Sunday, October 4, 2015

Red wine harvest 2015


The last day of September - the day our last guests of summer left home - Vinovalie harvested our small vineyard, formerly leasehold by Château Les Rigalets.
This was way after the other neighbour winemakers who started the red wine harvest about the 20th of September.
As they said they wanted to wait the longest possible to assure that the skins and the pips became even more mature so to make sure that afterwards the tannins in the wine are softer and lighter and in the end the wine is tasting smoother, "plus soyeux".
This method is also used by the Seigneur wine of the AOC Cahors, such as e.g. Château du Cèdre, Clos Triguedina and Château Lagrézette.

Can't wait to taste the result !

Some photos :



For further info :

Today's article on the winemaking by Vinovalie (in french) and their website

Some basic knowledge on tannins.

Sunday, August 23, 2015

Tango festival at Prayssac


As you know, every year in summer Prayssac is a center of tango activity.

During the last two weeks of July every day tango lessons take place and every night there is the possibility of tango-ing the night away.

Now you can see on Vimeo a nice selection of the maestro performances of the last few years.
Watch and enjoy their elegance and listen to the beautiful tango music.





Come and see next year from the 16th of July onwards.

Sunday, July 19, 2015

Heatwave

Since about six / seven weeks no rain of any importance came down on earth in the Lot.
The garden is longing for water and looks a bit brownish.

Last year we had a nice field of sunflowers in front of our terrace.
This year it was wheat.
Because of the hot hot weather the wheat harvest is finished in the whole department.
Looks even more summerly now it is harvested.





Sunday, May 3, 2015

The splendors of Cahors


There are a lot of reasons to visit Cahors, the capital of the Quercy, in the Lot, the northern department of the Midi-Pyrenees :
its panorama seen from the Mont St Cyr,
its medieval bridge Pont Valentré,
its cathedral with the gothic cloister,
the secret gardens,
its ancient streets with its half-timbered houses and
the market hall with the delicious local products as cheese, Malbec wine,
etc. etc.

Read for yourself (article in French) and come enjoy a stay.







Sunday, March 15, 2015

Experience Malbec


A nice video on the Malbec experience commented by famous winemakers, sommeliers and critics - and for those who know the region : nice views of vineyards and castles and some well-known winemakers !





Do the Malbec tonight !

Sunday, March 8, 2015

Château Les Grauzils : gold medal in Paris


Probably most of you know Philippe & Cathy Pontié of Château Les Grauzils, one of our neighbour winemakers.

There is very good news from them as their viognier white wine - Insolite - has been awarded a gold medal at the Paris wine competition this year.

It was the first time they competed.


Here the article (in french).


Have a nice wine at the terrace.

Friday, January 16, 2015

Cahors and its black wine : stars in a tv detective series


This Saturday, 17th of January 2015, Cahors and its wine region are the setting of a detective story, an episode of the French well-known tv series "Le Sang de la vigne".
This series after the novels of Jean-Pierre Alaux - he himself a native of the Lot - is a light hearted detective series, featuring in each episode a wine region of France : this time the valley of the Lot.

The series has been very successful over the last four years, on tv and in book, reaching top rankings.
One of the main reasons is - apart from the main actor, Pierre Arditi - the fact that in every episode a lot of touristic highlights of each region are integrated in the series.
In the Lot episode - amongst others - the most important that might be rather familiar to a lot of you are : The pont Valentré in Cahors, château de Mercuès, château du Cayrou in Puy-l’Evêque, château Lagrézette à Caillac, Albas et of course Saint-Cirq-Lapopie. The jesuit college in the centre of Cahors was transformed into the commissariat, the local police station.

A little fait divers on this episode is that your humble servant was present at the shooting at the Château du Cayrou and could talk to the main actor and a lot of the crew.

So if you don't have other things to do : watch it. Exact place and time: France 3, Saturday at 20.50 hours, title: "Chaos dans le vin noir".

For more information see : http://www.ladepeche.fr/article/2015/01/14/2028668-chaos-dans-le-vin-noir-samedi-sur-france-3-3.html

For those who cannot see it "live" there is the opportunity to watch it in replay until one week after broadcasting at the following address :

http://pluzz.francetv.fr/videos/le_sang_de_la_vigne.html

Have a nice tv evening.

preparation of the shooting at the château du Cayrou

the principal actors, a.o. Pierre Arditi, the detective-oenologist (2nd from left)

Thursday, January 1, 2015

All the very best for 2015


Happy New Year!

At the beginning of 2015 Mas de l'Houvande would like to thank all its guests and wish them all the best for the year to come.
Best greetings and wishes also to all our friends and family all over the world.

May all your wishes and dreams come true and may 2015 be filled with happiness, joy and - above all - a good health.

Cheers !

Fireworks at the Pont Valentré in Cahors