Gamay sans Tra La La 2010

We took this wine on a picnic this week. Well, a sort of picnic. We took the day ferry from Poole to Cherbourg (narrowly missing the floods) and decided to forgo the delights of the cafeteria service and take our own sandwiches (parma ham and basil, since you ask).



A bright breezy gamay, served well chilled seemed the perfect accompaniment and so it proved. It was utterly delicious, full of wild berry fruit with a whiff of white pepper and a slightly earthy edge that stopped it being jammy.



It comes from Domaine de la Garrelière a biodynamically run estate in Touraine and is made with natural yeasts, unfined and unfiltered. Sans Tra La La, for those of you who don't speak French, roughly translates as gamay without fuss (or, more accurately, pretension).



Amazingly the remaining half bottle survived a 9 hour car journey and an overnight stay on our route to the Auverge and was still as fresh as a daisy, two days later. A genuine vin de soif.



You can buy it from Caves de Pyrène and Vinceremos for around £10-11 though the latter only seem to have the 2009 vintage currently.