Photos du Jour - Wine Tasting

I spent two mornings last week doing blind tastings to help choose wines for le Chai in Homps. It was really interesting! Especially trying to describe the flavors and my general impression of each wine in French. I should have done some studying beforehand.

At each tasting there were about 10 of us, split into pairs, tasting 12 to 13 wines each. The wines were grouped by price and type - vin de pays, AOC Minervois or AOC Minervois la Livinière.
One morning I tasted 12 Minervois white wines and the next morning I tasted 13 AOC Minervois reds priced between €5-7.

I learned a lot.
Like teeth brushing just before wine tasting is counterproductive. Good thing there was some French bread to help clean my palate!



A bit of French wine tasting terminology:
expressif
boisé
fruité
très vanillé
notes de miel
bien équilibré
léger mais très agréable
encore bien jeune mais déjà agréable
arômes de fruits
exubérant
élégant
harmonieuse
complexe
souple
rond
fermé Pin It

Fatigue Got the Better of Me...

Jet lag, I curse you!

Vinisud, an enormous, three day exhibition of Mediterranean wines and spirits in Montpellier took place Monday, yesterday and today. I tried so hard to get into a decent nighttime sleep schedule so I would have the inclination to drive three hours and taste wine all day.
No such luck.
(obviously, sleep is very high on my priority list!)

I'll just have to wait until Vinisud 2010.

Luckily I've been invited this Friday and early next week to help taste and choose the Minervois wines to be sold at the Chai le Port Minervois.

It will be a mini Vini. Pin It

Photo du Jour

Had to pick up our table wine on Monday at Le Chai Port Minervois in Homps. We love this place!


Going on a little field trip today to the Pic St. Loup region to go wine tasting with a friend who is a Master of Wine.
Beautiful, sunny day. Wine tasting and lunch. The best kind of day. Pin It

le Weekend

Friends drove over for the weekend, one from Cassis and the other from a village near Florence, bringing with them their charm, cooking skills and Pecorino cheese, wine and succulent, thinly sliced, cured meats from Italy. I made an insalata caprese and we had a perfect Italian feast!

We drove around the region on Saturday, to Caunes-Minervois, to Rieux-Minervois where the unique, heptagonal church of Notre-Dame is located and to taste some wine at a wonderful shop called le Chai Port Minervois on the Canal du Midi at Homps. They cooked lunch (yes, they were the perfect guests) of tomatoes provençal and baron d'agneau followed by a salad, then fresh and aged goat's cheese that we picked up in the market in Rieux. Dessert was apricots from our garden and white peaches. C'était magnifique!
That evening there was a big birthday bash at our friend's house, complete with live music, great wine from the village, dancing and my husband joining the band for a couple of songs, singing in his Barry White-like, smooth, deep voice.

Sunday morning was spent at the kitchen table with coffee and baguette slathered with butter and confiture de fruits rouge, discussing our next trip to see them in Cassis. We haven't been in three years and since they've recently been issued a boat driving license, the plan is to rent one and cruise out to the island of Porquerolles which looks like absolute paradise!
A lazy lunch at one of our favorite restaurants, a trip to le Somail to the Librairie Ancienne and we reluctantly said our goodbyes.

Can't wait for our trip to Cassis in August!

The weekend was full of fabulous photo ops, and I forgot my camera every time we left the house. Merde. Pin It