And we had tickets.
Free tickets.
We woke early, rubber the sleep from our eyes, donned our best clothes, packed some lunch and together with our chariot we headed off to meet Vikki at the metro. We were on our way to some serious wine tasting.
A short time later, just after the doors had opened, we were in and holding our free glasses. Having learnt well last time we trundled round with an air of confidence and 'oui, je deja connais'. We we're pros at this wine fair lark. look, we have a chariot.
We started with the whites, focussing mainly on the Alsace and Jura, supping Rieslings and Vin Jeunes, Gewurztraminers and Macvins (clearly a scottish wine, Mac-Vins?! Perhaps McVin would be better, I'll suggest it next time...). The first discovery of the fair was the French have no idea what a gooseberry is, which resulted in a few amusing conversations with some of the Alsacienne wine producers (after consulting the dictionary they are called 'groseille a maquereau' or 'mackerel redcurrants' and are considered inedible). One of our favourites was the Domaine Bliemerose 2005 Gewurtztraminers (available through the Wine Socitey), although we chose not to buy from them but we can't remember why....
The wine was starting to have a slight effect and (to J's dismay) Vikki and I found ourselves following men with amazing moustaches, truly believing that becuase they had impressive facial hair, they would know a good wine...
Man with moustache = Wine boffin
Lunch time was declared and we munched our way through a considerable stack of carbs. THEN came the purchasing, we had a short list of the wines we liked and went back for un autre petit degustation and the first purchase. Then a moment of horror overcame us.
Where was the chariot?
J had been left in charge whilst vikki and kt went on their moustache following adventures but now, after lunch. WE NO LONGER HAD THE CHARIOT. (Sharp intake of breath required please)
Panic overcame us and we split up in a vain attempt to find our little wheelie!
We searched all over the Alsace - but no! Headed south to the Jura - not there either! We even scoured the Champagne!
It wasn't looking good, especially when there were at least 30 identical chariots in the building!
Kt dispared and had to have a glass of wine to calm her (good place for it really...), Vikki realisng the true extent of the situation - we would have to C A R R Y the wine, swiftly joined Kt. J was on his second tour..... but then, joy of joys, our knight in shining wine bottles....
Monsieur Henri Gsell
http://www.vigneron-independant.com/annuaire/desc_adherent.php?numadh=1064,
creator of an award winning Riesling and Keeper of the Chariot.
After our first round of tasting he kindly put our chariot behind his stall after realising we were not as clever as we appeared when left it at his stall on our Quest to follow Hairy Faces.
We thanked our knight profusely and exchanged €30 for 6 of his award winning Riesling (luckily we had intedned to buy some anyway, otherwise it may have been a little awkward...)
Still shaken from our trauma, it was necessary for Vikki and Kt to stop at the chocolate stall for a small purchase of handmade chocolate, for our wellbeing of course, eh-hem.
Feeling refeshed and calm we made the other serious purchases, 4 Gewurtztraminers from Tomas Baur at Francois Baur http://www.vinsbaur.com/) and then 2 Gewurtztraminers and 6 Sylvaner from Andre Dussourt http://www.domainedussourt.com/, with a quick stop at the lovely Chateau D'Etoile for the Macvin we kicked ourselves for not buying at the last fair and 2 more Cuvee des Ceps D'Or to replenish our collection (http://www.chateau-etoile.com/).
Then the fun began.
We flitted from one wine to another, stopping off at a stall D12 a few times to watch the rugby feeling slightly guilty as earlier we'd decided to avoid the stall as one of the gentlemen looked as if he'd got lost on a booze cruise from the UK and accidentally bought a vinyead (pictures below should show you what we mean). Turns out he was an ex-professional rugby player and was not scary at all!
Ex-professional booze cruise rugby player, cleary a photo or two was required.
A few random purchases followed, including 2 white Les Pleiades 2006 from the lovely Monsieur Phillipe Richy at Domaine Stella Nova (http://www.stellanova.fr/) and 2 Rose and 1 white from Domaine St Lucie (http://www.saintelucie-provence.com/), we we're drawn to their stall by the lovely labels and luckily it turned out to be a jolly good wine - so we bought some!
Chariot and heads full we decided to call it a day and trundled back home, unsurprisingly none of us could face cooking so a table at Mendos was summonded (same as wagamama in the UK but cheap!) and after dinner we collapsed into our little beds early.
We had an important day tomorrow.
The modest purchasing of Day 1
Kt's left foot was determined to make a break for it and head back into the salon.....
Vikki - so you know what she looks like without a rugby playing wine producer
Day 2, Le jour de vin Rouge.
Having 'collected' a few bottles of red from the neighbouring vineyards around Moire, Michel Morel's 2006 & 1998 Beaujolais, Michel Carrons 2007 Beaujolais and Alain and Daniel Germain 2005 Villes Vignes, day 2 was more about discovering what reds we liked. We started off meandering from stall to stall, again reaffirming what we discovered last time, J likes most reds and Kt (by and large) doesn't like Cote du Rhone's.
A lovely mature couple, Marc et Anne Marie Lepine from Chateau Bizard http://www.chateaubizard.fr/ invited us to try their Vin de Table, we soon realised there would be no bluffing our way through this one. We had been sussed us out. We were then given an excellent lesson by Monsieur Lepine (and a bit of a telling off) as we we're swilling the glasses wrong and using BOTH nostrils, (if your right handed you use the right nostril and left handed use the left as they are the dominant nostril). Our first purchases of the day were 3 x vin de table and 3 x Ravin d'Archas 2006 Rose. After wishing us un bon degustation and inviting us to visit their Cave for another lesson, with a wave they sent us on our way, just that little bit closer to understanding the mammoth world of wine.
A short time later we came across Chateau La Frerotte with their Lalande-de-Pomerol, http://www.chateaulafrerotte.fr/ , the three members of famille Tarendeau clearly felt sorry for us and we had a lovely conversation with them about the differences between british and french youth, education and wine apprecaiton. It was only after the conversation it became clear to us all Kts french definately does improve in direct correlation to wine consumed as she had managed to do pretty much all the talking (no surprises there then....Kt talking?! Surely not....). We didn't actually buy from them as funds were running low and it was rather expensive, but we were invited for the vendange which was nice!
After lunch we set off again and as vikki's birthaday is soon approaching (9th April for all those who know her) we went in search of bubbles! After discovering that most of the Champagne stalls were a bit scary and sometimes rude, we moved onto sampling some Cremant du Jura. Vix chose a Cremant du Jura Blanc Brut Prestige for €7 and a Cremant du Jura Rose Brut for €7.50 from the nice men at Domain Grand http://www.domaine-grand.com/ . We also purchased a Macvin du Jura that J had his eye on the day before and trundled off to find our next wine.
Stall D16, Domain Mas Amiel http://www.lesvinsdumasamiel.com/ were our next victims, chosen purely because we'd spied a smiley man with dreadlocks selling the wine, an unusal sight at a wine fair. We sampled a few of the lovely reds, including a really really yummy 1980 Grenache Noir Millesieme (only €60!), similar to port but fruitier and chocolatier, you really have to try it to understand! We decided that perhaps that was a little out of our league and settled on a 10 year old Cuvee Special for a snip at €12.
We left the stall realising we had learned yet another important lesson. Hippies make good wine.
Our time at the wine fair was coming to a close and we decided to attempt a new system of selection, one of us decided an number from 1-38 and another a letter from A-G, this system worked incredibly well and we arrived at E14, Monsier E.A.R.L Lucien Schmitt http://www.chateau-d-arlus.com/ , a slighly scary looking man with some rather interesting wines, we sampled a few and a clear favourite was found, a 2003 Medaille d'Argent Paris, Gaillac Rouge Braucol, its a really interesting wine produced solely from the Braucol grapes only grown in a very small area of France, the wine is rich but surprisingly light but has an extrodinary aftertaste of black pepper. A winner with Kt and we decided to buy just the one bottle.
As Mr Schmitt took payment for the Braucol (€10) he gave us a lovely gift of our second favourite, a €10.80 2004 Gaillac Blanc Doux, Medaille d'Argent Bruxelles. Why thank you we said, with big smile and lots of 'what a lovely man!', however his kindness was not to end there and a second bottle appeared, "pour votre pere" he declared to Kt.... more merci beaucoup's and even bigger smiles (they payment for the one bottle had already gone through, we realised that these were REAL presents!) and THEN a €6.50 2007 Gaillac Blanc Perle! Good lord, this gentleman had just given us €28 worth of wine for free! What a lovely man!
With big smiles and a few bisoux later we waved goodbye to Mr Schmitt and decided as poor chariot was looking quite full we could only really try one more. C2 was selected and we headed to Chateau De L'Ou http://www.vigneron-independant.com/annuaire/desc_adherent.php?numadh=10104 for a nice little Muscat, 3 bottles and another conversation later we were on our way home.
The day was about to turn from wonderful to horror filled.
Chariot had been fantastic, behaving as a good chariot should, always giving and never questioning as we toured the wines of France, but now she was full and the work was beginning to get to her.
Her left tyre began to shred as we left the hall.
Her left tyre was shredded by the time we reached the bus and fell off as we got on.
The 100m between the bus stop and the metro was a traumatic journey for us all and it was clear that her time was limited.
J tried in vain to coax her home but by Bellecour it was all too late, the left wheel is now somewhere on the metro line at Bellecour.
The drag marks of metal on tarmac will remain for the foreseeable future, a reminder to us of how hard our little chariot worked.
By the end of the bus ride from Bellecour to the halls it was all over and she was carried home.
La Mort du Chariot.
A sad day for us all, R.I.P Wheelie.
Wheelie the Chariot
Our wine cellar (wine wardrobe didn't sound as good)
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