The Chateau is a ruin, thanks to the Nazi's who decided to blow it up when they retreated in 1944. However, the walls that are still standing are well preserved, and the Chateau is still a significant landmark that can be seen from miles around.
Now - to the wine.
It seems that there are grape vines on every property - doesn't seem to matter if you pass a large winery, or someone's small backyard farm.
This view of some of the vineyards is form the Chateau. Vines as far as the eye can see...
The village must have a dozen or more "Caves" which are wine cellars accessible from the streets where you can sample and purchase wine.
Some Caves have a limited selection from a few producers, and others have a great assortment from multiple producers and vintages. I visited 4 or 5 of them and the proprieteres were all very friendly and helpful.
The last Cave I visited was actually about 200m from the Chateau itself, and it was the largest and most impressive. After walking in, the first section is very commercial with a tasting bar and several racks of wine. Further inside, there were three more cellar sections, each cooler than the last, and the wines seemed to get older (and more expensive) the further in I went. The final section of the cellar was incredible - it was actually a Roman ruin of their actual wine processing facility. There were several "vats" carved out of stone, each with drainage holes at the bottom, leading to other "vats". The primary "vats" are where the grapes would be crushed (by foot of course), and the juice would flow out of the drainage holes into the secondary "vats" where they would add yeast and begin the fermentation process. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my CF card adapter for my SLR camera on the trip, and I had to use the SLR in this Cave because our point-and-shoot doesn't work well in low light conditions. Pics of the Cave will have to wait until I can find a cheap CF card adapter in Avignon. In the meantime, here is a picture just outside the Cave taken from the path to the Chateau.
I asked the proprietere to recommend a nice bottle, and he selected a 2005 Clos des Brusquieres. The proprietere advised me that 2005 was a great vintage, and this particular producer still produced wine using very traditional methods. How good was it? Well, let me put it this way - you notice how all the other Wine of the Day (WOTD) pictures have the bottles next to a glass or two? Well this wine was so good and we enjoyed consuming it so much that I forgot all about taking any pictures of it until today (four days later). We have had many CNdP wines over the last few years, but this one was by far the best we have tried (to date). It was strong (most CNdP reds are higher on the alcohol content than many other wines - mostly due to the relatively late harvest and the small yields of the vineyards) at 15%, and although it had that fortified taste that many Rhone wines exhibit, it was extremely mellow and VERY easy to drink.
No comments:
Post a Comment