Travellers' tales

We are in the UK for the second time since Christmas, this time visiting Jeff and Fi in their new home in Uttoxeter. Like the first trip to Sam and Sas in Wirksworth, over new year, we are driving which has all sorts of advantages. However, this time things are complicated by the French farmers' protests. We set out from Lunel at 7.30 a.m. last Wednesday, but what should have been a quick 2-3 hours' journey to Lyon turned into 9 hours, and we eventually arived at our hotel in Cambrai around 9.30 in the evening (original plan, before 5 and in daylight - we are frequently caught driving after dark however much we try to plan to avoid it). 

Most of the motorway closures were officially organised by the Préfectures, so we drove most of the way south of Lyon on routes nationales, interesting but much slower. After that we just trundled on fairly empty motorways, but continuing on Thursday we were held up again by closures even on the short stretch to Calais and the tunnel. But there was no major holdup and we arrived at our friends Elizabeth & Nigel in good time, well tucked away in rural Surrey. 

 Despite the tedium of the Wednesday morning journey we were glad to get a different perspective and view of the northern Rhône vineyards around Crozes Hermitage whhich we have known for many years on occasional visits. Later on the town of Cambrai seemed interesting, with a splendid redbrick railway station just opposite our hotel - we resolved to exlor in the future when less pressed by travel unknowns. And the hotel itself was, as we found out on our earlier visit, very comfortable and friendly, with an excellent and welcome range of bar snacks to make up for the lack of a full meal. 

We have gravitated towards the Logis de France chain over many years because it always welcomes pets, and although we left our current dog Edmond in kennels on these trips the familiar ambience still attracts us. The farmers' protests look likely to continue, and we don't know if we'll be delayed on the way home next weekend. But luckily we have plenty of time. 

Our first day was delayed by official motorway closures, but more often the hold-ups are caused by long slow queues of tractors, one of which we saw heading south as we set out for Calais on Thursday. Shortly after that the authorities closed the A26 motorway for a short stretch, but we had a short journey and good alternative routes to the Tunnel. So after out overnight with friends on Thursday we drove at a leisurely pace to our home for the week in Uttoxeter, where we are very comfortably housed by Jeff and Fi who find a bit of time for us despite their busy working lives. We saw Sam, Sas and Ben for lunch on Sunday and shall see other friends and visit Wirksworth again before we leave for home at the end of the week.

A new year with wine - a post for everyone, not just wine buffs!

Solutré, near Macon

Some of my friends are not really interested in wine and tend to skip these blog posts.  So before you  do that this time I will just add a note about the fascination for me apart from the stuff in the bottle or glass.  As you  can see from the photos, scenery is one of the many attractions.

 

Châtillon-en-Diois

 

 Wine exploration has shaped our visits to France ever since we started regular trips here 30 years ago.  If you look at the map of France, relatively small physical areas are taken up by vineyards, and you are much more likely to find yourself in logging forests or endless of cereals and grass, like the open horizons and rolling slopes of the northern plain we drove through on our way to England at the end of last year.

Beaujolais

 

But we hunt out the vineyards not just for nice wine but for the interesting people and scenery we discover, get to know and love.  I think of the beautiful villages just near us in Lunel or north of Montpellier around the Pic Saint Loup; or of the vineyards of the Entre Deux Mers area south of Bordeaux - the two 'seas' here are the rivers Garonne and Dordogne as the flow northwards to join together as the Gironde at Bordeaux; or of the cossetted iconic hilly  country of Beaujolais and the Côte d'Or in Burgundy and the breathtaking rocky beauty of the Rhône valley, whether near the great river at Condrieu and Crozes Hermitage just south of Lyon or, one of our favourite places, Beaumes de Venise tucked under the Dentelles de Montmirail, once best known for its fortified sweet muscat wines but now among the best red wine labels.

 

While I always liked wine, it was meeting people who were and are involved in making it that has captured our  attention.  Jean-Michel and Christine Jacob have just retired from their Hauts Côtes de Beaune vineyard and J-M will doubtless now have more time for his beautiful  art/sculpture, two pieces of which adorn our hallway.  Jean-Philippe Servières, our best local winemaker near Lunel, would probably like to retire, having had precious little chance of a holiday over the past 20 years; and Benoit Viot of the wonderfully-named Chemin des Rêves north of Montpellier has gone from small beginnings - we bought our first wines sitting in the kitchen in Grabels - to becoming president of the prestigious appellation Pic Saint Loup.  

 

We have got to know many other landscapes in the Languedoc, Rhône valley, the Diois (where twinning opened our interest in the Rhône Valley and beyond), or the wide variety of landscapes we have explored across the south - the wild hillls of the Corbières, coastal étangs around the Mediterranean where Picpoul de Pinet is produced, or tiny appellations with unusual grapes like Fronton north of Toulouse.  We discovered Seyssel in the far north of the Rhone valley towards Geneva thanks to musician friend and mentor Stéphane Fauth (and his wife Chantal whose cooking helped to 'oil' the many music courses we  shared).  And we have started to discover the Loire Valley, one of the longest river courses in France which always confused me because the river flows north a long way, just a short distance from the south-flowing Saone and Rhône, before turning left and west at Orleans towards the Atlantic; we got to know various bits of the river - Sancerre, the Touraine, a stretch towards Angers, on various drives south from different channel ports and thanks to good friends Sue and Ian who have a house south of Tours.

Fronton

Another occasional wine blog

Maybe you could say we are too busy drinking wine to write about it - but now and then something pops up that is worth mentioning.

This time it is a visit to the Domaine de la Coste Moynier in what is now known as the commune of Entre Vignes, a picturesque new name   The Moynier family bought the domaine in Saint Christol in the 70s - we have met Luc Moynier and his wife a few times over the years - and it is now run by the younger generation.  The wines have always been good quality and not too expensive.

Alex and Judi (Kentuckians, though he now lives in Paris)
with friends Jim and Peggy also from the USA, in the new tasting room

Yesterday we tasted two whites, a rosé and 4 red wines, all excellent.  The whites were both mixtures of marsanne and viognier (the more expensive aged in barrels) while the reds were mixtures of syrah and grenache with, variously, carignan and mourvèdre added.

And the beautiful hilltop setting looking towards the Pic Saint Loup and the Cevennes made the whole visit even better in the beautiful sunshine.

Wine chez nous this summer

This is just a round-up of the wines we've sampled over the summer so far.  Descriptions of many of them follow.

red wines

The 'Patrimoine' is a Marcillac from the high hills near Rodez in the centre of France, using little-known Fer savadou or Mansois grapes from that area.  Another central area for a new-ish appellation  is the Côteaux du Lyonnais, one of several (Beaujolais and nearby) using mostly gamay grapes - we spent a good couple of days visiting the area west of Lyon recently, and another wine in this collection is a Côte de Brouilly from one of our long-term favourite domaines, Les Roches Bleues.  A splendid Beaumes de Venise red came from the Domaine de Cassan where we stayed for Mary's 80th birthday, and the Cinabre red (Cabernet franc) is from a recent discovery from the Touraine which we visited with friends last year.  The same grape is used by the Domaine de Fadèze near Marseillan which we often visit - a warmer, more southerly take on this grape, one of many single-variety wines they make, including whites mentioned below, also including a good merlot also shown here.  Nearby, along the coast is the Domaine du Nouveau Monde, on the western edge of the Hérault, which we discovered during Mary's sojourn in Béziers in the early 2000s, still well worth a visit, while nearer Béziers if the Domaine de Bachellery, anotehr merlot here from a small old-fashioned family domaine who have a convenient shop outlet near the ring road!  Finally two the Spanish  discoveries I've mentioned previously in this blog, which we receive by road delivery rather than visiting the areas ourselves - a Montsant from a tiny hilly area south-west of Barcelona, one of my personal favourites; and the Pruno from the Ribera de Duero area further west towards the Portuguese border (I'm expecting another delivery of this today!

whites, rosés (and a couple of reds that crept in by mistake)

There are two old favourite producers here, the Domaine Lucien Jacob in the Hautes Côtes de Beaune whose white wine vinified in acacia barrels  is delicious, while their crémant de Bourgogne is our usual bubbly, while La Soie from the Chemin de Rêves (straddling the Pic Saint Loup and Grès de Montpellier areas is the top white from a domaine we discovered soon after our arrival in the Languedoc - the wine is made from a mixture of mainly northern Rhône grapes including marsanne, roussanne and viognier grown together on one plot.  More recent discoveries on our travels have been Seyssel in the Rhône valley much further north in the Ain, on the way to Geneva.  Roussanne also figures as another single variety wine from Fadèze, and viognier makes also not surprisingly a white wine in the Côteaux du Lyonnais, right next to Condrieu, its French area of origin.  For rosés these days we often drink the darker pink Protos and Enate rosado, both northern Spanish wines with very different origins tastes and grapes  - the Protos is mostly Tempranillo,  called Clarete which recalls the dark pink clairet wines of Bordeaux, while the Enate is made from cabernet sauvignon. The only sweet wine in this collection is from an old favourite appellation in Anjou, Bonnezeaux, a very long-keeping chenin blanc which has always given us enjoyment  Oh, and another Fadèze, our old favourite terret, the grape formerly used in apéritifs, but now working well in a dry white wine we and our friends have long appreciated  Happy drinking!

Beaumes de Venise - A rather delayed wine blog

 

A good friend, not ignorant about wine, still associated Beaumes de Venise mainly with the sweet fortified muscat which we have also enjoyed for a long time.  Last month, however, our trip to the southern Rhône for Mary's 80th was all about the red wine from this part of the Dentelles de Montmirail, the wonderful rocky area which has long been famous for its red wines, notably Gigondas.

When we first visited the Domaine de Cassan around 25 years ago, its main attraction was red Gigondas.  Since then, as the separate appellation Beaumes de Venise has gained traction, Cassan has stopped making Gigondas and now produced excellent red Beaumes de Venise.  As se arrived (to stay in one of the few gîtes not taken up by young grape pickers) the harvest was just beginning.  The pickers were gathering as we finished our breakfast.

    

The little village of Beaumes de Venise is pleasant enough but not much to write home about.  but we love the Dentelles all around, accessible via narrow roads like the one we first came along to Cassan.  Then, it was a track which caused our engine to boil though thankfully nothing worse.  Now, that track (which our GPS still tried to send us up) is barred to motor vehicles, but other narrow roads still lead you to the Domaine de Coyeux and Domaine de Durban, neither of which we visited this time but both of which have excellent reds, and dry as well as sweet muscats.  Durban was our first ever foray into this wonderful area, with views over the whole of the Rhône plain to the west.  Coyeux has marvellous views of the Mont Ventoux which towers just to the south, and which has been the despair of many cyclists in the Tour de France.

      

Back to the Bordelais

 

Cadillac

 

We'd been planning our late November mini break westwards for several weeks.  So at the end of the month we settled into our comfy hotel in Cadillac, after the first of 3 wine visits we'd planned. This was our first to the Entre Deux Mers area north of Langon.  I'd chosen from the Guide Hachette an old fashioned unpretentious château deep in the countryside near the tiny commune of Mourens, vines all around. Magnificent autumnal colours, staked vines across the rolling hillsides all around, a friendly welcome despite our lack of advance notice from the mum who showed us round and provided the wines for tasting, and her two winemaker sons who popped in and out to help it all along. And what wines! All at under 7€ a bottle, a sumptuous white Entre Deux Mers ‘haut Benauge’ and a very well-made red 2014 Bordeaux Supérieur. 

 

 

The following day, Wednesday was one of two contrasting but geographically closely linked visits to winemakers we’d met on previous occasions in the Bordelais. The morning we were in Ste Croix du Mont to meet Geneviève Ricard-Durand, who runs her old family vineyards, Vignobles Ricard,  with her husband. The Château de Vertheuil is one of 3 domaines they run, and though there are whites (dry and sweet), here it is the reds which are of special interest - the merlot-dominated Vertheuil was most appealing but we plan to contrast all 3 domaines in a future tasting. She also has a dark pink clairet we bought to try later : I really like this style of wine in the Bordelais, which we’ve found also from Spain’s Ribera del Duero region (as Clarete).  Although we had no time to visit them this time we had good memories of the incredible oyster shell cliffs in the village.

But in the afternoon it was the liquoreux (botrytised) whites at Clos Jean in nearby Loupiac which were stunningly presented by the proprietor (M Bord I think - the enterprices is certainly Vignobles Bord) a charming man whom we’d previously met in the Maison des Vins in Cadillac. The final tasting he offered us, not on sale, was a fabulous 60-year-old and amber coloured Loupiac which lingered long on the palate after our visit. We headed home with heads full of good memories and a car quite well stacked too!

 

 

 

 Several things struck us - first, the prices which were almost all modest (apart from the older sweet Loupiacs which rightly carry a higher price), far from the inflated ones Bordeaux often evokes.  Then, the lack of pretension and  the warmth of the welcome we had in all three domaines, all of which were family concerns.  And then the beautiful autumn colours all around, which I hope these photos convey.  After two wonderful days the rain set in as we drove back with a care well-stocked with the spoils of our trip.  We and many of the family have sampled these wines over the Christmas week.

 

New discoveries and old friends

At the Mas de Bellevue above Lunel to the north

I've nearly begun this post several times over the summer.  I do so now in memory of my recently deceased friend Alan Byars, married to Mary's cousin Barbara.  Although he made his money from another liquid, oil, this larger than life Texan shared my interest in wine and encouraged me to revive this blog when we met over good glasses whether in New Mexico or the Rhône valley.  He was an atypical American, (many I know don't even have passports) having lived and worked in Europe as well as in the US, and he and Barbara shared many holidays with us in England and in France as well as America.

Last time I wrote of our winter excursions into Spanish wines, and we have continued to enjoy the fruits of  our discovery of the Barcelona wine merchant Decántalo whose deliveries and service are very good.  Now I want to write a little about more local wines, which of course have been at the heart of our enjoyment of wine since our first excursions to France in the 1990s.   Our most recent discovery has been a wine truck, a motorised market stall that turns up at markets and evening events in Lunel and other local towns.  It's based near the Pic Saint Loup, one of our best-known local appellations, which can be seen (as here from the Mas de Bellevue) on the horizon from many places around here, and it's called Dégustez Sud, run by a nice couple who spend a lot of time picking out good wines from small producers across the area from Spanish border to the Rhône.  The wines are not necessarily cheap, but this is largely because smaller producers have higher overheads than larger-scale winemakers.

So far we have tried two whites, Folio, a grenache gris from Collioure near the Spanish border and a Mas d'Amile terret blanc, neither cheap but both out of the ordinary and enjoyable.  White wines can be more expensive than run-of-the-mill reds despite the generally shorter making time, because the process has to be cleaner and more temperature controlled.

Pleasant evening outings into Lunel to try wines from Dégustez Sud, the second with oysters for Mary!

Terret used to be a grape only used for fortified apéritif wines like Noilly Prat, but recently some delicious dry white wines have been made from this grape, and one from the Domaine de la Fadèze near Mèze has long been one of our favourites.  Interestingly, in a comparative tasting of that and the Amile wine the other day, we both preferred the cleaner, lemony Fadèze to the more recent discovery, and it has the benefit of being less than a third of the price, but that may be partly because we go to the producers for the Fadèze.  They make a range of red, white and rosé single-variety wines, all at very good prices.  

I'm ending with a few of the labels of recently enjoyed wines - 2 from the Rhône valley, a 10-year-old Beaumes de Venise from the left bank of the Rhône, in perfect condition from Durban, one of the first producers we visited there and the other from the right bank, the newere additions to the Rhône area in the Gard, in fact near the Pont du Gard and so named Domaine de l'Aqueduc.   And 2 from the Rive droite of the Garonne, one of the good sweet wines opposite the great Sauternes châteaux, and a very good Entre Deux Mers white from our good friend Jérôme whom we met recently in the Drôme, another proof that good white wines can keep for several years.

 

  

Cheers!