22: Palais Curieux July 2023

Hello Curious, Playful, Enthusiasts and Fine Gourmets!

Our country is experiencing a climate so different from last year's... and Mother Nature is not kind to everyone. Here in the Southwest, the storms have been severe for crops, with hail damaging our Basque winegrower friends who lost 40% of their harvest, and 100% for the Espelette peppers! Our Jurançon winegrowers here in Béarn were also under water for the entire month of June, fighting against downy mildew (a cryptogamic disease - a form of fungus that spreads like wildfire on the leaves, preventing good photosynthetic activity. Then on the grapes, completely jeopardizing the harvest! With the added anxiety of hail from all those menacing dark clouds over our heads... well, you'll understand that it's a real, physically and nervously exhausting struggle for survival! We will still end on a more positive note... further north in the Loire, winegrowers are delighted with this upcoming harvest because for them the season has been completely dry (too dry for other farmers...), so let's cross our fingers that everything goes well until the very end!

This month, the wines are taking on  a holiday feel  !! We will travel to Corsica, Camargue, Tuscany, Banyuls on the Catalan coast, Capbreton in Les Landes, and back to the Basque Country!

For fans of the Isle of Beauty in Patrimonio near Cap Corse, the marvelous, juicy and fresh cuvée  "Sempre Cuntentu" 2022 from Domaine Giacometti  , 100% Sciaccarellu (an endemic grape variety) is back! A smack of red fruits, flowers and spices on the tongue, one can't get enough of it!

Let's stay with the saline aspect; two domains emerge from pure sands, each about 200 meters from the water! One on the Mediterranean side with  Domaine de Figueirasse  in Camargue at Grau du Roi, and the other at Capbreton,  La Pointe  des Sables facing the Ocean! The cuvées of all colors whetting the appetite for holidays and your summer meals.

In a UNESCO protected landscape are the vineyards of  Gianni Doglia  in Asti, Piedmont, Italy. We introduce you to a red from a very rare grape variety, "Il Ruché" or "Rouquet," in a tiny appellation totaling just 37 hectares, the DOCG  Ruché  di Castagnole Monferrato!   Fresh fruit with citrus notes, elegance, melted tannins, complex yet ideal for summer to accompany your plancha or wood-fired côte de boeuf or even an appetizing dish of aubergine lasagna?

Or is it the Mediterranean breeze that attracts you? Shall we go to Banyuls and Collioure with the wines of  Vial Magnères  ? White, rosé or an antique and caressing Banyuls (mutated sweet natural wines) or for lovers of stronger sensations... an excellent and refined dry Rancio reminiscent of the best Xeres crus built by time and old Grenache Gris and Blanc vines on schist. A surprising wine to accompany fish dishes, poultry in sauce, or your country ham tapas and famous Collioure anchovies.