Jacquere

Some of my more easily beguiled acquaintances assume I must have read a lot of books, or been particularly diligent at school, simply because I often guess well in quizzes. Wrong on both counts. I like book shops, but find them daunting because there are just too many books. How do you choose? Until the invention of the Kindle, which makes it dangerously easy to buy the electronic equivalent of books, I would usually leave empty handed. I needed a method to make selection simpler.

Before learning anything about wine, I would reduce the wine selection problem by trusting the words 'appellation controllee' on the label to be a guide to reliability. It allowed me to discount a lot of bottles.

Week J (2013) is Domaine des Ardoisieres, St Pierre de Soucy, Argile Blanc 2012. From Vinoteca, Farringdon. £20.50.

                                                                                                                            The first thing I noticed about this IGP qualified wine (that's one made outside of the Appellation Controllee regulations and, therefore, considered a step down in quality) is that the capsule encasing the cork is made of wax, rather than lead or plastic.          I rather like the appearance, but have no idea if this is done for aesthetic, practical or cost reasons. The label reveals little other than the information required by EU regulations. However, a bit of investigative effort on the internet is richly rewarded.     I had chosen this wine because I had already found out enough to know that it is made from 40% Jacquere, 40% barrel fermented Chardonnay and 20% Mondeuse Blanche. I now know that the vines are 40 years old, yielding 40 hectolitres per hectare, from a vineyard of 9 hectares of which 2 are devoted to this blend. I could go on (S.Coogan, Pool Supervisor,1994), but I might just as well give credit to my source: Vine Trail . If you take a look, you will find all manner of information about the care taken from vineyard to bottle all of which is very impressive, especially of a wine alleged to be of 'lower quality'. 

So let's see if we can get the wax off and the cork out to see if all that care is justified.

First impressions are of a lively, bright, citrus lead flavour. Very mouth-watering and certainly got the appetite keen. The barrel fermented Chardonnay makes its presence felt with some softer, oak-influenced notes, but I have no knowledge of Mondeuse Blanche and can't tell comment on whether 20% is the right share of the blend. As the overall effect is very pleasing, I will accept Brice Omont, the vigneron, knows not only much more than I do but also his blending onions.

It was consumed with a chicken, mozzarella, prosciutto and sun-dried tomato affair which is much more Italian than French, but Savoie is in that general direction so that probably explains why the match was close enough.

This wine confirms that my old habit of only choosing French wines that had earned AOC status was misguided. The problem this gives me is that the number of wines needing to be tasted is now even greater, but it was an impossible task anyway, so I'll choose to see this as a good thing.