Topped with a lush Péchalou yogurt, pearls of caviar, and a single blue borage flower, they’re blended with a faux ice of frozen slices of tart green apple that keep the briny bivalves cool while adding a puckering balance. The oysters that follow certainly fit the bill. Marie-Laure and Gérard Lerchundi outside their bed-and-breakfast Maison de Marquay. As it spreads, the rot sucks out moisture from grapes, shriveling them while concentrating their sugars. The resulting wine is sweet, complex, and certainly on par with any Sauternes, the renowned dessert wines of Bordeaux. This is Botrytis cinerea, known to vintners as “noble rot,” a fungus that thrives in the damp misty mornings of the local microclimate. As we amble past carefully plotted rows of sémillon and muscadelle, Roche stops to point out an ashy mold on the grapes’ puckered skin. L’Ancienne Cure also produces a collection of whites, reds, and a single rosé under other appellations, but it’s the estate’s Monbazillacs that stand out. The area’s namesake vin is a golden, late-harvest dessert wine whose richness pairs well with foie gras and strong cheeses. Made from the same grapes as Bordeaux-merlot, cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, and malbec-they’re bright and fruity and a steal at around 8 to 13 euros a bottle, though you’ll pay more for the complex minerality of Tiregand’s flagship Cuvée Grand Millésimé, the grapes for which are harvested by hand.Īcross the Dordogne River in Monbazillac, fifth-generation vintner Christian Roche is doing something equally spectacular with the organic vignobles at Domaine de l’Ancienne Cure. We follow him to the estate’s tasting room for sips of his earthy, ruby-red Pécharmant wines, an appellation that encompasses just 400 hectares of gravelly vineyards within the greater Bergerac region. Fifth-generation winemaker Christian Roche in the vineyards at Domaine de l’Ancienne Cure.
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