{"id":509,"date":"2014-12-01T22:41:22","date_gmt":"2014-12-01T22:41:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/belletwine.com\/?p=509"},"modified":"2014-12-01T22:41:22","modified_gmt":"2014-12-01T22:41:22","slug":"a-winters-day-at-the-bellet-portes-ouvertes-open-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/belletwine.com\/?p=509","title":{"rendered":"A winter’s day at the Bellet “Portes Ouvertes” open weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bellet vineyards host two open day ‘Portes Ouvertes’\u00a0weekends a year – one in May with the new vintage, the other at the end of November – to provide an opportunity for customers to visit each of the domaines in a festive\u00a0atmosphere and taste Bellet wines in-situ. We went along for the second day.\u00a0Despite the heavy grey clouds and blustery winds, the weather remained dry, so\u00a0there was\u00a0a good turnout of visitors. The Saturday had been less well attended, possibly due to a rugby match in the stadium below the vineyards in Bellet.<\/p>\n

\"portes
Tasting at Domaine de la Source<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We\u00a0started at Domaine de la Source<\/a> where the Dalmasso family were all there serving wine, preparing and serving lunch and chatting to clients. This\u00a0great family atmosphere typifies this estate.<\/p>\n

With slices of pissaladi\u00e8re<\/em> and socca<\/em><\/a> fresh from the oven, both matching well with their gutsy white 2013 (100% Rolle) and fresh, mineral\u00a0ros\u00e9 2013 (100% Braquet).<\/p>\n

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\"Eric
Eric Dalmasso making Socca<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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The lunch provided to clients was a brilliant idea as Bellet, a wine producing region, is in the strange situation of having very few\u00a0restaurants, and even fewer offering\u00a0Bellet wines. So,\u00a0on Sunday especially, visitors are hard pushed to find anywhere to eat, and\u00a0– instead of staying in Bellet for the whole day – may\u00a0return home.<\/p>\n

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\"wine<\/a>
Pierre, Becky, me, Chrissie and David<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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I had arranged to\u00a0meet Becky and Pierre of Nice Wine Tours <\/a>and Chrissie McClatchy of Riviera Grapevine<\/a>\u00a0for lunch here. To accompany the polenta with tomato sauce and sausages, we had\u00a0their\u00a0red 2012 wine (largely Folle Noir), full of ripe red berry and plum fruit and ripe supple tannins. With the\u00a0dessert of\u00a0fig and apple tart, we had coffee with\u00a0Domaine de la Source’s eau de vie.<\/p>\n

\"chrissie<\/a>
Becky and Chrissie chatting at Chateau de Bellet<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We then drove up the road to Chateau de Bellet<\/a>, which, since its purchase<\/a> by La Fran\u00e7aise Real Estate Manager (FREM), is no longer a family domaine. Ghislain de Charnac\u00e9, the former owner of Chateau de Bellet and his father have been leading lights in the appellation since\u00a01941.<\/p>\n

I had been hoping that we would get to see some of the new rooms being built by FREM but the tasting was in the elegant tasting room by the chateau, I tasted the three wines from the Chateau de Bellet’s “Baron G” range: white 2012 (mainly\u00a0Rolle), ros\u00e9 2013 (Braquet) and red 2012 (largely Folle Noir). The white, with fresh apple and nut fruit and crisp acidity, was more delicate than that of La Source, the pale ros\u00e9 more structural,\u00a0while the\u00a0red 2012 was a little closed on the fruit (these will re-emerge) and had\u00a0fine elegant and firm tannins.<\/p>\n

Our final visit was to Domaine St Jean<\/a>, run by Nathalie and Jean-Patrick Pacioselli.<\/p>\n

Nathalie aims for intense concentrated fruit in her wines, even if this\u00a0means a smaller yield. Their ros\u00e9 2013 (Braquet) shows wonderful floral fragrant fruit typical of Braquet when allowed to fully express its character. Their unoaked white 2013 has ripe apple, cream and nutty fruit. With the 2012 vintage they have started to age some of their white wine in oak. The 2012 was matured\u00a0in new barrels and is still very\u00a0oaky, needing more time to mature. I asked Jean-Patrick for a cask sample of next year’s\u00a0oaked white (2013) to get\u00a0an idea of the next\u00a0release. This was less oaky, as half is aged\u00a0in new barrels, half in those used for the 2012,\u00a0and was better balanced with good weight and creamy nutty fruit.<\/p>\n

\"st<\/a>
A selection of chocolates from Choco Mon Amour<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Pacioselli’s have an artistic eye when it comes to the various partnerships and promotions they\u00a0organise. For today they arranged for a chocolate-maker to offer chocolates matched to the domaine’s\u00a0red wine.<\/p>\n

Sara Kitsas, whose husband is chocolatier<\/em>\u00a0at Choco Mon Amour<\/a>, was there to show us their\u00a0chocolates.\u00a0Surprisingly the red wine\u00a0(2012, 60% Folle Noir and 40% Grenache) – despite its\u00a0dry, tannic structure – went superbly with the bitter dark chocolate,\u00a0which\u00a0accentuated the cherry confit and spice character of the red wine.<\/p>\n

\"St<\/a>
St Jean red wine with a chocolate “cheese”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Domaine St Jean are\u00a0marketing a number of gift packs with the red wine and chocolate. I particularly liked the fake cheese board – with the cheeses made of chocolate.<\/p>\n

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The three main varieties found in the wines of Bellet are Braquet<\/a>, Folle Noir<\/a> and Rolle.<\/p>\n

See also Chrissie’s blog<\/a> on the varietal make up of the wines.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bellet vineyards host two open day ‘Portes Ouvertes’\u00a0weekends a year – one in May with the new vintage, the other at the end of November – to provide an opportunity for customers to visit each of the domaines in a festive\u00a0atmosphere and taste Bellet wines in-situ. We went along for the second day.\u00a0Despite the heavy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[7,9,10,12,14,15,17,25,30],"class_list":["post-509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bellet-portes-ouvertes","tag-braquet","tag-chateau-de-bellet","tag-choco-mon-amour","tag-domaine-de-la-source","tag-domaine-st-jean","tag-folle-noir","tag-rolle","tag-wine-and-chocolate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/belletwine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/belletwine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/belletwine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/belletwine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/belletwine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/belletwine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/belletwine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/belletwine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/belletwine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}