Invitare to La Chêne

It was a gorgeous warm evening last night, just the right temperature to sit out and enjoy some cheese and wine with friends.

Brian wanted to start with a bottle of Invitare from M. Chapoutier, a wine producer in the north of the Rhone valley. It’s made with the Viognier grape, known for its strong stone fruit flavours, like apricots and peaches. This one did not disappoint, it was rich, oily, and full of flavours of summer stone fruits.

I brought the cheeses out, all soft cheeses from around France. A nicely ripe Brie de Meaux; a Saint-Félicien, soft and extra creamy; a Saint-Aubin; a Pont-l’Évêque—which was probably the strongest-smelling cheese on the board, but delicious and one of my favourites—and a Délice de Bourgogne, a soft, light, and wonderfully creamy cheese from Burgundy. Which is definitely a favourite of mine.

We then moved onto a Pinot noir from Sancerre, an area about two hours drive from us, and a region we love.

This wine didn’t disappoint either. It was a 2003, and had spent time in a very special oak barrel. The wood from the barrel had come from an old oak tree that had stood near the village for hundreds of years, but had been blown down in a storm. So that it could live on, the villagers all decided it would be a good idea to make oak barrels out of it, and to produce special wine from it ‘Le Chêne’. Thanks to the barrels, the wine enjoys soft vanilla notes behind the delicate taste of cherry and hints of fennel.

A perfectly delightful evening.