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Archive from November 2016

What wines will you drink during the end of year festivities?


The wine, food and cooking magazines are full of ideas for dishes to enjoy over the Christmas and New Year holiday period, and our taste buds are already getting excited as we start planning the meals that we will share with our friends and family this year.  And of course, which wines we will be opening?  We asked members of the Gourmet odyssey team to share a few ideas.

When it comes to pairing food and wine, we each have our own individual tastes, desires and convictions, even if there are a few basic rules to guide us.  The fun is being inspired by browsing the shelves of the wine merchants, meeting the winemakers at wine fairs or at the winery, or by researching in the magazines and blogs.  Here are a few suggestions that we will be trying out!


Myriam, our wine guide for Burgundy


Myriam, our wine guide in Burgundy


I love: A Saint Romain 2015 white wine from Domaine Franck Lamargue
To accompany: A pumpkin and foie gras velouté with gingerbread.  A great party dish.

I love: A Chambolle Musigny 2015 from Domaine Patrick Clémencet
To accompany: A dark chocolate and blackcurrant dessert!


Louise, our wine guide for the Loire Valley


Louise, our wine guide in the Loire Valley


I love: A Saumur red, Empreinte, from Domaine des Garennes, in Montreuil.
To accompany: Some game in a nice sauce, the perfect match for this powerful wine.


I love: A Touraine Sauvignon Les Devants de la Bonnelière white wine from Château de la Bonnelière, in Chinon.
To accompany: A lemon and cream chicken between friends.


Jacqueline, our wine guide for the Rhône Valley


Jacqueline, our wine guide in the Rhone Valley


I love: An Orto di Venezia 2011 from Michel Thoulouse, produced on the San Erasmo island in the Venice lagoon.  
To accompany: Some simple large Italian breadsticks, ideally as the sun sets revealing the wonderful winter twilight.
Comments: A very elegant wine with a nice amber colour.  The wine has a slightly smokey taste.

I love: A Beaujolais Nouveau 2016 from Château Cambon
To accompany: a vegetable and goat’s cheese quiche shared with friends.
Comments: This wine is a torrent of fruit and tastes that explode with joy on your palate.


Mark, the boss and our wine guide for Alsace, Burgundy and Bordeaux


Mark, our wine guide in the Alsace, Burgundy and Bordeaux


I love: A vin jaune L’Etoile from Domaine Joly, in Rotalier.
To accompany: A chicken marinated and slowly cooked in a vin jaune sauce.  A great winter dish after a good family walk.

I love: the Ante Phylloxera Chinon red from Château de la Bonnelière in the Loire Valley.
To accompany: A capon stuffed with morille mushrooms.  
Comments: This very rare wine heralds from a tiny walled plot of vines that survived the outbreak of phylloxera in 1860.


Marie, the editor


Marie, our editor

I love: A Saint-Joseph red wine from Domaine Jean-Claude Marsanne, in Mauve.
To accompany: Stuffed quails with the family during the holidays.

I love: A Petit Chablis from Domaine Laventureux, à Lignorelles.
To accompany: A cheese evening with friends.

I love: A Pinot Gris Rosenberg white wine from Domaine Stentz-Buecher, in Wettolsheim.
To accompany: Some asparagus verrines to have something a little lighter!


And there you have a quick tour de France (and Italy!) for a few food and wine pairing suggestions.  At the moment there are lots of food and wine fairs, so stop by one local to you and treat your taste buds!  Practice makes perfect


Other related articles

How to go about pairing food and wine?

Christmas and end of year celebrations. What are you serving this year?

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Noël de la French Tech – Gourmet Odyssey Wine Gift Experiences Selected


Once again the Gourmet Odyssey Wine Experience was picked among the best Christmas gift ideas by Le Noël de la French Tech!  The aim of this organisation is to support start-up companies with the most innovative Christmas gift ideas.  The adopt-a-vine experience from Gourmet Odyssey was selected for inclusion in their list of the best 200 Christmas gifts.

Innovative Christmas Gift.  Adopt some vines in France and make your own organic wine

Le Noël de la French Tech chose the Wine Experience for the second year running for its originality.  This wine-making experience gift enables you to adopt some vines in an organic French vineyard and follow the making of your own personalised bottles of wine.

More than just a simple winery tour or wine-tasting class, adopting some vines is a unique way to discover the passionate world of wine by getting involved in the key stages of making organic wine.  It also gives you a privileged contact with the winemakers to learn more about their fascinating profession.

 

Wine Experience gift presented at the Champs-Elysées launch event

 

Once the recipient has received their personalised adopt-a-vine certificate, they will continue to enjoy their gift through newsletters and photos from the winemaker.  And you can also choose to include one or more wine experience days at the winery.

The Gourmet Odyssey packages are available from €159.  To learn more about adopting vines, please visit www.GourmetOdyssey.com.

And to browse the list of 2016 Christmas gift ideas, visit the Noël de la French Tech Christmas gift list.

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Adopt-a-Vine fun – finalists of the photo competition


The Gourmet Odyssey Experience Days for 2016 have now ended, and once again we've shared lots of great moments with all of the adoptive vine parents that have come to our partner wineries and have met their vines face to face! Many thanks to all of the great photos that we have received throughout the year.

We have selected 20 pictures for the final of the 2016 My Vine competition. There will be two winners. The public vote prize for the picture that receives the most "likes" on the Gourmet Odyssey Facebook page, and the jury prize for the photo selected by the Gourmet Odyssey team.

Discover the finalist photos and vote for your favourite on Facebook between now and 5pm on the 12th December. Take care to "like" the individual photo and not the entire album!

The two winners will receive a magnum of wine from the partner winery where they have their Wine Experience. See you back here on the 12th December for the results!

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The perfect Christmas gift for wine lovers. Adopt some vines and make your own organic wine.


Finding an original Christmas wine gift for the enthusiast who already has everything - the wine fridge, the carafe, more corkscrews than could ever be used, the vintage bottles and other wine accessories etc. - can be a real challenge! But do they have their own organic vines in an award winning French winery? If not, adopt-a-vine with the Gourmet Odyssey Wine Experience and it just might be the ideal gift to put under the Christmas tree this year!

What does the adopt-a-vine experience consist of?

Giving some vines in an organic vineyard in France for a Christmas present is sure to please any wine lover. For a wine-making year (2-3 years depending on the winery selected), the lucky recipient of your gift will follow the evolution of the vines, the harvest of the grapes, and then the making of the wine via newsletters and photos. At the end of the Wine Experience, your recipient will have as many personalised bottles of wine as the number of adopted vines, and your recipient will get to choose the name of the wine that will appear on the personalised labels.

 

Adopt-a-vin experience in a Franch organic vineyard


It is also possible to include 1 to 3 days at the winery with the Wine Experience gift. The recipient will get to spend the day with the winemaker for a total immersion into the world of wine-making. Each of these oenology courses, valid for two people, includes lunch and wine tasting.

All of the experience days are designed to be participative. The Discovery Experience Days are more oriented towards the work in the vineyard, so your recipient can have a go at pruning, de-budding or training the vines. The Harvest Experience Days will be busy with picking the grapes and learning about the first stages of fermentation, and the Vinification Experience Days will cover how to taste wines and the work in the cellar to age and blend the wine.

 

How do you get started with the Wine Experience Christmas gift?

The gift you select is completely flexible in terms of the number of vines you adopt, the winery chosen, and whether one or more days at the winery are included.

Once you have chosen your gift, the welcome pack is delivered to the address of your choice, so that your recipient has a gift box to open on Christmas day.

 

Wine gift box for making your own organice French wine


The welcome gift includes a DropStop, a re-usable glass wine stopper, a wine cooler bag, personalised adoption certificate and all the information needed to learn about the winery, winemakers and wine that the recipient will follow for the duration of the Wine Experience.

 

Will my gift please?

We’ll let our customers speak for us. You can read some of the feedback that they have sent us. And they’re not the only ones to give their opinion; the media are also talking about us.

 

Oenology courses in a French vineyard and winery tour


Adopting some vines is a very enlightening Christmas present. As well as producing your own personalised vintage, it also allows your recipient to discover the world of wine-making from a different angle, and to learn about all the hard work that goes into making a good bottle of wine.

All of our partner wineries are selected for the quality of their wines and they are organically or biodynamically certified. Passionate about winemaking, they love to share their knowledge and experience with the adoptive vine owners. Your recipient is sure to enjoy an unforgettable Christmas gift this year!

 

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The Gourmet Odyssey Wine Experience

Adopt a Vine in France and Follow the Making of Your Own Wine !

From € 169

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