerre in the distance, on a hilltop. Sancerre is what is called
un village perché — a "perched" village. The Sancerre area is one of France's most beautiful wine regions. The vineyards grow on steep hillsides. I had driven some distance out on a dirt road at the crest of a ridge to take some photos.
Sancerre's white wines are made with Sauvignon Blanc grapes and are dry and grassy-tasting. Sancerre's light-bodied, dry reds and rosé are made with Pinot Noir grapes. I was there last October with Walt and again in early June with CHM, just enjoying the scenery. I was lucky to have great weather both times.
And the brewery...
ReplyDeletein its Art Deco building is at the bottom of the hill...
on the left...
well worth a visit, too!
It only stopped brewing from 1976 to 1995...
and was the last of 63 in the region.
Not a big fan of beer or whatever you call it.
DeleteDon't get me wrong... I like wine, too... but a lot of wines don't like me!!
Deletebut I really love the Sancerre red... and of course the white... not tried the rosé...
but strong, non-bio reds really make me feel ill...
bio is fine, so I guess it is down to the treatments used.
Coming from Coors country, I can well understand you not being a fan of beer...
I don't like the chemical concoctions that big conglomerates foist upon us in the name of ale...
a good example is the difference between "Bud" and real Czech Budweisser Budvar...
brewed in the home of the style... in Moravia... luckily "It is I" LeClerc sell Budvar...
and sell it cheaper than "Bud"!!
"Bud" is lower gravity rice wine if you want to be saki about it!
And Anhauser-Busch tried to shut down the original Budvar concern...
America, however, now has a really good range of micros...
almost 3000...
all brewing real beer...
from malted barley, and/or malted wheat, hops, water and yeast...
often to the German purity law...
but just as likely to have other ingredients such as orange peel, or fruit...
or used smoked malts...
and then there are the beers brewed with wild yeasts...
and other fungi and bacteria...
beers that have been cooled in big open trays so that the micro-organisms can get to them...
then there are the styles...
ale, porter, stout, IPA, mild, strong, brown, red, old ales, barley wines....
some lagered, some barrel conditioned, some bottle conditioned....
some top fermented, some bottom fermented....
then there are the different hops and yeast strains that can be used...
and the way they are used...
hops especially...
in the mash, in the boil of the wort, or dry hopping at the fermentation stage or the barrel conditioning stage....
or all four!!
There is a whole other world of flavours out there...
waiting for your tastebuds to explore...
Millers Lite isn't beer!! Nor is Bud!!!
And more micros are opening in France every month at the moment...
it will never get to the point of 63 for a localised area....
mainly because water no longer needs to be boiled to make it safe to drink...
so come exploring with Pauline and I sometime....
along with all the wonderful French wines in our cellier...
and one bottle of Carmenaire from Chile...
we currently have over forty different styles and flavours of beer...
including one I haven't dared to open yet...
the one brewed with a different hop at each stage...
and four different malts and yeasts...
the French brewed...
"Agent Provocateur"
I guess if I had wanted to learn more about British beer, or about the British language, I would haved "moved house" to the United Kingdom rather than to France.
DeleteI guess if I had wanted to learn more about British beer, or about the British language, I would haved "moved house" to the United Kingdom rather than to France.
DeleteKen, wrong country...
Deletemost of the styles mentioned above are German, Belgian or French...
certainly Northern European...
we have very few truly British style beers chez nous...
and very few British micros are trying to use those styles commercially...
what seems to be happening is cross-cultural...
a beer of such a style, brewed with ingredients from outside that beers home range...
eg: Leffe have just bought out a range of their "Royale" as an IPA brewed with Cascade hops...
so, Belgian strong blonde, brewed as a British export ale to India....
flavoured with American hops....
not what you'd call British at all...
and beer isn't British... it is global...
second only to tea in the amount consumed and the variety available.
Third if you count water...
and, remember, France was the first nation to have a dedicated water waiter!!
Tim, beer is just not something I'm interested in. I associate it very strongly with the U.S. and England, as well as Germany, Belgium, and Denmark. It's not a drink I enjoy. It doesn't go with food. People drink far too much of it. I guess I don't like the taste or the associations.
DeleteLaPre, interesting post.
DeleteAs you say, some of the US west coast microbreweries are patterned after Belgian beer. Fat Tire comes to mind - the brewers road "fat tire" bikes around Belgium for a summer tasting beers in various regions for inspiration.
Here in Los Angeles, Asian beers are quite popular, and you can find them in many good restaurants. Tsingtao (Chinese - China is now the largest consumer of beer globally) comes to mind. Also popular are Asahi, Kirin and Sapporo from Japan. Beer, apparently, is the most popular alcoholic beverage in Japan too.
Thanks for the heads up on Agent Provocateur; I'll look for it here. It's always good to learn about something new.
If I remember correctly, the village at the left is Chavignol of crottin goat cheese fame.
ReplyDeleteYou are jumping the gun. Tu sautes l'arme à feu.
DeleteNon, je saute le cannon! As entrée I'll have the cannon sauté
ReplyDeleteJust lovely. Thanks for going down the dirt road for the photo.
ReplyDeleteIt is a beautiful place, like so many other places in France. The dirt road on that ridge crest was fun.
ReplyDeleteThat's the problem with France ( if you can call it a problem) : Too many beautiful and interesting places to visit, enjoy and appreciate .
DeleteWatching Thalassa or les "Racines et les ailes" every week makes me dream some times :-)
It is a beautiful place, like so many other places in France. The dirt road on that ridge crest was fun.
ReplyDeleteGreat scene :)
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of Budweiser... I just heard that there is a lawsuit going against Anheuser-Busch-InBev regarding Becks beer. Phrasing that ABInBev uses in advertising Becks make it seem that it is brewed in Germany (like... "Originated in Bremen,Germany", and "German Quality" beer... and, something about being brewed "in the German style". But, it's produced here in the St. Louis plant, not even using German hops or anything :) It does say, in small print somewhere barely legible, that it's a product of USA, but it's sold at import prices, too. Oops! Apparently, they just lost a similar lawsuit about a not-actually-Japanese beer they sell,too.
I don't drink beer-- don't like fizzy stuff.
I'm not crazy about fizzy stuff either. Not even champagne.
DeleteWhile I will differ with you on beer with food and in cooking...
DeleteI am very much in agreement about champagne...
compared with Loire valley petillants, it is like drinking cold over-gassed keg beer...
and to me, has much the same flavour...
our local methode traditionelle wines are far less fizzy and have much more flavour...
and you can get two bottles of good stuff for one of low to medium priced champers!!
As for ABInBev... they are possibly the worst offender in the chemical fizz department...
and they do not worry about spending....
they had four, long term law suits to try and close the real Budweiser...
but, by concocting cheap, chemical beer substitutes and selling at premium prices...
they can make up those losses... probably very quickly... whilst encouraging one of the things that you hate about beer...
people drinking far too much of it...
I'm with you on that point, too...
a good 8.6 to 11%ABV beer needs to be savoured as much as the same strength wines...
slowly, in good company and comfort... and with the darker ones...
in front of a blazing log fire!!
Lovely countryside. Not only am I traveling around France through your camera lens, I am learning about beer! I did not know that Becks was not imported here in the US. I like a cold beer occasionally, especially in summer. I don't think I will be paying premium prices for Becks anymore though!
ReplyDeleteMe too, I can enjoy a glass of cold beer when the weather is very warm — which it is not, very often, in this part of France. I guess I'd prefer a glass of wine alongside a glass of cold water, when I'm thirsty. Anyway, the Sancerre area is gorgeous. I'll be posting more photos this coming week.
DeleteIf un village perché is a "perched" village, is La Perche Norman [Normand?] so named because it's a hilly area?
ReplyDeleteLovely picture. Makes me think of vineyards I saw years ago in far northern Italy, although this land looks more prosperous.
Emm, I don't know if the proper name Perche for the province and the terms perché/perche (f.) are closely related. Wikipedia French has quite a complicated explanation of various theories about the origin of the name of the old Perche province. It says the term might originally be Celtic, or it might derive from Latin. Le Perche is a beautiful area. In my googling, I found this NYT article about it.
DeleteVery interesting article from NYT.
DeleteVery interesting article from NYT.
DeleteThat is an interesting Times article. Thank you.
DeleteIt's piqued my curiosity; will have to look into the name a bit more.
To bring together two of the topics in today's comments, every night we're in the Perche we split a small Chimay.
ReplyDeleteThe Latin word "pertica" sticks in my mind as a source for "Perche." The meaning of "pertica" does not stick in my mind.
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