Wine and ... a computer crash

The Loire in Amboise, looking upstream.

It was almost three o’clock when we left the Lion d’Or and we still had one errand to run in Amboise. It took us back to the foot of the castle, where in the rock just beneath the château you’ll find ‘La Cave des Vignerons’, a wine cooperative counting some 10 or 12 grape growers from the Amboise Touraine AOC.

I was secretly hoping that my long-time friend Laetitia would be there. We met some ten years ago when she started as a junior assistant to Françoise, whom I had known since my very first visit in 1999. This time the ‘bar’ was manned by a middle-aged couple, though. I had never seen them before, but I assumed it was one of the cooperative’s members and his wife. When I asked about Laetitia the man confirmed that she was still employed there but didn’t work on weekends, when service was provided by the cooperative’s members on a voluntary base.

B. and J.L. at the Cave des Vignerons in Amboise,
tasting a delicious Rosé - Amboise AOC.

His wife produced three glasses from under the counter and asked us which wine we wanted to try. I asked for a red Gamay, as I thought it would go well with the BBQ. The woman looked puzzled though. ‘For a summery BBQ you need a Rosé’, she said and took a bottle from the fridge. After tasting it, the three of us agreed with her. This rosé was excellent, not too sweet, not too acid.

Next we tasted a red  Carbernet and a white Sauvignon. Both were excellent as well. As it was hard to choose and because we didn’t have the faintest idea of what our guests would like, we decided to splash out and buy a 5 litre BIB (bag-in-box) of each, the BIB having the added advantage that we didn’t need to bother about opening bottles and disposing of the ‘corpses’ (aka empty bottles).

We walked back to the car, each carrying a BIB. In the square we stopped for a minute to listen to a young accordeon player who was entertaining the crowds with a lively version of ‘Emporté par la foule’, a hit of the legendary Edith Piaf, who died, much too young in the sixties. 

*****
Last night, my laptop crashed. I was watching a nasty clip on YouTube in which English comedians were bashing on Belgium. Sorry guys, but I really don't know what we've done to England to deserve this, especially as all the so-called jokes were based on outdated clichés.
Maybe it was just that that caused my laptop to crash. All of a sudden it made a 'ssshhhhh' sound and went dead. I tried several times to restart it, but failed to do so ... until this morning. So I'm quickly posting on the blog, before the laptop decides to render its soul again.