We love having friends visit from the States, and as as you can imagine, we've had quite a few over the years.
Us, to friends arriving from the states: "So you're coming to visit us in France, wonderful! What do you want to do while you're here?"
Friends: "We want to taste some wine!"
Hmm. It's always a bit of a conundrum. In France, what does that mean exactly? What experience are they looking for?
Actually, a wine tasting can be many things. We've been on WAY too many wine-tastings to count in France, and they are all different. So that you can sort it all out, I have made for you a partial list of possibilities. But first let's learn a little vocabulary:
dégustation: a tasting
cave: a wine cellar. (pronounce the a softly, like in ahh).
cave coopérative: a co-op owned by a group of small-plot wine growers, who generally pool their grapes and their resources to make and market wine. The result is generally good quality wine at lower-prices. Your average French person (including us!) buys their wine here.
château: you know this word means castle, but just to confuse you, it can also mean a wine estate, usually with some sort of grand old building but not necessarily a castle.
Here are some of the many ways to taste wine, in a French wine region (note that vignerons selling their own wine are more likely to have free tastings than places selling a wide range of wines).
--You drop in to one of the many small retail wine boutiques in a wine village or most any town in Burgundy, tell them what you're interested in, and most will offer tastings. They will typically have a wide variety of wines, even from different regions.
--You make an appointment at a wine château in the countryside, usually situated in the middle of their vineyards, where you spend a morning with one of the family members or with their wine guide, who takes you on a walking tour of their vineyards. You typically tour their production area and their caves, and they open some of their bouteilles in their vaulted stone cellar, surrounded by weathered oak barrels, or in tasting room.
--In a town or city, you go directly to one of the large-scale vignerons (wine growers) who will have a wine house where they market their own wines. Often their wine production is done elsewhere, but they may have caves at the site.
--You pop into a small family vigneron's place in the countryside, marked by a small sign, and taste a bottle or two of their wines with the owner or his spouse, sometimes in their office or barn. It can be very informal, homey and intimate.
--You go to the expo at a big commercial winery. There will probably be an educational video or multi-media presentation; you can take a peek at their huge stainless steel vats. You can learn all about soils and varietals and production and such. There will most likely be a gift shop with wine and kitchen paraphernalia, maybe some activities for the kids. It will all be very sleek and fabulous.Then there will be a large counter where the sommeliers/sommelières will ask you what you'd like to taste, and you stand at the counter and discuss.
--You can go to a no-nonsense cave coopérative, which are found in most towns of any size. They will carry the local wines they make themselves. There will be a small counter for tasting, then you will get a Home Depot-sized cart and load it up with cases of wine for your cave. Or your suitcase.
--Here in Beuane, you can hit the tourisme and sign up for an all day village-hopping wine tour of the area.
--One last possibility: a tasting at home! Read about how we do it, in this post: Tasting Blind, A Painless Education.
So, since we are all mostly armchair travelers at the moment, start dreaming about wine-tasting, your way, for your next trip to France. A votre santé!
Coming Soon: the Etiquette of Tasting Wine
In the COMMENTS: Mindy led me to the fascinating history of Barbie dolls--based on a German doll that was marketed as a novelty toy for men. Colleen, surely some of those old dolls are valuable, at least at a flea market? Natalia, tormented is certainly the word for some of these dolls, or creepy, as Colleen called them. There must be a story there! Maybe Ellen is right, it's the French sense of humor. Francine and Paula both spotted the Santons de Provence. Judi I did not know there were doll clubs. And many thanks to Paul, for consulting with me on today's post.
Favorite READS: with the British royals in the news, it's a good time to read Lady in Waiting: My Extraordinary Life in the Shadow of the Crown, recommended by an Australian friend. A friend in California told me about a gorgeous lifestyle/cookbook called Le Moulin Brégeon, about a moulin and gîte in the Loire Valley. And Natalia, thanks for the kind words about my book, How to Learn a New Language with a Used Brain.
