Veuve Fourny Champagne Tasting at Bleu Cellar and Kermit Lynch
- Stevan Stanisic
- Oct 1, 2013
- 3 min read
Bleu Provence (Bleu Provence) is a French restaurant next to Crayton Cove (Crayton Cove) in Naples, FL. They have been around in some form or fashion for 14 years.
About a year and half ago they opened up a retail wine space next to the restaurant, Bleu Cellar (Bleu Cellar).
Bleu Cellar has an extensive wine selection.
Many of the wines come from Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant (Kermit Lynch) but more on M. Lynch later.
One of the crown jewels of the Naples dining scene are the wine tastings they have here. Most of the time they are at no cost to the participants. The tastings are usually very well attended.
On this day it was a champagne tasting of the vintner, Veuve Fourny (Veuve Fourny). They have been in the biz since 1856.
There were 4 champagnes sampled.
The first champagne sampled was a blanc-de-blanc.
These champagnes are crafted from chardonnay grapes. In terms of sweetness, it was an extra brut which means it has a very low sugar content, one of the lowest and is one of the driest.
The second wine was also an extra brut.
The last two wines were brut, a tad sweeter.
The third wine was a vintage (Vintage Grapes) champagne. These are grapes from a single year. This is typically done when growing conditions that year have produced a very good grape.
The last offering was a rose champagne.
Rose champagne is usually more expensive than champagne. The champagne region though is the only place in the world where it is legal to mix red and white wine to produce rose. That’s cheating!
There are always some nice nibbles at these events.
Another very cool thing is that sometimes the vintners themselves show up for these things.
Charles-Henry Fourny was here for the tasting
which gave participants an opportunity to hear about their champagne from the horse’s mouth.
Now for Kermit Lynch (KL). Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant is a major player in the wine distribution business in this country (Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant). Mr. Lynch is a bit different than most. He is a wine activist and has really raised the bar as far as the quality of imported wine goes in the United States.
He is quite the renaissance man. Besides being a very successful businessman and wine expert, he is also an accomplished musician (Kermit Lynch Musician) and author (Kermit Lynch Author).
All of this has resulted in him receiving two very prestigious awards from France. The first being the Chavalier de l’Ordre National de Merite Agricole (Merite Agricole) which is a knight of the National Order of Agricultural Merit. The second being a Chavalier de Ordre de la National Legion d’Honneur (Legion of Honor) or knight of the National Order of the Legion of Honor, France’s highest honor. Throw in a James Beard Foundation (James Beard Foundation) award and all the other accomplishments and Bob’s your uncle (Bob’s Your Uncle). There you have KL.
Talking about KL the author, the owner of Bleu Provence, Jacques, told me KL was releasing a new book in November. To celebrate, he will be having a tasting at Blue Cellar in November with 3 vintners represented by M. Lynch. Can’t wait.
Well that’s that. Another review on forks.
Blue Provence and Blue Cellar
1234 8th St. South
Naples, FL 34102
(239)261-8239
Read reviews of BLEU Provence
Comments