However - even in France there is "plonk" - you know - the cheap wine that you use to marinade your flank steak, add to grocery store spaghetti sauce, or serve to house guests you are trying to get rid of. In France, plonk is known as "Vins de Pays" or "Vin de Table". Now, some plonk is simply bulk wine produced by large wineries using grapes that were not up to standard. However, there are also hundreds if not thousands of small independent vineyards that choose not to be regulated by the the strict Cotes du Rhone AOC regulations. One such wine caught my eye during our visit to the village of Seguret a few days ago. While walking around this picturesque village, we happened upon a very small shop that sold miniature figurines and houses. Wendy had to go in as she collects small houses, and as we were paying for the most recent addition to the collection, I noticed that the shopkeeper had an assortment of wine for sale. It turns out that this shop keeper owned a very small vineyard that had been in his family for generations. Ten years ago, his friends and family told him his wine was so good that he should try selling it instead of just giving it away, so he decided to sell it at his little shop. After chatting with him about his wine production methods (and of course sampling several of his wines) for about 20 minutes, I walked out with a bottle - which brings us to today's Wine of the Day.
Today was actually a very sad day, being the last full day of our vacation. As I was packing up our things and deciding which wines we were going to bring back to Canada, I realized that we had one too many bottles. So in the name of keeping Canada Customs happy, I had to make a sacrifice. The bottles I had purchased from Chateauneuf and Gigondas were excellent wines and would only get better with age, so they had to make the trip. The only bottle left was this bottle from the miniature figurine store - 2007 Grenache "Cuvee du Coup de Mistral" produced by....well, actually I can't tell you because I didn't save the label and the resolution on my picture isn't high enough to decipher the name.
So, on this very sad (but beautifully sunny) day, while packing up our bags, we popped open this bottle to enjoy with lunch. We shared it with our neighbours who were renting the villa next to ours, and this wine was absolutely incredible. Normally, Grenache is blended with other varietals to balance out the often overpowering fruit flavours of this grape. Whatever this miniature figurine store owner / winemaker did to produce this wine was fantastic - it was very fruit-forward, but it had a savoury oak taste that balanced it out beautifully. Believe it or not, this was one of the three best tasting wines I had tried on this trip. Yes, you read that right - one of the best wines I bought was from a miniature figurine store. Oh, and did I mention it was 8 Euros?
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