Yawn: yet another luxury "spec edit" Champagne

Champagne Gosset has launched one of those "luxury positioned" (like perfume or posh luggage) champers just in time for Christmas! This "limited edition special cuvée" (well, you'd hope so really) is "a blend of 12 Grands Crus and Premiers Crus from 2004 and 2002." I'd imagine it's very nice and must be a bargain (not) at £85 (unless a British supermarket gets hold of it and allegedly starts giving it away along with those other too-good-to-be-true offers flying around). Mind you, since it's banker bonus season again, no doubt posh champers like this will be flowing merrily anyway.

Lost sheep and sweeties

After telling off sweet Muscat producers in my "Maury" post below and following on from ewes' milk cheese and wine pairing under "Twitter" below that; these wines are actually pretty good with arguably France's best-known sheep cheese, the blue tangy salty Roquefort. There's a great generic TV ad in France for this cheese, by the way. Kind of wild windy rustic and mystical. I did already post this as a "comment" but it doesn't seem to show up without clicking on a link. Oh well...

Wine Travel Guides special offer

As well as "the huge amount of information now free to view on our website," explains owner & publisher Wink Lorch, there's a special discount on Gold Membership (allows you unlimited access including downloadable PDF files of all guides, which aren't free) running until 9th January 2010. Simply "use the promotional code D2GIFT1209 to purchase Gold Membership for only £20 (around US$34) instead of £29. Copy and paste it into the box on the "Gift Membership" page and click enter." So, get planning that wine and food trip now! Guides cover most of France's wine regions plus Tuscany and Rioja. I'm the contributor/writer for Languedoc & Roussillon, by the way, just to state any "interest" if there is any as such (I'm freelance not an employee, I mean). Go to www.winetravelguides.com.

"Wine tasting supper" in Maury

In the unlikely event you're passing through the village of Maury (north Roussillon) on a Friday or Saturday in December, call in at the Maison du Terroir (on the right on the way in from Estagel before the co-op) at teatime (what a quaintly English word) for a bite to eat and taste some of the local wines with the winemakers. Sounds like fun. Today and tomorrow the focus is on Vins Doux Naturels (mostly rich red Maury I'd imagine) including new release "Christmas" Muscat. The latter can be very nice but too often an overpriced example of canny marketing. Ho hum. Anyway, the "gouter de Noel" costs €6 with snacks made by chef Pascal Borrell.

Twitter

Following the herd like a lost sheep, I'm now on twitter.com/WineWriting too. Nothing wrong with that though, I like ewes' milk cheeses actually. Hmm, I think there could be a "great wine & cheese" matches post coming on...
Update - I've abandoned twitter, good for celeb gossip but not much else (never say never though)...