Unfortunately, today was also the first day since we arrived in the south that the sun did not make an appearance first thing in the morning. As I drove towards Chateauneuf du Pape, the skies grew darker and darker, and there was a light misty rain coming down when I found a parking spot just inside the village. No big deal, right? After all I am from Vancouver, so a little rain won't hurt me.
The village was all decked out as a medieval market, with dozens of tented booths lining the streets showcasing everything from fresh food to medieval clothing.
Of course, it would not be much of a wine festival without wine:
There were also several booths set up throughout the village where you could purchase an official Veraison wine glass. For 3.5 Euros, not only did you get a nice wine glass, but when you presented this glass to any of the wine booths, or any of the wine cellars (Caves) that are located throughout the village, you would get a modest splash of whatever wines they had on display. The nice part was that they didn't limit the samples to the cheap stuff. Not that any official Chateauneuf wines are "cheap", but many of the Caves and booths were more than happy to pour you a glass of their premier crus which often are produced exclusively from sections of the domaines' vineyards that feature their best grapes from the "vielle vignes" or old vines which are typically 80 to 100 year old grape vines.
There was even a horse saddled with two oak wine barrels that was being led around the village by medievally clad townspeople. Upon presenting your official Veraison glass, you could get a fill up directly out of the barrels on the horse. Very cool.
Well, we weren't there long before the heavens opened up on us. It was raining so hard by about noon that most of the people attending the festival scampered into the small cafes and bistros, or just ran back to their cars for shelter. We didn't bring an umbrella or any kind of rain gear, and after a few minutes, we were totally soaked. We decided to head back home to get dried off and come back later, as the forecast indicated that the sun was supposed to make an appearance later in the day.
When we came back to the house, the rain had already started to subside. After we changed into some dry clothes, the owners of the villa popped in to clean the pool and prune the garden. I don't think I have mentioned this before in any of my previous entries, but the owner of the villa where we stayed is actually a sommellier and a local wine expert. He talked to us about the Veraison festival and told us that as long as the weather continued to improve, we really needed to go back to experience the medieval parade that was scheduled for sundown.
After talking about wine for so long (and in honor of the Veraison festival day), he offered to share a bottle from his personal cellar. He brought up a 2009 Chateaneuf du Pape red from Domaine de la Janasse, which he indicated was one of the best producers in the area. Even though this was a relatively young CNdP red, it was absolutely stunning. He referred to it as "monster" with luscious full bodied fruit flavor. I had sampled several 2009 CNdP reds earlier in the day at the festival, but this wine was heads and shoulders above anything I had tasted. I would even rank it as more enjoyable than the 2005 bottle we drank from our first visit to the village a few days earlier. We continued to talk about the wines of the region with our host, and he wanted us to try another bottle to show us the difference that aging a wine can make. Well, it would have been rude to say no.... So off he went, returning a few minutes alter with another gem from his cellar, a 1998 CNdP red produced by Paul Autard. Since this was such an old wine, it required decanting to avoid pouring the sediment from the bottle into our glasses.
Drinking such an old wine right after a relatively young wine was extremely interesting. An aged CNdP really mellows out with age. Where the young wine's flavor profile was predominantly fruity and sweet, the older wine featured a much more "earthy" flavor with lots of spice and floral notes.
We were really fortunate to drink two incredible wines on the same day, and it was all the more special that we enjoyed it on the same day as the CNdP Veraison festival.
Speaking of the festival, the weather continued to improve, and we headed back to the village after dinner. The main village parking lot had been covered in sand and was the focal point for the "grande spectacle" which concludes the festival.
For the next three hours, literally dozens of residents of the village entertained us with fire dancing, a medieval parade, and concluded with a jousting competition where riders raced towards each others in full chain mail and suits of armour.
All in all it was a great day featuring not one but TWO "Wines of the Day".
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