Blake commented earlier with a request for a post about the wine we enjoyed on our trip. Well Blakey, said post was already in the works…


Let’s just say that there was a lot of this going on!

It goes without saying that France has a vibrant wine culture. But before our visit, I’m not sure I really appreciated what that meant. You can’t go very far without seeing a person with a glass of wine in front of them, be it through their kitchen window or at the internet place.

For example, we showed up one day at Alan’s place at about noon. As mentioned previously, Alan is a fantastic fella that Jacqui and Glenn met on their first day in the country. From Paris, he was on vacation, renting a place in Rasiguères, the village closest to our place. He was a great friend to make, full of interesting conversation and insights; a real window to help us peer into French culture. I wish we had been able to spend more time with him. Anyway, when we arrived at his place he asked us if we would like some coffee or wine. Of course, being that it was noon we requested coffee. He nodded and smiled and poured us some Rosé. It was his favorite, obtained from the Cave directly across the street from his place. And I’m not talking a bottle here folks, rather it was a 5 litre plastic cask that you can buy and have refilled onsite. Not bad! Actually, I should mention that I’ve never really been a fan of Rosé, but this trip has easily convinced me that on a hot summer day not much could be more refreshing that a cool glass of the stuff. Needless to say we enjoyed Rosé with Alan on more than one occasion.

I should discuss the Caves (or Caveau) a bit more. They are simply everywhere. Every town has at least ONE. Most have several. And we are talking about tiny towns here people; think villages. Basically they are the outlet that each winery has for wine dégustation , or wine tasting. They’ll pretty much crack any bottle you’d like to try, though there is an expectation that you’ll leave with something tucked under your arm. Well we always did anyway!

Some caves are fancy, some are far from it, but all have their wares ready for you to sample. And sample we did! In Languedoc-Roussillon, the region we were in, they had a few sweet whites, ambers, rose and lots of reds! We learned a bunch about it, though mostly about the reds. In this region the reds tend to be a blend of Syrah, Grenache and a third grape, usually Mourvedre or Carignan (one of the oldest grape varieties in France). Each winery has a variety of wines produced from this blend with several variables - the percentage of each grape, whether the wine goes straight to bottle (very common) or is aged (a year, six months, in old oak barrels or new oak barrels etc. and terroir -the type of soil the grapes are grown in as well as the aspect and angle of slope). We were amazed at how wines made of basically the same three grapes were so different given these variables, even from a single winery. We were so amazed that we decided we needed to do a fair amount of “research” into the phenomenon.


Even the Cave guy gets to sample each one!


What do you think of this one Glenn?

In the end we even got seven year old Andrew in on the action!

Oh relax! This is actually just jus de pomme. Though we totally had Andrew SMELL every wine we tasted! He had a few sips, but it didn’t really resonate with him the same way the Smarties Pop-Up ice cream bars did.

Of course we did find a Cave that was also a restaurant too. That is mostly another post, but the cool part here is that you could buy a bottle for dinner that they would crack for you at the same price as if you came in a bought it off the shelf. And if you didn’t finish it (as if!), they’ll stuff the cork back in so you can take it with you. Ever think that we don’t do things right in North America? I do.

One thing that was rather difficult to figure out was the way wine is classified in France. There are several “categories”: Vin de Pays, Vin de Table, VDQS and AOC. I won’t go into each here, but will mention that we did ask at a Cave where both the shop attendant and the winery owner tried to explain it to us (they both had pretty good English). In the end the owner decided that we should just understand that “it is very complicated”. ‘Nuff said eh?

Of course, if you didn’t know, Canada will only allow you to import 1.5 L of wine with you duty free on a trip like this. That equals 4 bottles for the two of us. So what is one to do after all these Cave visits? I think you can figure it out!

Yeah, I knew that you could!