Bonjour French Market Friends,
Headlines
this week in France is the nomination by President Macron of right-wing Michel Barnier as the new Prime Minister. This brings closure on a fair amount of political turmoil after the snap elections called in June, where no party won an outright majority. Hailing from the Haute-Savoie, he has served in several Cabinet positions in the French government and is well known for his position in the EU Parliament as chief negotiator of the Brexit negotiations, Barnier still has to form a government and get agreement on a budget which will be challenging.
Despite these exciting happenings on the political front, all the French wine regions are focussing on the start of La Vendange – the Harvest. The date is usually estimated as 100 days from the first flowers on the vines.
The harvest date is affected by the region and weather patterns. In the South and West, the harvest starts in August and in other cooler regions such as Cognac, Charentes and Lorraine it can take place as late as October. Commencement dates for picking the grapes are strictly controlled with different dates given for each grape type. The Ministry of Agriculture is predicting a drop in production of approximately 15% compared to last year, due to heavy rains which caused downy mildew in some regions and drought and fires in the warmer southern areas. Despite these challenges the anticipated 44 million hectolitres from this year’s harvest still represents a very large lake of wine. Here in our lovely city, the weather is definitely warming up with temperatures up in the 20Cs, and the leaves on our vines starting to grow. Tourists have already started arriving, which is a good sign for our local economy.
Newly arrived stock this week includes several goat’s milk cheeses from the Loire region. We have some Crottins de 
Chavignol AOC. This small, white, ball-shaped cheese made from raw goat’s milk comes from the area of the tiny town of Chavignol. The flavour develops as it ages, and the cheese gets drier and harder. The crust starts out as white then develops a blue grey colourin
g when it is mature. Also, from the Loire region we have the soft, fresh crottins de Chevre made from pasteurised goat’s milk. These small rounds of goat’s cheese are gentler flavoured and can be eaten as is or try baking on some bread and drizzled with honey. We have the buche de chevre which is a log shaped goat’s cheese with a white crust and crumbly centre, and we have a small buche St Maure which are small log shaped goat’s cheese with a soft texture and dusted with ash. Recommended wine pairing is Sauvignon Blanc, particularly the Comte de Lafond Sancerre from the same region.
In the sheep’s milk range we have Roquefort AOP, considered to be the King of the French blue 
cheese, this is only made from Lacaune sheep’s milk around the town of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon and aged in the Combalou caves close to the town. The texture is soft, crumbly and quite moist, the flavour is salty and strong. Roquefort can be served on a fresh baguette spread with a thick layer of butter, this softens the saltiness a little. Roqu
efort pairs well with a sweet wine such as a Sauternes. The other sheep’s milk cheese we have in stock is the Ossau Iraty AOC from the Basque region of the Pyrenees, it is the only name protected cheese from this region. This is only made with milk from the Manech or Basco-Bearnaise sheep. The crust is dry, and the cheese has a medium firm texture with a tasty but not too pungent flavour. Pair with a full flavoured Cotes du Rhone rouge Pavillon St Pierre. Plus, we have lots of beautiful cow’s milk cheese in stock.
We have received a new stock of the pure Duck liver mousse from St Orens in the Landes region down near the Spanish border. The mousse is rich and tasty, ideal to serve as a canape or starter on a slice of fresh baguette, you could add some of our Wilkin red onion chutney or fig preserve to enhance the flavour. As a wine pairing you could try it with some of our new range of Taylors Fine Tawny Port.
For my recipe this week I decided to share some little cheese biscuits made with Cantal cheese from the Auvergne. They are very easy to make, and they taste delicious. I suggest to pair with a Valmoissine Pinot Noir from the Vars region.
I wish you a warm Spring weekend accompanied by some good French cheese and a glass of French wine. If you are looking for a casual job I hear the vineyards in France are still looking for some grape pickers.
Regards
Suzanne and The French Market Team