Went to Chambord today. It's big. It's glitzy, in that pre-prefab way. It dwarfs the ordinary mortal. It's big as hell. It's asymmetrical to keep the eye from glazing over from the grandiose monotony of it, this last point no dobut the genius of Leonardo da Vinci who came here to work for the king when things got sticky in It'ly. The guidebook tells us that the great maestro died in King Francis's arms, which I find hard to believe. I'm sure Frankele had a courtier stand in for him.
After we goggled and photographed, we waited around for quite a while as the rest of our party finished up inside. Some of us lounged in the sun and ate and checked our watches.
Understandably, we had precious little time to go to wineries and tasting rooms. Since we are big fans of Huet, we zipped as fast as we could over to Vouvray, toured a small portion of the 1-km-long cellars and tasted a few of the commercially available vintages. (I bet if I had declared my identity as Mr. Mondosapore, they'd have rolled out the red carpet and given us some of that 1959 vintage, for example. But I wanted to be a regular wine tourist. Just like Jancis did recently in Napa. See, we have so much in common!)
Bottom line: we bought enough bottles to get us through the rest of this brief vacation in France. I still like the Le Mont line the best, and I have decided for once and all that I am not your demi-sec kind of guy. Sec and, yes, moelleux, but not the in-between.
These wines age beautifully but I feel no compunction about consuming the Le Mont Sec 2006's now. They're lovely, nuanced, layered, sort of a "Three Faces of Eve" thing in Chenin Blanc. They keep telling you something new and interesting with each sip.
Le Mont moelleux. A honeyed nectar. Could use a bit more acidity for something like perfection.
Tomorrow's plan suits me much better: Skip Chenonceau, hit a few wine chateaux. The kind that matter.
the Huet Le Monts are wonderful wines, and they do age beautifully.
I love Chambord, i would certainly rather live there than Versailles. given the chance, of course.
Posted by: Fredric Koeppel | July 18, 2008 at 05:35 PM
Chambord is like the Hamptons of ye olde France (or the new)...would you want to live there in the off season???
On the other hand, the local wines are pretty good. But not "hedonistic fruit bombs"! More Deep Thoughts about that coming soon.
Posted by: Strappo | July 18, 2008 at 05:52 PM
wow...looks like the emerald kingdom!
Posted by: tracie b | July 20, 2008 at 02:46 AM