I have to be honest, the first region I drew from the bucket was actually Lodi but I just couldn’t bring myself to kick off this project with some place local. So I snuck the little piece of paper back into the mix and tried again, this time pulling Saumur! It was perfect… I had never heard of this place and I was so excited to explore.

Saumur is located right in the middle of the Loire Valley in France and was once only known for its sparkling wines. Modern technology and better farming has allowed for a variety of beautiful still wines to flourish in the last few decades. The main grapes here are Chenin Blanc and Cabernet Franc. We opted for a Chateau de Breze (sorry couldn’t figure out how to easily add all the fun French embellishments to the letters) for the white wine and a Saumur Rouge from Domaine Collier.

This region is known for its fresh water fish, produce such as potatoes and shallots and locally-made goat cheese. We made trout with beurre blanc sauce, baby potatoes smothered in butter, and haricot vert cooked with shallots (oh, and butter).

The Chateau de Breze had a beautiful floral nose but then it punched you in the mouth with acidity. It was honestly a bit shocking at first but the mouth puckering was a perfect complement to the butter on butter on butter we were eating. We ended up enjoying this quite a lot! I could see why they used these grapes for sparkling wine for so long. We finished off our meal with some French goat cheese that was absolutely delicious and paired remarkably with the Domaine Collier. The wine had a beautiful earthiness to it along with good fruit and acid. We felt so French enjoying our lovely wine with our lovely cheese! These were two awesome wines that were so different from what we’re used to drinking and overall a wonderful way to kick off this project! Too bad it was a Thursday and we had to deal with a wine hangover the next day at work…..