Luciole Blog

25th September - 1st October 2016

This last week of September has been another great one, with a really wonderful and easy going group of passengers joining us from all across the world. Between them forging friendships and memories that will last a lifetime. Fred with his indispensible skills behind the wheel of the barge, plus his production of a bottle of fig liquor to put a fire in all of our bellies after Captain's dinner! Joe with his pretty impressive scottish impression(that or Tony the Tiger) to make Jade feel more at home. Sandra and Sheila sat on the deck, putting the world to rights and gossiping the days away, or trying their best to embarrass Sandra's daughter and our lovely hostess Emma!

With the end of September upon us and Autumn transforming the land, we find Burgundy to be a hive of activity as the grape harvest is collected, as well as all the wild fruit trees producing their bounty just waiting to be foraged by a passing opportunist. This week it was the Luciole and her crew unable to pass up on the opportunity to make off with a few bushels of apples, a handful or two of walnuts and 2 rather sour peaches. Thankfully we have our master chef Jade onboard to make something of all those foraged apples, producing a delicious batch of eves pudding, a favourite recipe of her grandmother and certainly popular around these parts now!

Thanks to the grape harvest or "Vendange" reaching the domaine of Jean-Marc Brocard along with the other wineries of Chablis, we had the chance this week to not only take our excellent tour around the Domaine, but also to see grapes being delivered and crushed. Chablis' hugely popular guide Sebastien also invited Andy and our passengers to try the freshly squeezed juice that will go on to become Premiere Cru Montmains. The juice was deep green and very cloudy, but delicious according to everyone fortunate enough to try it. Following this, Sebastien produced the finished Montmains from last year, along with no fewer than 7 other excellent Chablis wines, including 2 bio-dynamic wines from Julien Brocard. Even following all of that with a helping of pate and bread, perfectly paired with their 2009 Grand Cru Valmur. What a treat!