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| Minster Lovell |
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| Minster Lovell church |
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| Minster Lovell Hall - this was the chapel which had two floors |
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| The original entrance path |
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| Minster Lovell Hall |
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| Standing in the chapel doorway |
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| Minster Lovell Dovecote |
Friday, 20 October 2017
Minster Lovell
On our way hone from Witney Hubby and I stopped at Minster Lovell, an ancient village originally named Minstre and was part of Bampton in 1086. Lovell is the name of the landowning family and was added to the village name in the 13th Century. It's very picturesque village with Cotswold stone and thatched roofed houses.
Minster Lovell Hall and Dovecote is a 15th century Oxfordshire manor house that lies beside the River Windrush. Now in ruins this English Heritage site was once owned by one of the richest men in England - it is still an impressive sight.
It's a beautiful place, such a shame it isn't survive. It's setting is quite calm and tranquil with the river bubbling by. English Heritage have preserved what is left and it's now freely enjoyed by dog walkers, ramblers and tourists - I loved our visit to this great historical building.
Tuesday, 17 October 2017
Spanish wine & English beer
What a superb weekend - Witney is a Cotswold town west of Oxford, full of history but for us, most importantly, the home of Wychwood Brewery, a place we have visited many times but a first for our friends.
But before our beer day we had an evening of Spanish wine thanks to Majestic Wine. As with all Majestic shops Witney is stacked with wine, however it has one feature that impressed us all and made a perfect wine tasting bar ..... a glass topped well.
Spanish wine is not my favourite, especially red but I am always open to persuasion, especially when offered a glass of Cava as the first tasting.
Juve Y Camps Reserve De La Familia - lots of initial lively bubbles in this Cava which calmed as the wine settled in the glass. This is apparently a favourite with the Spanish Royals. It had plenty of white fruitiness and citrus flavour with hints of honey giving a very slight sweetness on the finish.
MO Monastrell 2013/14 is a blend of Monastrell, Cabernet Sauvignon and Garnacha. This young wine has had some time in oak giving soft tannins. In the mouth it gives plenty of bramble and cherries with a balsamic high note giving a very light spice.
Pétalos Bierzo 2015 is a deep crimson red wine full of blackcurrants. A deep nose giving the wine a mature expectation which is met in the mouth with smooth tannins and spice.
Papa Luna 2014 is a wine I have previously enjoyed. It is a softer wine in its tannins, full of raspberries and cherries. It has high notes of white pepper and hints of vanilla on the finish. A blend of Garnacha, Mazuelo, Monastrell, Syrah and Carignan this was my preferred wine of the tasting.
Definition Rioja Reserva 2010 is a typical Rioja, full of fruit, vanilla, leather and oak. A smokey nose and heavy tannins portrayed it's 20 months in oak barrels.
I really struggle with Rioja wine, I love the smell and can drink them if ice cold but the heavy tannins, visions of old leather chairs in a cigar smoke filled library is just too much for me. I enjoy other oaked wines so had thought it was the Tempranillo grape I disliked but after tasting our final wine I don't think it is.
Cillar De Silos, Torresilo 2015 is a superbly smooth Tempranillo wine. Its 16-18 months in oak gives a smokiness but with light tannin that adds to its richness. Not surprisingly this was the most expensive wine of the evening retailing at £29.99.
Saturday was beer day, as mentioned Hubby and I have visited Wychwood Brewery before. It always amazes us how they produce so much Hobgoblin and all the other beers in their range (as well as Brakspear) in a relatively small brewery.
The tour lasts 2 hours with a superb visit around the actual brewery. The equipment is amazing, smaller than I imagine. There's a chance too to try some of the raw ingredients that go into brewing, although some are far more palatable in the beer.
It's history is amazing too, The Taproom is in the oldest part with an old mash drum set in the floor!
After the tour we returned to the Taproom to sample some of Wychwood finest brews.
Our first beer was Fire Catcher, a golden beer with a little bit of spice to give that subtle fire finish. Arrowaine our next, a darker beer with toffee notes.
Dunkel Fester is Wychwood's hommage to the spooky season. I look forward to this dark beer which is available in Aldi during October.
IPA Hobgoblin is a new beer launch just a few weeks ago. Served well chilled this light golden beer had a lovely citrusy hop flavour.
King Goblin is a rich heavy beer, the strongest in our tasting at 6.6%. Black Wych, our final tasting, is my favourite from Wychwood. It was a beer no longer brewed but is now back thanks to public vote (mine included). The dark porter was a superb way to conclude our tasting.
But before our beer day we had an evening of Spanish wine thanks to Majestic Wine. As with all Majestic shops Witney is stacked with wine, however it has one feature that impressed us all and made a perfect wine tasting bar ..... a glass topped well.
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| Glass topped well |
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| A bit of history |
Juve Y Camps Reserve De La Familia - lots of initial lively bubbles in this Cava which calmed as the wine settled in the glass. This is apparently a favourite with the Spanish Royals. It had plenty of white fruitiness and citrus flavour with hints of honey giving a very slight sweetness on the finish.
MO Monastrell 2013/14 is a blend of Monastrell, Cabernet Sauvignon and Garnacha. This young wine has had some time in oak giving soft tannins. In the mouth it gives plenty of bramble and cherries with a balsamic high note giving a very light spice.
Pétalos Bierzo 2015 is a deep crimson red wine full of blackcurrants. A deep nose giving the wine a mature expectation which is met in the mouth with smooth tannins and spice.
Papa Luna 2014 is a wine I have previously enjoyed. It is a softer wine in its tannins, full of raspberries and cherries. It has high notes of white pepper and hints of vanilla on the finish. A blend of Garnacha, Mazuelo, Monastrell, Syrah and Carignan this was my preferred wine of the tasting.
Definition Rioja Reserva 2010 is a typical Rioja, full of fruit, vanilla, leather and oak. A smokey nose and heavy tannins portrayed it's 20 months in oak barrels.
I really struggle with Rioja wine, I love the smell and can drink them if ice cold but the heavy tannins, visions of old leather chairs in a cigar smoke filled library is just too much for me. I enjoy other oaked wines so had thought it was the Tempranillo grape I disliked but after tasting our final wine I don't think it is.
Cillar De Silos, Torresilo 2015 is a superbly smooth Tempranillo wine. Its 16-18 months in oak gives a smokiness but with light tannin that adds to its richness. Not surprisingly this was the most expensive wine of the evening retailing at £29.99.
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| Our Spanish tasting at Majestic Wine Witney |
A superb way to spend a Friday evening - thank you
Saturday was beer day, as mentioned Hubby and I have visited Wychwood Brewery before. It always amazes us how they produce so much Hobgoblin and all the other beers in their range (as well as Brakspear) in a relatively small brewery.
The tour lasts 2 hours with a superb visit around the actual brewery. The equipment is amazing, smaller than I imagine. There's a chance too to try some of the raw ingredients that go into brewing, although some are far more palatable in the beer.
It's history is amazing too, The Taproom is in the oldest part with an old mash drum set in the floor!
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| Taproom bar |
After the tour we returned to the Taproom to sample some of Wychwood finest brews.
Our first beer was Fire Catcher, a golden beer with a little bit of spice to give that subtle fire finish. Arrowaine our next, a darker beer with toffee notes.
Dunkel Fester is Wychwood's hommage to the spooky season. I look forward to this dark beer which is available in Aldi during October.
IPA Hobgoblin is a new beer launch just a few weeks ago. Served well chilled this light golden beer had a lovely citrusy hop flavour.
King Goblin is a rich heavy beer, the strongest in our tasting at 6.6%. Black Wych, our final tasting, is my favourite from Wychwood. It was a beer no longer brewed but is now back thanks to public vote (mine included). The dark porter was a superb way to conclude our tasting.
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| Fire Catcher - Arrowaine - Dunkel Fester |
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| IPA Hobgoblin - King Goblin - Dark Wych |
It is always a treat to visit the home of Hobgoblin, we had a superb afternoon - thank you Wychwood Brewery
Friday, 13 October 2017
St Maurice - Visan
Last year we had a private tasting with Cellier de Dauphins, such a treat. We really enjoyed the St Maurice (you can read about it in my dedicated page). This named village is next to Visan so it was a must to visit their caveau.
And a great caveau it was too with so much choice, some of my favourites came from here including the delicious Bastidon. We enjoyed this at home with rib eye steak - you can read Hubby's review on Cuvée Reserve
Domaine la Fontaine du Loup is a Grenache, Syrah, Carignan wine full of dark fruits as expected in all Cote du Rhone wines. I seem to remember it being a smoother wine as regards tannins with a warm finish but as it is still resting in our rack I will review it some time in the future.
The Co-operative Cotes du Rhone red and table white were, although a blend of grapes from various vineyards, very very good wines and instead of buying bottles we decided to again venture into box world. Both boxes were 5 litres and at around 12 euros per box they were a purchase not to be missed.
Our friends who run the bar in Visan recommended Diamont Noir from Cellier des Templiers in Richerenches - who are we to miss the chance to visit another caveau. This village, just north west of Visan, is full of Templar history and is also famous for truffles.
It was no surprise that Diamont Noir was a super wine, Grignan d'Adamer is an appellation we know well. This region of France's wine growing benefits from a mild winter, winded by the Mistral and summer hot and dry, punctuated by storms regulating rainfall, all of which produces amazing grapes which in turn produce superb wines.
Diamont Noir is predominanetly Syrah with a small percentage of Grenache, full of blackcurrants and dark cherries with the peppery spice from the Syrah grape.
Very smooth the mouth with subtle tannin and a good length to it's finish, it was easy to see why our friends recommended this.
1136 Commanderie was our other wine purchase from Cellier des Templiers, again a Syrah Grenache wine but different in flavour as along with blackcurrants and spices there was a delicate note of balsamic. It's nose was quite earthy with woody and truffle notes.
1136 was the year the Templars arrived in Richerenches and built their church which is the centre of this historic village.
As we arrived the local wine growers were queuing up in their tractors with wagons full of grapes waiting to weigh their produce. It was a superb sight seeing how a co-operative really works, many producers sharing their grapes resulting in great wine.
Wine related, our other purchase at Cellier de Templiers was something I have wanted most of my life - a car I would just love to own but as I don't really want divorce papers to arrive in the post I have resisted the urge to have one ..... however now I do, my very own 2CV. It is now parked in our lounge with a very special passenger - a bottle of Sancerre !!
Our final caveau visit was in Visan, literally across the road from our hotel. It was lovely to be recognised as soon as we entered the bright and airy boutique, even nicer that they could remind us of last year's purchases.
We do still have a couple of bottles from Cave de Visan in the garage so decided to try something new - bio. We saw many organic wines this year on our travels, it seems to be something the french wine growers are keen to promote. I would imagine most growers are and have been organic any as the french have always been 'rustic' and 'au nature' in their lifestyles so for many growers it may be a case of shouting about something they have taken for granted.
Vin Bio Cotes du Rhone Rouge is a blend of 70% Grenache, 20% Syrah and 10% Carignan. This was the final wine we tasted at our degustation and immediately noticed how smooth it was compared to the other, very nice, Visan wines. Still full of fruit and spice, as expected from this region but it really was softer in the mouth.
Of course it would have been rude not to bring home some more Visan wine and our favourite from last year Les Murieres, I'm not quite sure how we manged to get all our purchases from our two weeks home, especially as this year we had my wheelchair too but our garage certainly knows we managed somehow.
We had a superb time in France this year, as you can see from my last four posts we discovered some amazing wine as well as visiting many places. It was especially nice this year to meet up with my school exchange friend Viviane and her husband Michel, we last saw them in 2002 on our way to our holiday in Abbaye des Monges.
Our holiday was made extra special by the warm welcome from Angelo and Cathy at Caffe de Siecle in Visan - we had such fun, chatting away in a mixture of languages - the time passed far too quickly, especially on our evening bbq.
And a great caveau it was too with so much choice, some of my favourites came from here including the delicious Bastidon. We enjoyed this at home with rib eye steak - you can read Hubby's review on Cuvée Reserve
Domaine la Fontaine du Loup is a Grenache, Syrah, Carignan wine full of dark fruits as expected in all Cote du Rhone wines. I seem to remember it being a smoother wine as regards tannins with a warm finish but as it is still resting in our rack I will review it some time in the future.
The Co-operative Cotes du Rhone red and table white were, although a blend of grapes from various vineyards, very very good wines and instead of buying bottles we decided to again venture into box world. Both boxes were 5 litres and at around 12 euros per box they were a purchase not to be missed.
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| Domaine du Bastidon & Domaine la Fontaine du Loup |
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| Cotes du Rhone rouge & Cotes du Rhone blanc |
It was no surprise that Diamont Noir was a super wine, Grignan d'Adamer is an appellation we know well. This region of France's wine growing benefits from a mild winter, winded by the Mistral and summer hot and dry, punctuated by storms regulating rainfall, all of which produces amazing grapes which in turn produce superb wines.
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| Celliers de Templiers |
Diamont Noir is predominanetly Syrah with a small percentage of Grenache, full of blackcurrants and dark cherries with the peppery spice from the Syrah grape.
Very smooth the mouth with subtle tannin and a good length to it's finish, it was easy to see why our friends recommended this.
1136 Commanderie was our other wine purchase from Cellier des Templiers, again a Syrah Grenache wine but different in flavour as along with blackcurrants and spices there was a delicate note of balsamic. It's nose was quite earthy with woody and truffle notes.
1136 was the year the Templars arrived in Richerenches and built their church which is the centre of this historic village.
As we arrived the local wine growers were queuing up in their tractors with wagons full of grapes waiting to weigh their produce. It was a superb sight seeing how a co-operative really works, many producers sharing their grapes resulting in great wine.
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| Arriving with this years yield |
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| My dream car !! |
We do still have a couple of bottles from Cave de Visan in the garage so decided to try something new - bio. We saw many organic wines this year on our travels, it seems to be something the french wine growers are keen to promote. I would imagine most growers are and have been organic any as the french have always been 'rustic' and 'au nature' in their lifestyles so for many growers it may be a case of shouting about something they have taken for granted.
Vin Bio Cotes du Rhone Rouge is a blend of 70% Grenache, 20% Syrah and 10% Carignan. This was the final wine we tasted at our degustation and immediately noticed how smooth it was compared to the other, very nice, Visan wines. Still full of fruit and spice, as expected from this region but it really was softer in the mouth.
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| Vin Bio |
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| Our favourite Visan wines |
Of course it would have been rude not to bring home some more Visan wine and our favourite from last year Les Murieres, I'm not quite sure how we manged to get all our purchases from our two weeks home, especially as this year we had my wheelchair too but our garage certainly knows we managed somehow.
We had a superb time in France this year, as you can see from my last four posts we discovered some amazing wine as well as visiting many places. It was especially nice this year to meet up with my school exchange friend Viviane and her husband Michel, we last saw them in 2002 on our way to our holiday in Abbaye des Monges.
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| 2002 - with Viviane's family |
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| 2002 - Viviane's mum and my Dad are sadly no longer with us |
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| 2017 - playing petanque |
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| An evening with friends |
Trés trés merci a toutes nos amis - á bientot !!
Wednesday, 4 October 2017
Chateauneuf du Pape - Cairanne
The second part of our holiday was in Visan, a great village we discovered in 2016 in the Vaucluse region of France. You can read about the village and surrounding area in my post last July - Visan to Chateauneuf du Pape.
This year we focused on wine and visiting a few of the named villages. As you'll read last year we discovered white Chateauneuf du Pape at our tasting with Cellier des Princes. A new wine for us as here in the UK we have only seen red wine from this famous village.
Last year I took a bottle of white home to share with friends, unfortunately I didn't get to enjoy it as that was the night I ended up in hospital with broken legs, another bit of reading Stratford Weekend. According to our friends it was a very nice glass of white !
Being as we were quite close to Cellier des Princes we re-visited with the aim of buying another bottle of Chateauneuf du Pape blanc. I was devasted to discover it had all gone and no more had, as yet, been bottled. I was on my crutches and explained about how I had missed the tasting last year, the lovely lady in the caveau searched all the display shelves (they have a boutique gift wrapped area as well as cases/bottles) and found the very last bottle, I was so so pleased.
Since returning home I have enjoyed my bottle with a very good friend - we both loved it and it is on my to buy again list if ever available.
A pale gold yellow colour with glistening highlights, this superb blanc has a nose of honey, white stone fruit with a hint of blossom.
It's full of crisp white fruit in flavour with a hint of minerality and a subtle elegant touch of herbaceousness.
Whilst at Cellier des Princes we did a little shopping - well it would be rude not to. Both Hubby and I like bottled wine but last year bought a bag of wine from Domaine Jaume in Vinsobres. It was superb, opened over Christmas, so nice to know each glass poured the same, the wine did not change and we could just have one glass without opening a bottle. That being said we decided to buy a bag of Merlot, it has been opened and still has half in it. It's good to know that half will be perfect when next poured.
Answering the question bag or bottle - it depends on why you are buying the wine. The obvious reason is when you'll be drinking it, a bag is perfect if sharing with others whereas a bottle is more suited to a meal. A bag suits the opposite scenario too, just one glass keeping the remainder unchanged. Many large caveau have large pumps (like the petrol ones) and locals arrive with their plastic containers and fill up for not many euros; Chateauneuf du Pape just 11 euros for 5 litres ! Admittedly it doesn't keep but many people buy their wine this way as it's cheaper due to no bottling costs, and saves on the recycling.
Whilst at Cellier des Princes we also bought Domaine de Ju Ventoux. We have always enjoyed Ventoux wine and now having been to the top of Mont Ventoux it was a must to bring home.
Domaine du Ju Ventoux is made with 50% Syrah, 30% Grenache and 20% Carignan so this red should be on the spice side of Cotes du Rhone, smooth with plenty of blackcurrants, we're looking forward to it.
We also purchased two bottles of Vin de Pays - you can't go wrong with general wine when in such an incredible wine region. For the red the grapes are removed from their stems and are in the vat for 6 to 8 days.
A predominantly Grenache blend with Syrah, Caradoc and Carignan also used. The tasting notes suggest it will be full of cherries and red fruit and is best enjoyed while it's young.
The Vin de Pays Blanc spends 6 months in the vat. This wine is 90% Grenache Blanc and 10% Sauvignon Blanc - sounds perfect to me. I'm hoping it will have the exotic fruits and white blossoms suggested along with a crispness.
The tasting notes say this can be kept for 2-3 years - not sure I can resist that long.
Gigondas is a named village known by many, it is high on the wine list for producing superb wine, many say as good if not (in some cases) better than Chateauneuf du Pape. We visited the village and enjoyed a lovely lunch: we chose a small typically french bistro but fine dining was available offering a three course lunch for 90 euro.
We did enjoy a glass of Gigondas red with lunch but didn't visit any of the caves or domaines as we had purchased this red at Cellier des Princes. A wine made with 80% Grenache, 10% Syrah, 5% Mouvedre and 5% Cinsault with all the vines being over 40 years old. It is fermented for 15 to 20 days and then in the vat for 8 months.
Hubby enjoyed this when our friends came to dinner, I did have a small sip but was happily enjoying my Chateauneuf du Pape. A rich deep red, full bodied with an abundance of dark fruit. It had a subtle hint of spice, some tannin and a long finish. Although we have yet to find a Cotes du Rhone we don't like some, and this is one, are certainly richer, rounder and more enjoyable.
On the way to Cellier des Princes we passed through a couple of the Cotes du Rhone named villages: Rateau and Cairanne. Wine producers everywhere and as it was early September plenty of tractors pulling wagons of grapes, such a great sight in the late summer sun.
We called in at the Co-operative in Cairanne; this seemed the best way to discover each appellation as our knowledge of individual producers is limited so deciding which Domaine to call at is a bit of a mine field. The caveau in Cairanne had all the named villages as well as it's own village appellation.
Within each village, and appellation, the wine varies in depth, tannin level, spice - by vintage, by aging and by terroir so visiting the co-operatives and enjoying a degustation with their knowledgeable staff is a great way to learn more and try the different wines.
Here in the UK wine is labelled with the supplier as the producer so it is difficult to find out who actually produced the wine. This is something I am keen to learn more about.
We opted for Camille Cayran Cairanne in both red, white and rose. Rose is not our usual choice but we were invited to a bbq at our friends and as with many french people living in the warmer climate rose is a favourite.
Cairanne rouge is Syrah, Grenache, Mouredvre, Carignan, full of dark fruits, soft tannin and a long finish.
Cairanne blanc is Grenache Blanc, Clairette, Rousanne, Marsanne and Bourboulenc, a blend giving tropical crisp flavours.
These two have been laid up in our garage - Maison Hearnden's overflow celler which is a almost needing its own overflow. That said I'm not sure when these will be enjoyed so actual tasting notes may take a while.
Another wine happily waiting in our cellar is a Plan de Dieu - literally translated as God's Plan which is quite apt as I cannot remember where this was purchased and so have little idea of notes, therefore it will be discovered and enjoyed when fate decides.
It's always nice to have something that offers a surprise - a votre santé
This year we focused on wine and visiting a few of the named villages. As you'll read last year we discovered white Chateauneuf du Pape at our tasting with Cellier des Princes. A new wine for us as here in the UK we have only seen red wine from this famous village.
Last year I took a bottle of white home to share with friends, unfortunately I didn't get to enjoy it as that was the night I ended up in hospital with broken legs, another bit of reading Stratford Weekend. According to our friends it was a very nice glass of white !
Being as we were quite close to Cellier des Princes we re-visited with the aim of buying another bottle of Chateauneuf du Pape blanc. I was devasted to discover it had all gone and no more had, as yet, been bottled. I was on my crutches and explained about how I had missed the tasting last year, the lovely lady in the caveau searched all the display shelves (they have a boutique gift wrapped area as well as cases/bottles) and found the very last bottle, I was so so pleased.
Since returning home I have enjoyed my bottle with a very good friend - we both loved it and it is on my to buy again list if ever available.
A pale gold yellow colour with glistening highlights, this superb blanc has a nose of honey, white stone fruit with a hint of blossom.
It's full of crisp white fruit in flavour with a hint of minerality and a subtle elegant touch of herbaceousness.
Whilst at Cellier des Princes we did a little shopping - well it would be rude not to. Both Hubby and I like bottled wine but last year bought a bag of wine from Domaine Jaume in Vinsobres. It was superb, opened over Christmas, so nice to know each glass poured the same, the wine did not change and we could just have one glass without opening a bottle. That being said we decided to buy a bag of Merlot, it has been opened and still has half in it. It's good to know that half will be perfect when next poured.
Answering the question bag or bottle - it depends on why you are buying the wine. The obvious reason is when you'll be drinking it, a bag is perfect if sharing with others whereas a bottle is more suited to a meal. A bag suits the opposite scenario too, just one glass keeping the remainder unchanged. Many large caveau have large pumps (like the petrol ones) and locals arrive with their plastic containers and fill up for not many euros; Chateauneuf du Pape just 11 euros for 5 litres ! Admittedly it doesn't keep but many people buy their wine this way as it's cheaper due to no bottling costs, and saves on the recycling.
Whilst at Cellier des Princes we also bought Domaine de Ju Ventoux. We have always enjoyed Ventoux wine and now having been to the top of Mont Ventoux it was a must to bring home.
Domaine du Ju Ventoux is made with 50% Syrah, 30% Grenache and 20% Carignan so this red should be on the spice side of Cotes du Rhone, smooth with plenty of blackcurrants, we're looking forward to it.
We also purchased two bottles of Vin de Pays - you can't go wrong with general wine when in such an incredible wine region. For the red the grapes are removed from their stems and are in the vat for 6 to 8 days.
A predominantly Grenache blend with Syrah, Caradoc and Carignan also used. The tasting notes suggest it will be full of cherries and red fruit and is best enjoyed while it's young.
The Vin de Pays Blanc spends 6 months in the vat. This wine is 90% Grenache Blanc and 10% Sauvignon Blanc - sounds perfect to me. I'm hoping it will have the exotic fruits and white blossoms suggested along with a crispness.
The tasting notes say this can be kept for 2-3 years - not sure I can resist that long.
Gigondas is a named village known by many, it is high on the wine list for producing superb wine, many say as good if not (in some cases) better than Chateauneuf du Pape. We visited the village and enjoyed a lovely lunch: we chose a small typically french bistro but fine dining was available offering a three course lunch for 90 euro.
We did enjoy a glass of Gigondas red with lunch but didn't visit any of the caves or domaines as we had purchased this red at Cellier des Princes. A wine made with 80% Grenache, 10% Syrah, 5% Mouvedre and 5% Cinsault with all the vines being over 40 years old. It is fermented for 15 to 20 days and then in the vat for 8 months.
Hubby enjoyed this when our friends came to dinner, I did have a small sip but was happily enjoying my Chateauneuf du Pape. A rich deep red, full bodied with an abundance of dark fruit. It had a subtle hint of spice, some tannin and a long finish. Although we have yet to find a Cotes du Rhone we don't like some, and this is one, are certainly richer, rounder and more enjoyable.
On the way to Cellier des Princes we passed through a couple of the Cotes du Rhone named villages: Rateau and Cairanne. Wine producers everywhere and as it was early September plenty of tractors pulling wagons of grapes, such a great sight in the late summer sun.
We called in at the Co-operative in Cairanne; this seemed the best way to discover each appellation as our knowledge of individual producers is limited so deciding which Domaine to call at is a bit of a mine field. The caveau in Cairanne had all the named villages as well as it's own village appellation.
Within each village, and appellation, the wine varies in depth, tannin level, spice - by vintage, by aging and by terroir so visiting the co-operatives and enjoying a degustation with their knowledgeable staff is a great way to learn more and try the different wines.
Here in the UK wine is labelled with the supplier as the producer so it is difficult to find out who actually produced the wine. This is something I am keen to learn more about.
We opted for Camille Cayran Cairanne in both red, white and rose. Rose is not our usual choice but we were invited to a bbq at our friends and as with many french people living in the warmer climate rose is a favourite.
Cairanne rouge is Syrah, Grenache, Mouredvre, Carignan, full of dark fruits, soft tannin and a long finish.
Cairanne blanc is Grenache Blanc, Clairette, Rousanne, Marsanne and Bourboulenc, a blend giving tropical crisp flavours.
These two have been laid up in our garage - Maison Hearnden's overflow celler which is a almost needing its own overflow. That said I'm not sure when these will be enjoyed so actual tasting notes may take a while.
Another wine happily waiting in our cellar is a Plan de Dieu - literally translated as God's Plan which is quite apt as I cannot remember where this was purchased and so have little idea of notes, therefore it will be discovered and enjoyed when fate decides.
It's always nice to have something that offers a surprise - a votre santé