Inoubliable

Sometimes you just have to go with the flow.

We had been planning to go with Sara and Christian to the Chateauneuf-du-Pape wine fair on Sunday, and then have a picnic in the vineyards.  But our plans changed, and kept on changing.

First my doctor invited us to a private tasting at his friend’s winery, so we decided to skip the fair.   We figured the tasting would take about an hour, so we could do that and then have our picnic.

Then the weather turned rainy, so we decided to have the picnic indoors at Sara and Christian’s instead of in the vineyards.

Then on Sunday morning, when we got to Sara and Christian’s, they told us they had decided to grill lamb for lunch.  So much for all that picnic food we had brought.

Then we all drove to Chateauneuf-du-Pape and met my doctor, ready for our private tasting. Instead, he handed us tickets to the wine fair, so in we went.  We weren’t sure what was happening with the private tasting.  Maybe we would just taste the wines at the fair?

Then, after a couple of hours of tasting many different wines, none of which were from the winery with the private tasting, my doctor invited us to lunch.  But what about the lunch at Sara’s?  Ok, another change of plans.  Lamb for dinner sounds good!

Then, when we finished lunch, my doctor said he had to leave.  Soooo…now what?  And then voila!  It was time for our private tasting.

Despite its twists and turns, the day turned out to be great.  The wine fair was better than expected, with every winemaker from Chateauneuf-du-Pape participating - all 90 of them.  You got a glass at the front door and went from table to table, tasting wine after fabulous wine. 

It was fascinating to taste all these wines and really understand their differences.  I was like a kid in a candy store, but this was way better than gumballs and licorice whips, believe me.

As we worked our way through the fair we kept being introduced to people - my doctor’s family, his friends, his friends’ friends, various winemakers, people from the village, it just went on and on.  We even met the lady who owns the local distillery, who gave us a tour last year.  It was kisses all around when we saw each other.

But the best part by far was the private tasting.  It was just Val, Sara, Christian and I with Françoise, the president of the winery and its winemaker.  She is the seventh generation to run the winery, as well as the president of the local women’s winemaker’s association. 

For someone so talented and accomplished, she was remarkably warm and humble.  And so generous with her time!  She spent several hours with us.

First she drove us to her winemaking facility, several miles outside of town.  We got a tour and explanation of every step of the process, from the picking of the grapes to the shipping of the finished bottles. 

She answered all of our many questions, sharing her obvious enthusiasm for winemaking.  And she explained the business side as well.  She told us how 25 years ago, she and her father made an enormous bet by taking on huge debt and buying a bunch of new land.  She said that servicing that debt was a real burden until just a few years ago.

Then the best part - we did a barrel tasting.   I was in heaven!  She pulled barrel samples for different grapes and different parcels so we could compare.  Trust me, 2015 is going to be one helluva year.  And the grenache from Le Crau – o la la !  I was transported.

After all this, Francoise drove us back into town to her tasting room and spent another hour leading us through a flight of wines from earlier years.

It was after 6:00 when we finally got back to the car and rescued poor Mica.  We had brought her along because we thought it would just be an hour or so of wine tasting.  We figured she could hang in the car, then go back to Sara’s and play with her boyfriend Ugo.  Hm, slight miscalculation.

When we got to Sara’s, Mica and Ugo played while we had our delicious dinner (with more wine, of course).  Christian is an enthusiastic chef and so it was appetizers, then a salad of shrimp and grapefruit, then lamb with flageolets, then salad and cheese, then dessert, then coffee.  Ok, I’ll admit that was better than the picnic we had originally planned. 

It was after 11:00 when we finally made it home and crashed.  We realized that it had been an entire day of speaking French.  That and a glass or two (or twelve…) will really do you in.

But what a wonderful day!  It was really unforgettable.  It was one of those magical days that comes around all too rarely in life.

KVS

So much wine, so little time

In the cave with Françoise

Lovely parting gifts