Vingeron Independants - Le Savoir-Etre du Vin
In plain ol' english...
740 Independant wine producers, under one roof, with the sole aim to show off their wines by offering you free tastings! WHOOP WHOOP!
Louise and Robbie kindly gave J and I tickets to the festival (one ticket = 2 people entry for a day) so we went on Saturday 27th. As you walk in the door its slightly overwhelming as you exchange your tickets for two glasses which allow you to go in and out all day. You are then faced with one of the most beautiful sights in the world.... stands representing 740 independant vineyards from across france, colour coded so you don't loose your way!
For the inexperienced it is a fairly intimidating to begin with as theres shulurming, spitting, swilling, gargling and an awful lot of talking focused around each of the booths. We decided to begin with the local area and had a degustation of the most local Lyonnais wine http://www.clos-st-marc.com/ . As we ventured around we grew with confidence (directly correlated to the amount of wine we were consuming - the student in us took over, spit wine out?! I dont think so!!!!!) So we gargled our way around Beaujolais, a few Pouille Fissse and a couple of Pouille Fumee... We qoiffed a Cremant du Jura and an Etoile or two, followed swiftly by gulping some Montbazillac, then another, and another, then the wallets came out and we purchased a 2003 & 2005, then a 'cheeky' 1997 from Vingnobles de Poulvere et Barse http://www.poulvere.com/.
Our next purchase of the day was a chariot that can carry 30kg of wine. We felt that we were taken more seriously when pulling our wine behind us. In the few minutes taken to purchase our chariot, we felt we were embraced by the French. Nods and grunts of approval came from left and right and we moved up a rank, no longer were we mere tourists - we were wine pullers. It was a moving moment for us both. Absoultuely nothing to do with the fact is was now 1pm and we had been sipping since 10 without stopping for sustenance....
Lunch time was fairly necessary at this point and we muched our baguettes with gusto before returned to Kts favourite of the day. The delightful ladies of the Chateau de l'Etoile (http://www.chateau-etoile.com/) not only had the most delicious wine we had tasted, they were the nicest people we met that day and spent time explaining the differences between the grapes and the soils, the processes that each wine goes through and they also refilled our glasses at an impressive rate.
We decided that this should be our second purchase, especailly when we found out there are only three Etoile producing vineyards as its such a teensy weensy place and they were by far the nicest. Our purchases included a Vin Jaune and their award winning La Cuvee des ceps d'or, both were truly scrumptious and, if finances had allowed I think we would also have taken a Macvin du Jura and Vin de Paille de l'Etoile.
As we completed the purchase the lovely friendly lady did the usual "Merci, bon journee...." but then followed with words that were to bring joy to our little tipsy hearts....
"Would you like tickets for tomorrow?"
Yes. Yes we would. That would be super. Please can we have two? Thank you. See you tomorrow nice lady!
Off we staggered with our little chariot and smiles on our faces, Kt fumbling with her phone to call Sarah and Lani to spread the joy and the tickets.
We were coming back tomorrow.
With our chariot.
Sunday dawned with sightly sore heads (we HAD to sample at least one of our new purchases the previous night). We collected Sarah, pootled off to the bakery to stock up on carbs and headed to the Metro where we would meet Lani.
We were now pro's at this and walked the aisles with an air of confidance that we didnt have the previous day. Little phrases 'c'est trop fort pour moi', 'c'est tres tannic, non?' 'avez vous un autre an?', 'je preferais un vin moins sec', 'je preferais le mille nuef cent quatre-vingt dix sept', 'c'est tres bon!' flowed like the wine and we systematically drank whites first, bubbles second, quick stop for lunch and onto the reds.
We purchased a Gewutzstraminer from Andre Hopfner http://www.vinhopfner.fr/, another from Jean Claude Geuth http://www.vin-alsace-gueth.com/. A Fitou (but we drank it and can't find the recipt so I cant tell you where it was from. I can tell you it was delicious and Lani bought some for her mum). A Fleurie from a lovely lady Martine Thevenet http://www.vigneron-independant.com/annuaire/desc_adherent.php?numadh=703 and her daughter who practiced her english with us (poor child, by this point even we couldnt speak english that well....).
After we had sampled all the wines we specifically wanted to (based mainly on what we could remember the parents liked!) we decided on a new plan of attack, the people that looked the nicest or had the smallest crowd. Now I can hear you all crying out - if they have no que its propbably because they're rubbish! But no, we didnt think of that. We tried a few Cote du Rhone that were so dry it felt like your mouth was peeling off.
But then, just by chance Sarah spied a little decrepid old man, sitting alone at the end of an aisle, with a big smile and only two wines.
We sauntered over but quickly realsied he was not a man that took wines lightly. They were his life. He rinsed our glasses whilst scowling, they had white in them (after a quick stop at the Montbazillac on they way over). White wine, he said, was NOT wine. He then took it upon hinself to re-educate the four lost souls that stood before him. To cut a fairly short story even shorter, he did a good job, his wine was lovely, so was he and we bought a bottle of his 2000 Chateau Sainte-Marie Pomerol. A good choice he said somewhat unsurprisingly - it cost €32. http://www.vigneron-independant.com/annuaire/desc_adherent.php?numadh=8776
By now we felt truly re-educated and full so we decided to call it a day.
Climbing over the bodies of the few that didn't make it (there were quite a few!) we wheeled our laden chariot back to the bus stop and off home where we spend more than a few minutes sitting on the floor surrounded by our new friends. It was an amazing experience and a fantastic weekend where we both learnt a lot, but perhaps the most interesting thing was we found what we like and dont like which is going to make the supermarket trips an awful lot easier!
Can't wait for next year!!!
The purchases (well, some of them)
The three 'BIG ONES' L-R Chateau Etoile Vin Jaune, Chateau Sainte-Marie Pomerol, Montbazillc 2002 'Elegance'
The guide book listing evey producer there, and the tasting glasses.
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