Wine | Brandon Lau's Blog

We are now in a large house in Samur. Because we are getting to the end of our trip this is our week to relax. On the first day we hung out by the pool and it was sunny and warm so we were glad for a pool.

We are back in the Loire valley only 30 minutes away from where we stayed almost two months ago! There are many chateaus in France but I was astonished when I found out there are over 40,000 of them! So we went to see the Chateau of Saumur which is famous for its collections of French porcelain.

The next day we relaxed again and the day after that we went on a wine tour of the valley. My family and I learned how to make rosé wine, one would think mixing red and white wine would be best but that method is illegal in France. There are some varieties of grapes that have red skins but white juice so you use those grapes. You crush them and let them sit in the skin pulp for 2-4 days before removing the pulp from the juice. The pulp adds the pink colour and alters the flavour of the wine.

I also learned that there are three ways to ferment the grapes; in steel vats, in barrels and in concrete vats. I knew about barrels and stainless steel vats but not about concrete vats. Apparently you have to paint the inside of the vat with a special paint that makes sure the wine does not seep into the concrete. This method was used 50-60 years ago but is coming back into practice now. We are coming to the end of our trip but look forward to one more post!

Ryan in the pool.

Wine fermenting in a barrel.

Wine fermenting in a cement vat.

Wine fermenting in a steel drum.

The Chateau of Saumur.

More of the Chateau.

The main tower of the Chateau.

Wine we bought on our tour.

The first day we were in Beaune we went biking. There was a bike route that went through the vineyards and villages. We cycled through 32 km of country back roads and farm paths, occasionally coming across a small village. Conveniently there were corner stores in every village so we could get water because the day went up to 35C!

On the second day we walked around the town of Beaune. We went to a mustard tasting where we tried 10 different kinds of mustard, some spicy, some mild, some have berries and some unusual flavors like blackberry or red pepper, Ryan’s favorite was maple syrup!

The B&B we are staying at is the best we have visited so far, with a spacious interior and an air conditioning unit, even the pool was the best one (because it was so hot outside). For that reason we swam in the morning of our big drive from Beaune to Verzy in the Champagne region.

We went to visit some big champagne houses on our first day. We visited Moët and Chandon’s champagne cellars where we learned the process on how to make champagne. One would first make regular white wine by pressing and fermenting the grapes. You then bottle it with added yeast and sugar to ferment more, this second fermentation is what gives champagne its bubbles. Once the second fermentation is complete there is residue or sediment on the bottom of the bottle, to get it out they tilt the bottle forward so it all comes to the neck of the bottle which they freeze, open the bottle and the small ice cube pops right out.

The second champagne house we went to had closed its cellars but we saw how they promoted their company. For example, they built the world’s biggest barrel of champagne and carted it to the world expo in Paris where it won second place behind the Eiffel tower. What I found interesting is Champagne grapes must be picked by hand so that the red skin of the grape does not interfere with the white juice. We are learning a lot in the region of champagne, and I hope to learn more! See you next time!