On Invitation wine and spirits

An evening of French wines

Sunday, December 08, 2013Me! In words

I was never a wine person. My initiation into wine drinking was with the sparkling variety and perhaps that was one of the clinching factors that allowed me to take to the beverage with a more open mind. My first experience of the Bouvet-Ladubay brand was at the Michelin event held in the city last year where the Rosé Excellence was served with dessert. Already a lover or Rosés by then, I was hooked. 

We recently received an invitation to meet with the makers of the 150-year old Bouvet-Ladubay wine brand. Siblings Marie and Juliet Monmousseau are currently visiting the country to spread the good word on their wines. We met with Juliet, who is part of the family business from the wine perspective. Marie, being a chef, and soon to open her own restaurant in France, is the brains behind food pairings done at various events across the world with the family's wines. 

Juliet Monmousseau - Deputy Managing Director - Bouvet-Ladubay


The Bouvet Ladubay Winery is at the Samur Valley in Loire, France. With a history dating back to more than a 150 years, these wine makers use the “method traditionaelle” to create their wines. The Méthode Traditionelle way of making sparkling wine is based on the methods that were first developed in the Champagne region of France. This is a labor intensive method and each bottle takes a significant amount of time to reach retail shelves. An important part of this process is where the sparkling or the secondary fermentation occurs in the bottle. Bouvet Wines are kept for around 2 years in the bottle before they come into the market. In India, these wines are in the Rs 1800 range. 


The first wine we tasted that evening was the Bouvet Brut. With the bottle elegantly popped and the wine poured, Juliet took something out of her bag that seemed ethereal. A recently harvested black truffle from their hometown of Loire. The size of it, as you can see below was unbelieveable and the aroma intoxicating to say the least. This formed one of the many ingredients the sisters have brought down for their sojourn in India. 

The truffle we would have all loved to sneak into our bags 



Paneer (nice) and Chicken (tad bit chewy) skewers at Fava. May not be my first choice to pair with sparkling, but then that's the thing about wine. If you like it that way, then its good 


The second wine was the Bouvet Brut Rosé - a dry wine, perfect in my opinion with desserts. But then I like this so much that I can easily get through a bottle without anything on the side.  


A long shot of us at the wine tasting

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