45 kilometres east of Bordeaux, Blasimon is perched on a hillside overlooking the Gamage, a tributary of the Dordogne. Its hilly sites and its calm make it an ideal place to relax. A Village of medieval origin, its origin reflects the traditional organization of the bastides. The city conceals one of the Romanesque jewels of the Gironde, the Benedictine abbey of the X-XIII th centuries.
Also worth seeing are the medieval mills of Labarthe and Borie, the remains of the feudal Castle of Blasimon, the manor house of Pousse-Bourre, the church of Piis and the ruins of the Bonne Nouvelle chapel. The Cave Coopérative was created in 1935 and brings together winegrowers who have owned properties that have been handed down for several generations. It has a production capacity of 56,000 hectolitres of red wines with the "Bordeaux" appellation and white wines with the "Bordeaux" and "Entre-deux-Mers" appellations. Throughout the year, the Vine is surrounded by intensive care, the culture is always done according to very precise rules.
Premium wine sales enjoyed a spike in the US last year, continuing a general trend towards higher-priced bottles, suggests data in the latest state of the industry report from Silicon Valley Bank’s (SVB) wine division. It reported a sales growth rate of 21% in 2021, based on figures from premium wineries in its database. That’s the biggest rise since 2007, it said, adding that the average case price among this group was $271 in 2021, up from $241 in 2020 and $262 in 2019. The increase was ...
That represents a 69% increase on the 5.5 million bottles sold in 2019, highlighting the exponential growth the industry has enjoyed in recent years. Brits account for 96% of the sales, but demand is increasing in export markets too. English and Welsh wines have proved particularly popular in Scandinavia, with exports to Norway rising by 85% year-on-year in 2021. In the UK, more than half of the sales are direct-to-consumer, either via the cellar door or a winery’s website. However, sales in sup ...
Our feet crunched through layers of dry oak leaves as we climbed a pebbly path towards the vineyards behind the farmhouse. Roots go deep here. Not just the tall oaks and squat vines, but families too. I walked the vineyards at Mas de Libian with Hélène Thibon, but it was her father Jean-Pierre that greeted me when I arrived. Hélène’s sister Catherine was out front with Bambi the horse, ploughing the sandier plots. Later, we tasted in the winery with Hélène’s son Aurélien. Three generations of a ...
