Tag Archives: Gourmet weekends

The inaugural Bread & Wine weekend

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Twitt

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The inaugural Bread and Wine weekends took place this autumn and were a considered a complete success. As predicted it took chef Steve Carss no time at all to find his demonstration patter and within 30 minutes of arriving at the chateau we had guests making their own bread.

Our first group was a full house of twelve guests, consisting of the fabulous @Markboltonphoto and his assorted entourage of Bristol mates, alongside our lovely returning American clients Grace and Larry, who had been on a previous wine course at Rigaud.

Proceedings kicked off with a couple of glasses of fizz in the lounge before course leader, Peter Tucker, brought the group through to the kitchen where we had twelve work stations complete with brand new mixing bowls, water, flour, yeast and Rigaud branded aprons laid out and ready to go. It was one of those very proud moments for the chateau team.

Steve introduced his ‘slap & tickle’ method of needing dough whilst Peter answered their questions such as “what is Yeast?” It didn’t take long before the badly behaved boy guests were slapping backsides with flour covered hands but we did eventually get to the stage where the chefs were happy and we could all retire to bar for a quick tasting of white wines from South West France. If nothing else this week gave us an excuse to drink non-Bordeaux wines.

The Friday was a crisp but sunny and rather ‘lifestyle magazine’ perfect for lunch in the vegetable garden with home made pizzas cooked in the newly installed bread oven.

Chateau Villemaurine in St. Emilion was the venue for the afternoon tour and tasting before returning to Rigaud and meeting up with Paddy O’Flynn, (www.TheWineBuff.com) with his mate Pierre, who quite by chance happened to be the owner/winemaker of Chateau Petit Fombrauge, one of the wines chosen for the exceptional gourmet dinner that night.

Guests drank into the wee small hours so it was a slower start to proceedings on the Saturday when chef introduced the mystical concept of “the mother”, a living, breathing and reproducing yeast that needs feeding every day. Two starters were used, one which is thirty years old and provided by our baker, Phillipe and one that Steve had been working on for just a month based on figs and grapes from the gardens. If you want to know about this you’ll have to book on to the next course.

The afternoon involved a trip to Sauterne where it was ‘Portes Ouvertes’ (open doors). This is the dream ticket of French tasting tours – the opportunity to rock up, take a quick look at the chai, taste the produce and move on to the next place. We took in four chateaux in total including 1er Grand Cru Classé   Chateau Guiraud. Many purchases were made and shared over dinner, along with some delicious Hospices de Beaune Burgundy wines.

We’re planning to repeat the weekend again, perhaps in April, depending upon uptake. Get in touch if you fancy a relaxed weekend which includes a spot of bread making, a walk in the vegetable garden, maybe a massage, a trip to a couple of chateaux some really delicious food and perhaps a little too much wine, if indeed that is possible?!

Refit complete and open for business

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Twitt

It’s been a tense winter refit….Due in the main part to me not getting “The Van” here on time. I did get a bit bored with hearing that we couldn’t do such and such because the materials needed were “on the van”.

When it finally arrived it contained a complete professional kitchen, two sofa’s, eight elegant arm chairs, a roll top bath, 150 litres of designer paint, (one of which had burst open), eleven sheets of stainless steel, a massive 8 cubic metre walk in fridge (flat packed of course), a pair of hand stitched curtains with a four metre drop and two pairs of shoes for the Badger….

Work is now finally complete and the new look chateau has been inaugurated by our No.1 Client who described it as “simply stunning” and their corporate week here as “flawless”… That’s partly why she’s our No.1!

So what have we done exactly?

The new professional kitchen has a spectator gallery for future cookery demonstrations and gourmet house party weekends. Pull up a bar stool and watch the chef in action. We’re planning a series of food and wine weekends and gastro events – see here for more news of these later in the year.

“The Stable” is a purpose designed nursery space, equipped with toys, games, art materials and of course nannies! Plus a dining table for children’s high tea. We’ve always had a great nursery and brilliant childcare at Rigaud but now it’s located downstairs and behind a stable door. The noise will be greatly reduced and no need for the teeny tinies to climb up and down the stairs.

The “New Room” is the imaginative name for our brand new and superior grade bedroom, with roll top bath and walk in shower. It’s another stunner bringing the total number of bedrooms to nine, plus a dorm.

The Gallery has been transformed from the aesthetician’s hell that was Buzz Lightyear meets Simba from The Lion King via the My Little Pony Dream Castle, into the now tranquil space for contemplation. Painted a serene Prussian Blue, with low suspended pendant drum lights it’s going to make an impressive catwalk for this season’s brides.

I know what you’re thinking, if you’ve read this far…. Where are the pictures? We want to see all this sophistication and glamour you speak of! Well patience is a virtue and all WILL be revealed in the near future. We’re just organising a for couple of professional photographers to shoot the chateau in the next couple of months, watch this space for the results!