Coutet lover’s food and wine pairing
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From Australia, wine lover Ian Vallance first visited Château Coutet in 2012. Since then, we have had the pleasure of staying in touch. A couple months ago Ian mentioned his desire to organize a wine tasting dinner and asked for our advice in terms of food pairing ideas with gold wines. Ian shared with us the result -- a dinner that included Château Coutet's 1985, 1989 and 20... |
The Château: Traced back to 1643, Château Coutet (pronounced Cootay or Cou-tett) is one of the oldest vineyards in France's Sauternes wine region. Standing over the main courtyard, the château's stout square tower with a flat crenellated top is believed to originate from the late 13th Century with a design typical of the military constructions from the time of Aquitaine's English occupation. A second tower, located in the property's most north...
The property encompasses 38.5 hectares (95 acres) of vines immediately surrounding the château on a flat plain 12 meters (40 feet) above sea level.
Château Coutet has a reddish-colored clay soil. A fine layer of gravel was deposited long ago by the Garonne River on certain vineyard plots, whereas others contain aeolian sand. Both cover a limestone sub-soil. Located between the Garonne and Ciron rivers, Château Coutet benefits from an optima...
Harvesting is done entirely by hand, one berry at a time, because grapes do not ripen at the same pace. In addition, the Botrytis cinerea attacks the vineyard sporadically. Therefore, grapes are picked over the course of several passages (tries) of the property, usually six to eight times, throughout the course of the harvest. To cover the entire estate, each tries takes a team of about 80 individuals an average of five days to complete.
Th...
Sauternes versus Barsac
The Sauternes appellation, located south of the city of Bordeaux, is part of the prestigious Bordeaux wine region. It is composed of two appellations whose terroir differ geologically: Sauternes and Barsac.
The appellation "Sauternes" per se, covers 4 communes, Preignac, Fargues, Sauternes and Bommes, lying between the Garonne and the Ciron rivers. The soil that characterizes this part of the appellation is mainly...
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