Lunch and wine tasting at Pintray - 1

2007 - Remember the first prize we won in the quiz on the Touraine website? It included two wine tasting sessions: one AOC Montlouis and one AOC Chinon.
The first was at the Château de Pintray in Lussault-sur-Loire (west of Amboise), the manor where we were staying in a chambre d’hôtes. We arrived at Pintray at about one o’clock on the first day of our annual stay. We were greeted by Mrs. R., who immediately made us feel very welcome. We asked whether we could have our picnic lunch on the terrace and she quickly produced the necessary plates, glasses and cutlery (in spite of the fact that we told her we had everything we needed in our picnic hamper).

While we were having our lunch, Mr. R. came walking towards the house. He had been cutting the lawn with his little tractor and looked dirty and sweaty. He came to greet us, extending his right wrist to shake instead of his smudged hand. When he saw that we were drinking water, he proposed to get us a bottle of his chilled white wine. An offer we couldn’t and didn’t refuse.
At the Amboise market earlier that day we had bought two small ripe avocados, a piece of fresh salmon and one egg. The picnic hamper supplied the rest of the ingredients to make a salmon tartar: olive oil, pepper and coarse sea salt. All throughout the meal we had the company of the yellow Labradors of the house. My friend had given them the egg white (as you only need the yolk to make a tartar) and they were hoping that there was more to come. Their patience was rewarded as there were some salmon leftovers.
We had finished our lunch and were just packing up when Mr. R. came out of the kitchen and asked us when we wanted to have the ‘winning’ wine tasting session. We decided to have a walk and a nap first and agreed to meet him in the winery on the other side of the courtyard at 6 p.m.
“Perfect, I’ll see you then”, he said walking away in the direction of the vineyard.
After an invigorating walk and a restoring nap and shower we went down to the winery. Mr. R. was already waiting for us … still wearing the same sweaty T-shirt and dusty shorts. He had set out some glasses on the table and invited us to sit down. Holding an open bottle in his hand he started to explain the history of the Château de Pintray and how he had become a ‘vigneron’.
(to be continued)

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