|
Thursday, 17 April 2008 |
The most southerly of the northern Rhône vineyards, Saint-Péray lies on the west side of the river in the Ardèche (07). It is a tiny appellation, scarcely 50 hectares, yielding still and sparkling white wines. Soils are a mixture of granite, extending from neighbouring Cornas, to chalky limestone so beloved of white grapes. Only two grapes are allowed, the marsanne and roussanne. Saint-Péray AC has a small, but growing, export market.
There is no saint called Péray: the name is a corruption in the local patois of Saint-Pierre-de-Ay. The village was built to provide labour and services to the Château de Beauregard, residence of the bailiff of Crussol, Claude de Lamotte. Built in 1640 it replaced his original home destroyed during the religious wars.
Nearly two centuries later, in 1824, a new caviste fromthe Champagne region was employed by the château.
He introduced sparkling wine made in the style developed by Dom Pérignon of Hautvillers. Since then generations of local vignerons have made sparkling wines in the ‘traditional’ method. Some 20 vintners and one co-operative make Saint-Péray wines, many of them also making AC red wine on parcels of vines in neighbouring Cornas.
Roussanne: Because it is low yielding and can be ‘irregular’ in its growth, this temperamental vine with its late bud burst, late ripening and sensitivity to oïdium and grey rot, is now playing second fiddle to the marsanne. It can give some excellent wines with flowery and honey-like aromas but with low acidity.
Marsanne: A high yielding grape, but also susceptible to diseases, and low in acidity. It does not have the same depth of either aroma or taste, but modern wine technology improves the quality of its wines and it is now more widely planted than the roussanne.
Saint-Péray – sparkling wines Low acidity tends to make a rather full and fat sparkling wine. The mousse is lasting in the glass and maintains its depth in the mouth. A good accompaniment to sponge cakes at teatime but not to dishes using citrus fruits. With aromas of white flowers, mainly acacia and hawthorn, the wines are fairly full-bodied, with a medium length of finish. Prices around E10.
Saint-Péray – still winesWith similar aromas, fairly rounded and full, the best accompaniment is fish such as salmon and sander, but not shellfish. Prices from E7.50 to E20 a bottle.
Three independent Saint-Péray producers of note:
Domaine Charbaud, where Stéphane Charbaud, the sixth generation, makes excellent Saint-Péray, Cornas and Saint-Joseph (04 75 40 31 63).
Cave Thiers, EARL Biguet: Jean-Louis and Françoise Thiers gained entry in 2007 into the famed ‘Guide Hachette’' for both still and sparkling Saint-Péray (04 75 40 49 44).
Domaine Alain Voge: Alberic Mazoyer in Cornas, although best known for his AC Cornas red wines, produces sparkling and still Saint-Péray, and in 2008 will release for the first time a pétillant version that is 100% marsanne (04 75 40 32 04).
All three producers welcome visitors but please give them a call in advance.
Farmer’s goat cheese from Provence
Many small fermier fromagers only produce enough to attend one or two local markets, selling the rest at the farm gate or to local hotels and restaurants. At the market in Lorgues, I discovered a real gem. In a 17th-century farmhouse in the hills above Taradeau near Draguignan (Var), Florence and Philippe Bertin produce goat’s and cow’s milk cheeses and honey from bees which feed on pollen from local lavender and other Provençal flowers.
The cows are pastured in fields near the farm but most of the 75 goats are free to roam and forage over several hundred hectares of scrubland. “Getting them in for milking can be a problem, but on arrival there is always a treat in store for the ‘boss lady goat’,” said Florence. “We make a variety of cheeses, pure goat’s milk, half goat’s and half cow’s and a little cow’s milk cheese in the summer.” Setting up in 1977, the Bertins have learned over the years to make what their customers fancy: traditional hard tomme, soft fresh goat cheeses with herbs on the inside and outside, a cindered cheese – even goat’s milk camembert and reblochon. “We have a number of British residents and visitors locally and in summer our cheeses are often totally sold out,” said Florence. The farm shop is open in the mornings only, but Florence sets her stand up in the markets of Lorgues on Tuesday, Draguignan on Saturday and Taradeau on Sunday.
Florence and Philippe Bertin,
Ferme de Belveset, 83460 Taradeau.
04 94 73 67 52
|
|
|
Thursday, 17 April 2008 |
Lesser Celandine or Pilewort
Ficaire, Petite Chélidoine, Ranunculus ficaria (Latin).
The lesser celandine is a common early spring flower yet last year it was difficult to find. This year, it is in abundance but then the weather has been particularly mild. Botanists classify it as a buttercup but, apart from the yellow flowers, it is hard to see much relationship.
Generally buttercups are poisonous, but the young leaves of this plant can be eaten in a salad. The glossy, thickish heart-shaped leaves, often marked with a dark central stripe or whitish blotches, are not at all like those of the usual buttercups. Buttercups have five petals but this species has anything between eight and twelve. There are three sepals (not five) hiding underneath the petals. The flowers fold up at night and in low temperatures. Another botanical oddity is that the germinating seeds only have one seed leaf. These structural features all suggest that, in evolutionary terms, the plant is close to the ancestors of both branches of flowering plants – the dicotyledons and the monocotyledons (which include grasses, onions and lilies).
But the very glossy petals reveal the buttercup relation. They are unusual among flowers and possibly unique to buttercups. Remember the game ‘Do you like butter?’ as a yellow light is reflected onto a child’s chin from a shiny flower held below. The pip-like fruits, arranged in a spiral heap on each flower base are also characteristic of the buttercups.
There is some mystery about its name. The French ficaire and the Latin ficaria are said to refer to the roots looking like a bunch of figs (Latin ficus). I can’t agree. The roots are a tiny bunch of elongated tubers, which some ancient herbalist claimed looked like haemorrhoids or piles, explaining the name of pilewort. The French even list it as herbe aux hémorrhoides. The ancient herbalists followed the misleading ‘law of signatures’ whereby a similarity to the symptoms was considered a cure for the affliction. Further confusion comes from the same name being used for a quite unrelated plant – the greater celandine. Celandine and chélidoine both derive from the Greek word for a swallow. The only reason for this seems utterly absurd: the Greeks (according to Aristotle) had a myth that swallows fed the lesser or the greater (probably the greater) celandines to their nestlings to improve their eyesight.
If you see the flower, search for tiny swellings or bulbils in the axils of the leaves. One subspecies has them, another does not. They readily fall off and create new plants. But its seeds are mostly infertile. In my region, I have so far only found the subspecies without these bulbils.
Gardens Galore
The www.parcsetjardins.fr website (under ‘Qui Sommes Nous’ you’ll find a presentation in English) claims to list all the parks and gardens in France. There is a scalable map for finding gardens in a given area.
Not listed, though, is the ‘Jardins de la Brande’, midway between Bergerac and Périgueux (24), which is holding an exhibition of little-known plants on May 3 and 4.
On a grander scale the Domaine de Saint Jean de Beauregard (91) hosts its ‘Fête des plantes vivaces’ on April 10, 11 and 12, with this year’s theme ‘les valeurs sûres du jardin’. Conferences led by experts address topical and traditional issues; there is a bourse des plantes and a children’s workshop. The festival is held in the grounds of the château, a historic monument open to the public. The entry fee (e8-11; under-10s free) includes a shuttle from the gare d’Orsay.
At Chaumont-sur-Loire their international festival opens on April 30 and runs all summer. The park, designed by Jacques Wirtz, contains 26 individual enclosed gardens where, from hundreds of hopefuls worldwide, selected designers develop their own version of the contemporary, fun (as illustrated) and futuristic.
Garden passion at the Domaine du Coq, Mérignac (33) covers perhaps the most ground, thematically at least. Jean Michel Bertrand has developed this free event to include growers, wickerwork, bees, handicrafts, animals, garden machinery, sculpture, ornaments, and an official opening by gardening expert and author Philippe Prévôt.
Jardins de la Brande
Philippe Burey, 24380 Fouleix
05 53 07 47 85
Domaine de Saint Jean de Beauregard (91940)
www.domsaintjeanbeauregard.com 01 60 12 00 01
www.chaumont-jardins.com
02 54 20 99 22
Domaine du Coq
April 12 and 13
33700 Mérignac
05 56 34 30 87
www.collectionp.com
|
|
|
Thursday, 17 April 2008 |
Hot off the press are two infectious and totally different CDs. Each explores an unusual and rarely-heard repertoire: two worlds apart, they inhabit the same artistic ambiance. What’s more they are played superbly well by two supremely gifted young French musicians with a love for the music.
Paul Dukas is not a household name, unlike Ravel through his timeless ‘Boléro’ and Debussy through his highly imaginative, Impressionist-inspired piano pieces. But Walt Disney discovered Dukas’s tone poem, ‘The Sorcerer’s Apprentice’, back in 1940 and used it to great effect in ‘Fantasia’. Today the recording company, Calliope, has just issued the collected piano works of Paul Dukas (1865-1935), neatly and imaginatively played by Olivier Chauzu: a young pianist who’s equally at home with the works of Dukas’s Spanish contemporary, Isaac Albéniz (1860-1909).
 
The CD opens with a set of variations on a theme of Rameau, an artist much admired by Dukas. This is followed by the 1901 piano sonata, considered to be one of the finest of all French piano works. Equally affecting are ‘La plainte, au loin du faune’ and the ‘Prélude élégiaque sur le nom de Haydn’, two short pieces completing this admirably-compiled disc. With only four piano works to his name, Dukas has remained in the twilight for far too long.
If Paul Dukas doesn’t quite hit the household name charts, then try the Forqueray family: a late French Baroque father and son team. The father, Antoine, was a contemporary of Dukas’ idol, Rameau (1683 1764) a gifted viola da gamba player who, at the age of five, played to Louis XIV. The son, Jean-Baptiste, transcribed his father’s suites (originally composed for viola da gamba) in 1747. Bring in the excellent instrument made by Anthony Sidey, modelled on a Ruckers-Hemsch harpsichord of Forqueray’s time, and the French harpsichordist and musicologist, Blandine Rannou, who’s been passionate about Forqueray since 2001, and you’ve got a perfect mix.
Out since March 13, Rannou’s latest release on Zig-Zag Territoires, is the culmination of years of study of this quintessentially French baroque composer.
 
With enticing names such as ‘La Boisson’, ‘Jupiter’, ‘La Morangis ou La Plissay’ and ‘Le Carillon de Passy’, the six suites, recorded on two CDs, are presented in an impressive light and made all the more effective by Rannou’s mastery.
Both CDs come complete with texts in French and English and, for lovers of the unusual, they make an intriguing addition to an already adventurous library.
Paul Dukas: Intégrale de l’oeuvre pour piano. Olivier Chauzu, piano.
Calliope 9388, www.calliope.tm.fr
Antoine Forqueray: Works for viola da gamba transcribed for harpsichord
Blandine Rannou, harpsichord. Zig-Zag Territoires ZZT080301.2
www.zigzag-territoires.com
Concert diary dates
Olivier Chauzu, FNAC de Ternes (Paris), 24/04 at 5.30pm
Blandine Rannou, Festival Printemps des Arts de Monte-Carlo, 04/04.
Time to be arranged. Contact Florence Petros 06 86 41 74 73
|
|
|
Thursday, 17 April 2008 |
So, what do you know about French music? Here’s a quick quiz to test your knowledge:
1. Which town in the Cher did Jacques Brel visit in his song?
2. Which French singer derived her stage name from a bird?
3. What plant did Jacques Dutronc sing about?
4. Which controversial French singer made a reggae version of the Marseillaise and said, “je t’aime moi non plus”?
5. Name a famous French song that most people attribute to Frank Sinatra.
6. Which singer recently won ‘Best Newcomer’ and ‘Best Album’ at the recent French record industry awards?
If you managed to answer the first five questions correctly, congratulations. Though you are still firmly stuck in the latter years of the twentieth century, you know something about French music.
Number six was perhaps more difficult. The young man in question is Renan Luce. A fresh-faced, curly-haired songster, bursting with talent, Mr Luce is the latest exponent of what the music industry calls
‘la nouvelle scène Française’ – the new French music scene.
Mr Luce has just released a rather fine album entitled ‘Le repenti’. It has overtones of Brassens and is an excellent example of that French musical genre, ‘chanson à texte’. Catchy songs, with lyrics about the trials and tribulations of life, love and the meaning of both. ‘Le repenti’ recently won the award for best album, and Mr Luce the award for best newcomer at the prestigious French music industry awards.
If all this sounds like your musical ‘tasse de thé’, why not nip along to Bourges where this year, as for the past 31 years, small-town France will welcome the world in music. From April 15 to 20, The Printemps de Bourges offers a unique opportunity for you to discover the best in French and international talent.
So you have never heard of the Printemps de Bourges. Every year though, the five-day festival attracts more than 100,000 concert-goers, 2,000 music professionals and 250 artists playing in 10 venues – from the town’s cathedral to the specially erected 6,000-place marquee.
The Printemps is a cut above all those other ‘music’ festivals. For starters the punters don’t spend days on end sliding round in mud and craning their necks to see their favourite stars on a video. The Printemps is a civilised affair. For an average of e30 per gig, you are pretty much guaranteed a comfy seat in a fully air-conditioned venue. Unlike other rock festivals, the punters are not confined to a field ‘à la Glastonbury’ or an enclosure, as happens at the ‘Francofollies’ in La Rochelle. The Printemps de Bourges sprawls throughout the town. There is both liberty and civilisation in the option of dining in the medieval old town before strolling through the cobbled streets for an intimate rendez-vous with Yael Naim or Rickie Lee Jones.
This year, the organisers of the festival have concocted a rich and diverse programme. If you have not heard of all the performers, you will. Come September, many of these acts will be headline news and you’ll be paying far more than e30 to see them in vast big city venues.
So, what have we got?
The festival kicks off with Renan Luce and Christophe Willem. The latter won the 2006 ‘Recherche pour la Nouvelle Star’, the French version of ‘Pop Idol’. Don’t let this put you off though:
Mr Willem is a consummate performer with a voice that Mika would dream of.
On the 17th, Thomas Dutronc, son of the famous father, shares a stage with French pop revelation ‘Cali’. Appearing on the same evening and at the same venue is Israeli songstress and ‘new soul icon’ Yael Naim. She has recently been riding high in the charts, as have the Franco-American ‘folk’ ensemble ‘Moriarty’. Their new single, ‘Jimmy’, is currently airing on all the nation’s radio stations and music TV channels. Critics describe their music style as “somewhere between the America of fantasies, and a far-out Europe, ... music straight off the soundtrack of some Far West road movie”.
Catherine Ringer, the distinctive voice of the ‘Rita Mitsouko’ takes up her national tour where it left off after the untimely death of her lifelong partner and guitarist Fred Chichin. Ms Ringer will be in town on April 18.
For the best and latest thing in French rock, I strongly recommend you take in the ‘B B Brunes’ on Wednesday April 16. The BBs are playing support to the British group ‘Baby Shambles’ and their emblematic front man, Pete Doherty, providing that he isn’t in prison or in rehab. There is also a spot of Brighton rock on the same bill with the Kooks.
The big event of the week is undoubtedly Rickie Lee Jones. Her appearance at the festival on Thursday April 17 is her only French date this year.
If rock and pop aren’t quite your thing, the festival is hosting a rap, hip-hop and electro night on Wednesday April 16. Undisputed star of the evening will be the French rapper ‘Sinik’ whose latest single includes a guest appearance by James Blunt. Reggae fans would be well advised to see ‘Far Freddy’s Drop’ on Friday April 18.
As usual, and unlike ‘Les Franco Follies’ the town’s numerous bars and cafés will be staging their own parallel but complementary festival ‘Les printemps dans les bars’. Most bars rev up at six and continue into the wee small hours with as many as six groups in the one day. All of this is free.
Ambiance guaranteed.
Finally, to soothe the nerves, what about a Bach recital on Saturday April 19 in the cathedral...
If you can’t get to the festival, you can always see it live on TV. Ray Cokes – French TV’s only English presenter – will host his show ‘En Direct 2’, on France 4 at 8.45pm on Saturday April 19. In the studio, Ray will be interviewing the best up-and-coming French bands, which will also be playing live. Fans of Ray Cokes can catch him in one of our future issues.
Come on down to deepest France. We’ll be happy to see you.
You can buy tickets and find full information on the festival and all the parallel events at the Printemps de Bourges website www.printemps.bourges.com
|
|
|
