There is a common misconception that being a wine merchant is a fantastic ‘lifestyle’ career and that we spend 90% of our time swanning around glamorous vineyards in warmer climes drinking wonderful wines and stuffing ourselves on the fantastic local cuisine. Well we do spend a fair amount of time doing just that and of course it’s very enjoyable but there can be a broad gulf between the public perception of a wine buying trip and the reality. Few people ponder upon the endless driving, bad hotel experiences, haggling over prices in a foreign language and soulless wines fairs. Not to mention a forced diet of andouillettes and fromage de tête and coping with the gastric crise that inevitably ensues – Raymond Briggs captures this experience well in Father Christmas goes on Holiday.

Relentlessly tasting young, often unfinished, wines can really take its toll which is why, rather like a flat stage in the Tour de France, the vineyards of Vouvray and Montlouis make for a welcome respite on a tasting trip. Thankfully there are no red wines to taste here and so no aggressive tannins to contend with, just fresh, clean, un-oaked still and sparkling wines made from Chenin Blanc.

Rillettes and crottins de chèvre chez Aubert

In the Coquette Valley in Vouvray Didier Aubert makes classic wines by traditional methods. His marvellous Vouvray Mousseux Brut is hand-riddled and bottle-fermented. It has a toasty nose, a lively mousse and an elegant dry palate of ripe orchard fruit making it perfect for parties and family celebrations. Didier’s Vouvray Sec is always a pleasure to taste, not least because his father, Jean-Claude, is apt to appear with tartines of the delicious local rillettes. This apple-scented, mineral-edged, whistle-clean Chenin Blanc makes a perfect foil for the potted pork – it’s a dangerous combination as both are very more-ish. The off-dry Vouvray Demi-Sec has a similar bouquet and palate-cleansing acidity but a touch more residual sugar which lends it well to pâtés and cheese. The botrytised Vouvray Mœlleux is rich and honeyed and capable of taking a decade’s bottle-age in its stride. We normally finish here by sampling Jean-Claude and Didier’s delightful ‘Cuvée les Tonnelles’ – a gentle, fruity, rosé fizz made from 90% Gamay and 10% Gros Lot that is bursting with ripe raspberry flavours.

On the opposite bank of the Loire at Montlouis, Laurent Berger is equally welcoming and his wines are every bit as enjoyable. His superb Montlouis Mousseux Brut is a shade drier and crisper than the Aubert offering and is a failsafe aperitif. Laurent’s Montlouis Sec is taut and tangy and unfailingly reliable. In favourable vintages Laurent makes a modicum of his coveted Côte Saint Martin – a late-harvested, botrytised Chenin Blanc with heady floral aromas and a complex palate of baked apples, dried fruit and minerals with a rich, decadent finish. It makes for a wonderful finale to a pleasurable day’s tasting.

What’s not to like?

The Yapp Tasting Team ready for anything in Montlouis

Clive Greenhalgh, patron of The Ambassador

At Yapp Brothers we are blessed with a spacious boardroom which is used for many meetings but few of them are as convivial as last night’s dinner for Accenture and Vodafone Business Intelligence. Our old friend Clive Greenhalgh, patron of the Ambassador restaurant (www.theambassadorcafe.co.uk), cajoled us into opening our cellars after hours while he set up a field kitchen to cook a magnificent feast.

After a reviving aperitif of Vouvray Mousseux Brut from Domaine Aubert we enjoyed a rapid ‘Tour de France’ wine tasting in our shop in Mere. We then adjourned to the boardroom where Clive and his trusty assistant Harry served us Lobster ‘Two Ways’ (classically poached with a garlic mayonnaise and with a lime and avocado Ceviche). With the lobster we drank a Condrieu: Terrasses de l’Empire 2008 from Domaine Georges Vernay – which was a heavenly pairing. The aromatic, mid-weight Viognier married perfectly with the firm Brixham lobster and coped well with the slight chilli kick in the Ceviche. Here at Yapp Brothers we crash on (at length) about food and wine matching but it seldom gets better than that.

Our next course was a Foie Gras Terrine with Quince Compote and Toasted Brioche which we partnered with small glasses of Montlouis ‘Côte Saint Martin’ 2003. This apple-scented, gently honeyed wine was a terrific foil for the rich goose liver and met with universal approval.

The great thing about the onset of Autumn is that one can start to appreciate some warming red wines from the Rhône valley. With some wonderfully tender Fillet of Longhorn beef served with Pommes Anna and Cep Gratin we broached some of our library stock of Patrick Jasmin’s 1998 Côte Rôtie and a 2004 Châteauneuf du Pape from Le Vieux Donjon. The Côte Rôtie was starting to mellow with age, exhibiting some attractive sous bois scents and briary fruit flavours but the Châteauneuf’ was the real crowd-pleaser with a core of blackberry and cassis tastes over tannins that were beginning soften and sweeten. We followed the same estate on to our cheese course with a 1986 Vieux Donjon that was served with an enormous chunk of our local and the finest Montgomery Cheddar.  Some purists argue that one shouldn’t serve red wine with cheese but there were no complaints and the 23 year-old Châteauneuf’ held up very well tasting fully mature but by no means over the hill.

We rounded the evening off with a chocolate mousse and a Banyuls Cuvée Réserva from Domaine la Tour Vieille. The chilled, sweet, dark wine made a fine accompaniment to the rich chocolate flavours and everyone agreed that Clive and Harry had excelled themselves. If only all our board meetings were so pleasurable!