Pétanque & Pastis

Dîner de Vin & Festin de Truffe

We took the train from Antibes to Nîmes (a 3-hour trip with a connection in Marseilles), where we rented a car and headed off to Les Demeures du Ranquet on the D982 just before Tornac in the Département du Gard (30).  The hotel grounds were lovely, with fountains and sculptures scattered all around in a wooded area, and walkways which lead to the individual rooms, each with its own terrace with table and chairs where breakfast is served when the weather is warmer.

After settling into our room, which was named Cannelle (Cinnamon), we raided the room’s minibar, and indulged ourselves in a glass of champagne on our sun-filled, but chilly, terrace.  We had heard that the hotel was out in the middle of nowhere, and it was.  We decided we had time for a short hike before dinner, but it wasn’t obvious where we could find the hiking trails from the hotel, although I’m certain that they do exist – maybe this just isn’t the time of year for hiking in this area.  So, instead, we set out for a drive to the village of Anduze, which was only about ten minutes away by car.

With a population of about 3,000 inhabitants, Anduze is situated in the rocky foothills of the Cévennes mountains, and serves as the Porte des Cévennes – the entrance to the Cévennes mountain range.  It has been known since the 17^th century for its unique pottery, in the shape of a large urn-like vase on a short pedestal base, decorated with insignias and draped garlands.  Even the Sun King (Louis XIV) had orange trees planted in the Italian-style Vases d’Anduze on the grounds of the royal residence at le Château de Versailles.

We returned to our hotel in time to get ready for the real reason for this trip.  We came here to stay at Les Demeures du Ranquet so that we could partake in the monthly Winemaker’s Dinner served at their restaurant, “Le Ranquet”, headed by one of the few women chefs in the area, Anne Marjourel.  We lucked out on this month’s dinner in the middle of truffle season, because it was also a Truffle Feast, with truffles served with every course.  This month’s featured winemaker was Monsieur Thierry Hasard of Domaine de la Marfée in Murviel les Montpellier.  We started the evening nibbling hors d’oeuvres and mingling with the other guests in a large reception area of the hotel surrounded by art work.  The hotel also serves as the Contemporary Art Foundation, providing temporary art exhibitions throughout the year, and sometimes organizing dinners with the artists.  We felt like we were at a private party, and Jean-Luc Marjourel (the proprietor and husband of the chef) made us feel very welcome by making small talk and telling us about some of the art work.  Monsieur Hasard, tonight’s winemaker, also spoke to us and explained to us how he got into the winemaking business.  After hors d’oeuvres and our first wine tasting, we were seated at large tables.  Our table included seven other dinner guests from the local region, who were gracious enough to engage us in conversation throughout the dinner, and were very patient with our French.  Between each course, Monsieur Hasard described each wine and included many anecdotes from his winemaking experience, most of which went over our heads because his French was spoken so quickly.  But, it was a very enjoyable evening, and the dinner was stupendous.  It was also a long evening, with the festivities beginning at 7:45pm.  When they asked us what time we would like to have breakfast delivered to our room, we didn’t realize that it was already past 1:00am.

           Vignerons

     M. et Mme Hasard

    Domaine de la Marfée

    Murviel les Montpellier

                  ~

        Chef de Cuisine

          Anne Majourel

                  ~

Dîner de Vin & Festin de Truffe

               Le Menu

                  ~

Chips de Truffes, Douceur au Coing Rôti, Brouillade et Saumon

Vin Blanc 2004 “Frissons d’Ombelles”

                  ~   

Le Velouté de Cresson, Boudin Croustillant, Crème Fouettée Truffée

L’Escalope de Foie Gras Poêlée,

Purée de Châtaigne au Citron, Jus Truffé

Vin Rouge 2004 “Les Gamines”

                  ~

La Brandade Demi-Deuil

avec le Pavé de la Mer lardé de Truffe

Vin Blanc 2004 “Frissons d’Ombelles”

                  ~   

L’Onglet de Boeuf Juste Saisi, Jus Corsé au Romarin,

écrasée de Pomme de Terre à la Truffe

La Salade de Mâche du Jardin,

Le Bouillon de Navet Parfumé

Vin Rouge 2004 “Les Champs Murmurés”

                  ~

Le Service des Fromages

Vin Rouge 2004 “Les Vignes Qu’on Abat”

                  ~

La Coupe de Fruits Pochés, Sabayon à la Truffe

The Crush is On in the Languedoc

This morning we rode our bicycles into Carcassonne to pick up some warm croissants and sweet white peaches for breakfast, and to shop for lunch and dinner items.  After devouring our breakfast, we started up the barge and decided to continue on our way up the Canal beyond Carcassonne.  Our first locks were in the center of town, where we ran through our flawless technique with an audience of plenty of curious onlookers.  We cruised for a little while, until we found a good spot to moor the barge and to partake in a luncheon of charcuterie, cheese, a rustic baguette, plump purple grapes, and a delicious Minervois wine.  From the beginning of our barge trip, all along the Canal we had been watching grapes being harvested, and saw large piles of grape debris created after the must was expressed from them, and we could detect the yeasty smell of the grapes being processed into wine.  We spent the afternoon riding our bicycles past fields of grape vines in search of a winery that was listed in the Guide Map that we ordered when we reserved our barge.  The weather was starting to change, with clouds blocking out the bright sunshine that we had been enjoying each day, but it was good bicycling weather for climbing the small hills where we found Château Auzias in Pennautier, not too far from Carcassonne.

Château Auzias in Cabardès

The ruby-red wines we tasted were Syndicat d’ A.O.C. Cabardès, which requires a minimum of 40% Atlantic grape varieties (Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, etc.) blended with a minimum of 40% Mediterranean grape varieties (Syrah and Grenache, etc.).  Since Mike favors the Atlantic varietals, while Dave and I lean more toward the Mediterranean, all three of us enjoyed these wine, so we ended up buying a combination of 2000 Cuvée Gloria Mundi (25% Grenache Noir, 15% Syrah, 30% Merlot, 28% Cabernet, 2% Alicante), 2003 Cuvée Monsieur (25% Grenache Noir, 35% Merlot, 25% Cabernet, 5% Cinsault, 5% Alicante), and Cuvée Petits Messieurs (25% Grenache Noir, 15% Syrah, 35% Merlot, 20% Cabernet).  Unfortunately, we really couldn’t handle any more than just a few bottles, since only two of us had baskets on our bicycles, and I had, embarrassingly enough, already fallen off my bicycle once on the rutty lane along the Canal, on our way to the winery.  Although these wines are supposed to go best with charcuterie and grilled meats, the Cuvée Petits Messieurs went perfectly with tonight’s dinner of Farfalle All’Arrabiata.

A Day of Sailing

Thanks to an invitation from Magali & Michel, we headed out for a day of sailing from Port Camille Rayon in Golf-Juan to les Îles des Lérins, aboard Michel’s beautiful 9 ½-meter sailboat named Tara.  Along with Christiane & Michel, the six of us spent the day sailing, swimming, eating, drinking, and laughing, with good wind and lots of sunshine.  After a previously failed attempt, this also turned out to be the perfect opportunity to share the bottle of rosé that we received as a gift from the proprietor at the Domaine de Marchandise winery in the Var.  It was given to us with strict orders that we drink it together as a group.  It went down perfectly with our oil-drenched pan bagnats under the warm sunshine, moored in the clear blue water between Île Sainte-Marguerite and Île Saint-Honorat.  This bottle of rosé is featured in a story I wrote for blueVicar, called A Bottle Among Friends.

The Châteaux of the Loire – West of Tours

Château Luynes

Château Langeais

Château de la Cour du Berruyer

On our way to the village of Chinon, we passed a number of impressive châteaux; so many, in fact, that it was impossible to stop to take photos of them all.

Château d’Ussé - Château de La Belle au Bois Dormant

The Château d’Ussé is said to have provided the inspiration for Charles Perrault’s fairy tale classics.  The most notable of these fairy tales is “Sleeping Beauty”, which (according to Wikipedia) includes a Part II, which continues the story after Sleeping Beauty awakens from her 100-year nap.

Château de Chinon

The Château de Chinon, which is mostly in ruins now, sits above the village of around 9,000 inhabitants.  We noticed some renovation work taking place near the main entrance gate of the fortress as we hiked up to it.

Restaurant Les Années 30

We stopped in for a memorable lunch on the terrace of a wonderful restaurant in Chinon called Les Années 30 (78 rue Voltaire, tél: 02.47.93.37.18).  We fell in love with the 2005 Domaine de la Noblaie Chinon Blanc, which complemented our lunch of Cabillaud au Wasabi just perfectly.  After perusing a brochure of the winery that we picked up at the restaurant, we thought we would head out and do a little wine tasting.

Domaine de La Noblaie

It was pretty easy to find the Domaine de La Noblaie winery since the brochure had a map which gave us an idea where to head, and then there were signs along the way to guide us there.

Domaine de La Noblaie Cave

After a self-guided tour through the cave, we tasted a couple of their Chinon Rouge, and then bought a case of the aforementioned, gold medal-winning 2005 Chinon Blanc, and a half case of the bronze medal-winning 2002 Chinon Rouge.  It cost only 19 € to have it shipped to us in Antibes for arrival scheduled in three days.

Château d’Azay-le-Rideau

The last visit on our Châteaux tour was the 16^th-century Château d’Azay-le-Rideau, which seemed to float on the mirrored Indre River in the middle of a lovely park.

Randonnée – Roquebrune-sur-Argens

We headed over to the Var (Département 83) for a hike and a pique-nique with our friends, Christiane, Michel, and Magalie.  The morning hike in the hills above Roquebrune-sur-Argens was great.  There were colorful wildflowers all around, and very thin, wild asparagus growing out of the ground.  You could still see some bright yellow mimosa scattered around here and there.  We found the perfect clearing with big flat rocks where we could sit and have our pique-nique.  It was shortly after lunch that things went awry.  We had been following the blue trail markers which lead us through the scenic route, but somehow, we missed the marker and took off into an unmarked area with no trail.  I guess it was a while before we realized our mistake, but, by then it was too late.  We ended up in pretty thick woods, wrestling through hanging vines with lots of thistles, and sliding down slippery muddy cliffs.  There were a few anxious moments, but, fortunately, the extra hour of sunlight we received today on this first day of << l’heure d’été >> (Daylight Savings Time – a week earlier than the U.S.) gave us enough time to get ourselves back on the right track.

After finishing our challenging hike close to 6:00pm, Michel had the great idea to stop in at one of his and Christiane’s favorite wineries here in the Var.  Domaine de Marchandise makes both a red and a rosé Côtes de Provence wine, but the rosé seems to be its specialty.  The proprietor spent a lot of time with us while pouring us tastes of his wines.  Each of us loaded up on some reds and some rosés, and the proprietor gave us one bottle of rosé that we were instructed to share one evening between the five of us.  So, before parting ways, we set a date to reconvene for an apéritif of Domaine de Marchandise 2005 Rosé.

Wine Tasting in Bandol

After leaving La Capte, we headed to the seaside village of Bandol to get a map of the vineyards.  The majority of the Bandol vineyards seems to be in Le Castelet, so that’s where we headed in search of Domaine Tempier.  In our search for the vineyard, which we had a great deal of difficulty finding, we happened across Domaine Ott, which we had heard of from some of our friends in Antibes.  So we stopped and checked out the beautiful grounds, and went in for a dégustation (tasting).  It turns out that at least three of our Antibois friends had a story about Domaine Ott, which, until recently, had an office located here in Antibes, just down the street from our apartment. 

We finally found our way to Domaine Tempier, where we had been talking about visiting for a couple of years.  The winery was established by Lucien and Lucie (a.k.a. Lulu) Peyraud who were given some vineyards next to the family home by Lulu’s father in 1936.  Their first vintage appeared in 1943 amidst the destruction of World War II.  It was Lucien who brought appellation status to the wines of Bandol and who created the requirement for AOC Bandol wines to consist of 50% mourvèdre grapes, which have been growing in Bandol for hundreds of years.

  Lulu Peyraud has also been an inspiration to Alice Waters of Chez Panisse in Berkeley, and her recipes are featured in Richard Olney’s 1994 cookbook, Lulu’s Provençal Table.