11/8/12

For the last three days we have been in the vineyard again, pre-pruning, taking out vineyard sections, and burning more wood in the vineyard. On Tuesday afternoon we had this sweet rain mixed with sunshine…big rainbow!

Yesterday (the 7^th) I actually got to do some real pruning which was super cool because there are definitely different theories and ways the French go about their pruning. We also harvested a bit more late harvest Syrah. I cant believe its still coming! However last night was one of the best nights so far. I had my family send over a case of Carhartt wines to do a big tasting with the crew. I know, a bit nerve-racking especially dealing with French winemakers, but I decided to take the challenge anyways. I was anxious to see what they would think because I generally consider my moms style to be more European than American winemaking. We tasted Grenache Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir, Mourvedre, Sangiovese, Zinfandel, Cabernet Franc, Syrah, Petite Sirah, Fourplay, and Merlot. Good news, they were surprised and impressed. Although I didn’t understand everything, the word “finesse” was used quite frequently. I think they assumed all American wines would be over-extracted with high alcohol…wrong! Nice work Mom and Dad, you made me so proud!!!

Today I am on the train to Burgundy. I got a sweet invitation to stay at the Chateau of Francois Freres with some barrel reps that we purchase from in the States. I am so lucky! 

11/10/12

So the last three days have basically been a dream come true. I arrived in Burgundy at about noon on Thursday. Julie and Moke, two barrel reps who work for Mel Knox Barrel Broker, picked me up from the train station. We quickly drove over to the Hospice de Beaune to taste some futures wines.

We then headed over to Jean and Noelle Francois’s house for a light lunch. First a little background. Jean and Noelle Francois are the owners of Tonnelleire Francois Frerer, a very well known barrel cooperage in Burgundy/France/the world. They basically host Mel Knox and his team when they come over to France. Mel Knox Barrel Broker is the largest importer of French oak in the United States. Anyways, we had lunch then rolled over to the cooperage for all of them to have a meeting while I got a private tour of the facility!! Check it out:

After the meeting finished, we got the unique opportunity to taste at one of the most sought-after wineries in all of Burgundy: J.F. Coche Dury. Wow. This place is one of the most modest set-ups I have ever seen, including Jean Francois Coche Dury himself.

We tasted through all of his new wines and then a couple older vintages including this 1996!

We then went back into the town of Beaune, screwed around for a bit, then headed back to Jean and Noelle’s for a little din din. Great food, incredible wines, obviously.

We headed back to the house after and hit the sack.

The next morning I awoke to a glorious day in Burgundy.

This is a picture of the backyard/infinity pool looking over the canyon…

After a little breakfast, we headed out for an appointment with Jean-Marc Pillot. We tasted through many of his wines and got a tour of the facilities.

After we had some time to kill so we cruised out to the Montrachet region of Grand Cru Burgundy to walk through some of the vineyards.

After leaving here we headed back into town and had lunch with Jean and Noelle and others at the Chateau de Pommard. Very upper-crust. They had works of art all over the place, including Salvador Dali, Picasso, Andy Warhol etc. It was nuts.

After lunch we went to Domaine Faiveley, one of the larger producers of Premier and Grand Cru Burgundy in all of France. What an underground cave!

We tasted a lot of their Premier Cru wines…

And even more of the Grand Cru…

After that we putted around Beaune again, got a coffee etc. That night we went out to dinner with Max, the Francois Frerer director, to some fancy shmancy place, but I wont bore you with the details….

The next day we went to basically their version of farmers market in the square. I picked up some goodies for back home, amongst doing a little cheese tasting!

We then went to yet another lunch with the Francois before they took off for their vacation. A very good meal obviously, complete with this massive cheese cart at the end where we got to choose our own cheese plate…

Here’s a picture of me and the Francois’s before they took off…

That night we had dinner with another winemaker, tasted through his wines, and then we went to bed, to get a good sleep for the drive back the next morning.

11/14/12

So tonight is my last night in the Rhone. I leave tomorrow for Utrecht, Holland to visit a friend for a week, then I am going over to Berlin to meet up with Evan from the tasting room! We will travel in Berlin, then to Prague, then to Budapest, then Madrid, Granada, and finally Lisbon...should be sweet. I am not sure how much I will be blogging about it, maybe when I get back home. Anyways, thanks to all who read this and were interested in my studies over here. I look forward to seeing everyone when I get home. A plus tard and One Love.

Chase

11/6/12

So this last weekend we went down south. We left somewhat early on Thursday, about 10 am. It was a super nice day finally. We drove for about an hour and a half or so to the small town/appellation of Cairanne. One of our buddies from work recommended we stop there and check out the wines at this shop that has product from all of the winemakers in the area. Super sweet. The guy behind the counter tasted us through quite a few wines…

We bought some wine and then drove a bit east and up to almost the top of Mount Ventoux. What a beautiful place/view!

On the way down the sun was setting over Avignon, our destination!

We stayed the night in Avignon at this sweet hostel and had quite a long night. The next day was even more gorgeous than the first. T-shirt weather.

We cruised around Avignon and shopped for a while, then took off and drove to the Gigondas wine appellation. We got there in the mid-afternoon so we went to basically a similar shop as the one in Cairanne. Except at this shop they had about 50 different producers, and they lady attendant didn’t want to promote any specific winery, so she refused to give us recommendations. It had been a long time since I chose wines off of name and vintage year. What a joke. But the wines were pretty good. I got out with a rose and a red. They have no whites in this region.

 We then drove to Arles and spent the night. That night we got tapas for dinner. It was a nice refresher from all the French cuisine. The next day we cruised around the city and then drove further south to the swamps of Carmargue by the sea. It is actually a bunch of salt marshes. There are wild horses, cattle, and flamingos. We spent a couple of hours there just walking around on the beach and in the marshes themselves. It got a little muddy!

We got some ice cream and then left Camargue. Our next destination was the city of Marseille. The drive took about an hour or so. Once we arrived, we decided to park and walk to find our hostel.

After it was located we stopped by a bar to grab a quick pint and watch the second half of the Saint-Etienne/Paris Saint-Germain game. We (Saint-Etienne) won! Allez Vert! We got our stuff and set up camp at the hostel. We then cruised out to eat. We got dinner at an Indian food restaurant of all places. It was very good minus the fact that the tikka masala was NOT SPICY AT ALL. The French really need to step up their game with the spicy foods. Afer dinner we went out to bars etc. We went to the third Irish Pub of the trip (one in every city), because they seem to be a popular hangout. It was a great night. We met a lot of people, every one of which asked me who I was going to vote for in the election. Everyone is concerned about the politics of the United States.

The next morning we got up, ate a nice breakfast at a café nearby, and got on the road towards Cassis. Cassis is a small town on the southern coast, very posh/expensive, but quite picturesque.

After walking around for a bit we got a quick bite by the sea. One kg of mussels and frites for 9 euro!

We left here and decided to go to La Ciotat, a wonderful beach town that I had been to before. There was a route we were told about that hugs the cliffs over the water sometimes reaching heights of almost 200 meters. It was so socked in and raining that we could barely see 50 ft in front of us! Pssssjbdkjhbejghfvw! We took it real slow as to not drive off a cliff, then eventually dropped into La Citotat. We did a short driving tour and headed to Bandol in hopes of tasting some wines. We got there about 430 pm, everything was closed! Sunday I guess. So much for that, so we decided to call it a day and get an earlier start back to the Northern Rhone. It started off ok, minus the pouring rain. Then we hit traffic. Dammit. Pouring rain in traffic is not the best combination to have after a long weekend of fun. Talk about a buzz kill. Anyways, we made it home safe and sound, all in all a killer time off.