August 13, 2012 Lunch – Picnic of Caves Bouvet Ladubay; Dinner
– Veal Piccatta with English Peas and Pommes Frites
This is written on the evening of August 16, so it may not
have the immediacy of other notations. We
drove to Saumur in the morning and stopped at Tourist Information for the local
map, although Erika had told us where to go for the best wineries in Saumur. We got lost looking for the Postal Bank, but
stopped at Combier Distillery and tried our first glass of real absinthe and
pastis, which are heavily herbed drinks the only difference between them was
the addition of wormwood to the absinthe.
There was also a great peach liquor that had won a gold medal.
Then we drove to Gratien & Meyer Winery and tried
several brut and Cremant sparkling wines. We bought wine at most of the places
where stopped and drank, including Gratien & Meyer. All of the wine in Saumur is Chenin Blanc. .
Most of the successful wineries also have lovely buildings and Gratien & Meyer
is no exception. Then we drove out along
the road to St. Hilarie St. Florent
where yo Bouvet Ladubay Winery, said to
have the largest private collection of contemporary art in France. When we inquired at the tasting room, we were
told that the art was not available to see that day, Monday. So, we tasted their wine we asked if we could
eat at the Chateau and they showed us to a patio inside the chateau and we
bought a bottle of Bouvet’s Saumur dry sparkling wine to drink with lunch,
which they opened for us. In the morning
we had stopped at the Hyper U near Angers and had bought a package of ham and
salami, a goat cheese dusted with ash and a muenster style cheese from the Langes
region plus a bunch of radishes and some celeric in mayonnaise salad, two
rounds of duck pate and some bread, so we ate and drank royally .
After lunch we stopped at Langlois and Caves Veuve Amiot and
drank and bought more wine, all good. We loved all the wines we tasted in
Saumur. The whites are all made with chinen
blanc and the reds and roses are all made with cabernet franc. We did not have a bad wine.
After tasting so many wines from the four Caves that we
stopped at, we started back to Rochford.
The road system is still a little confusing to us, especially since our
road map is fifteen years old and very out of date because it does not include
the auto routes/turnpikes. So we headed south away from the Loire River and
population to find the A85 auto route that we had driven from Rochfort on. And when we did, we decided to stop at a
castle at Montreuil-Bellay, which turned out to be charming. The castle was built in the 15th
and 16th century during the 100 years war with England and is
perched on a promontory above the Le Thouet River. The heavily fortified castle was relatively small
but interesting with its own gardens and winery within the ramparts. There was also a tasting room in the castle
and the wine was delicious, so we bought a bottle of Chateau de la Durandiére
blanc which is dry chenin blanc made in Montreuil-Bellay.
We ten drove back to Moulin Breant and cooked a simple and
delicious dinner with ingredients we had bought at the Hyper U in the morning. I pounded veal scallops and we shelled
peas. I chopped parsley and sliced a
lemon and some mushrooms and a shallot.
Suzette then sautéed the mushrooms, English peas and shallots and
doubled dipped the scallops of veal in egg and flour and then sautéed them with
the mushroom and pea mixture and added the parsley and lemon for a simple
dinner. We sliced the four small potatoes
and Suzette cooked them in a separate pan in butter. Suzette said the secret to preventing the potatoes
from getting greasy is to cook them in butter and not oil. We drank the Grosette rosé we had
bought on our drive into Rochford on Saturday, which was not very good, because
too sweet. I loved dinner. It was wonderful and so healthy and filling. It was
fun to start cooking again.
Bon Appétit
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