by vicoco | Oct 25, 2016
Roman Days
Jennifer chanelling her inner Roman woman!
We called this day Roman as we visited an important site – the Museum of Amphoralis near Narbonne, where one of the largest industrial production of amphorae, roof tiles and household earthenware, was situated. During out guided tour, we were greeted by Helène Serrano – a specialist in roman wine and her neice who actually makes wines to the traditional Roman recipes – vin antique as it is called. We tasted this wine in different areas of the museum, while learning all about the fascinating methods of production and why this site was so successful and important (natural resources of wood and clay, vineyards, naviagable waterways). Lunch was in the reconstructed workers house and of course we had a Roman lunch based of real roman recipes of the day. Romans used to eat alot of sweet and sour together and the main course of a game stew was flavoured with dried fish sauce, aniseed and other delicious flavours.
We returned to Limoux relataively early as dinner was at a local wine merchants, where we were entertained by friends of Jean-Luc – on accordion and guitar – with contributions from Jean-Luc on vocals and of course Richard who was itching to join in – he has wonderful tenor and singing in French poses no problems for him!. Dancing and singing all round, of course accompained by local wines and tasty canapés – another memorable day over.
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by vicoco | Oct 25, 2016
Happy people with Laurent Vives at Domaine Mayrac
Mayrac and Malpère
A later start to the day and some off-roading in the bus! Taking a track up behind Couiza, we meet Laurent Vives from Domaine Mayrac. Here we admire the view of the Pyrenees in the distance and his vinyards down in the valley. Laurent explains with passion his love of terroir and how he defines each parcel of vines to make a different wine. A professional setting for the wine tasting means that the wine circle is at ease and ready to spend over an hour sampling his range of wines – which they find every bit as interesting as Laurent! He and his team from the cellars have also prepared a wonderfum 3 course lunch – presented and served with style – olny the best for this group and we had to literally drag them away! Wine purchases safely stored in the bus, we headed for a short stop at the Domaine experiemntal de Cazes, which is funded by in part the Chambre of Agriculture and local co-operatives. Here they grow hundreds of different types of grapes using different methods. They also have over 70 ‘micro’ vinifcations each year – all of which helps wine growers adapt thier methods and stay one step ahead of the game – especially with climate change already having an effect in the region. Then over to the Malpère wine region – Chateau Belvèzes where the glamorous Isabelle Malfosse showed us aroud her Domaine with its impressive trees – some over 400 years old. A surprise tasting matching edible flowers and wine was certainly a real eye-opening and a tastebud tickler! There were oyster leaves, begonia flowers, bananna mint and stinky cheese leaves (a replacement for camambert!) Isabelle’s husband, Guillaume, who loves abit of mischief invited people into the vats – quite afew obliged and found the experience quite fun! A short drive back to Limoux, where dinner and relaxing ended the day.
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by vicoco | Oct 25, 2016
Hotting up in the Corbières
Our first stop of the tour was with Anne Lignères from Château La Baronne in Moux. Always a pleasure to see Anne as she not only speaks excellent English, she also has a great sense of humour . She needed all this good humour as she showed us her organic vinyards- some dating back 120 years. She has had very little rainfall for a number of months and as a result her vines were very stunted with some grapes no bigger than peas. As she has been organic and bio-dynamic for a number of years and knows her vines are strong enough to withstand the drought but her yeild will be much lower this year. The group absoutley loved the visit – with the fascinating teracotta amphores and ‘eggs’ for both fermenting and ageing. They loved her wines even more, especially the vermentino and her 100% carrignan. A great start to the tour.
Free lunch in Narbonne – nothing nicer than dining like a local on a terrace -watching the world go by – luckily we left no-one behind as we headed out of Narbonne and had an interesting guided visit to the Abbey of Fronfroide followed by a tasting in their cellars of the wines produced there. A happy but tired group then headed back in the bus to their home for the week – the Hotel Modern et Pigeon in Limoux.
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by vicoco | Oct 25, 2016
Happy people with Laurent Vives at Domaine Mayrac
Mayrac and Malpère
A later start to the day and some off-roading in the bus! Taking a track up behind Couiza, we meet Laurent Vivès from Domaine Mayrac. Here we admire the view of the Pyrenees in the distance and his vinyards down in the valley. Laurent explains with passion his love of terroir and how he defines each parcel of vines to make a different wine. A professional setting for the wine tasting means that the wine circle is at ease and ready to spend over an hour sampling his range of wines – which they find every bit as interesting as Laurent! He and his team from the cellars have also prepared a wonderfum 3 course lunch – presented and served with style – olny the best for this group and we had to literally drag them away! Wine purchases safely stored in the bus, we headed over to the Malpèrewine region – Chateau Belvèzes where the glamorous Isabelle Malafosse showed us aroud her Domaine with its impressive trees – some over 400 years old. A surprise tasting matching edible flowers and wine was certainly a real eye-opening and a tastebud tickler! Isabelle’s husband, Guillaume, who loves abit of mischief invited people into the vats – quite afew obliged and found the experience quite fun! (see photos)
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by vicoco | Oct 19, 2016
Hotting up in the Corbières
Our first stop of the tour was with Anne Lignères from Château La Baronne in Moux. Always a pleasure to see Anne as she not only speaks excellent English, she also has a great sense of humour . She needed all this good humour as she showed us her organic vinyards- some dating back 120 years. She has had very little rainfall for a number of months and as a result her vines were very stunted with some grapes no bigger than peas. As she has been organic and bio-dynamic for a number of years and knows her vines are strong enough to withstand the drought but her yeild will be much lower this year. The group absoutley loved the visit – with the fascinating teracotta amphores and ‘eggs’ for both fermenting and ageing. They loved her wines even more, especially the vermentino and her 100% carrignan. A great start to the tour.
Free lunch in Narbonne – nothing nicer than dining like a local on a terrace -watching the world go by – luckily we left no-one behind as we headed out of Narbonne and had an interesting guided visit to the Abbey of Fronfroide followed by a tasting in their cellars of the wines produced there. A happy but tired group then headed back in the bus to their home for the week – the Hotel Modern et Pigeon in Limoux.
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