Avignon - Day 2

Tuesday, March 28th

Tuesday promised to be (as I often say) extraordinary. 9 am was a tasting at Chez Avril, Paul and Vincent Avril's Clos des Papes. I have been buying, selling and much more pleasurably drinking their wines since the late 80's. I've been lucky enough to taste a number of wine with signifigant bottle age, including 1972 and 1978 that were pretty superb. I hear reports that there remain vintages stored in good condition that are drinking very well from the 60's including my vintage 1965, but I have not had the good fortune to come across the wines and/or taste them yet.

I haven't seen Vincent for 7 years or so and we were happy to see the older versions of one another. He has gotten a more and more precise grip on his winemaking and is really in his prime years I think, especially considering the late 90's vintages through the most recent vintage. After a long catch-up on technical information we got down to tasting. A few things came through clearly: that Clos des Papes is in a string of historically excellent high quality vintages that will age very well (2003,4,5), that the whites from the estate that have always been good improve enormoiusly from a hedonistic point of view after 8-10 years, and that the fact that they do not make any other cuvees (which is very much in fashion) makes their sole red wine more and more special.

Our next stop was at Domaine Lafond in Tavel. Proprietor Pascal Lafond is a genial host and a very good winemaker. It was interesting to change gears from Avril - family making wines in CDP for 400 or so years to a modern, estate with various terroirs. I felt bad for Pascal who was such a nice man and trying very hard to graciously entertain us. It was a classic style over content sort of experience.

We had lunch at an utterly forgettable restaurant in the Best Western in Tavel. Wretched. Smelly lillies. Columns in the room to feel impressive...along with the stiff team in the Salle. Chef took three of our hours and gave us forgetable stuff. Rims full of garnishes and extranious crap. Bleek. Ooof!

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After that, we recovered ourselves to our next rendez-vous.
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After our interminable meal we headed to an appointment with Daniel Chaussy, the name of his estate is Mas de Boislauzon. He has an ancient CDP terroir known as Quet for a millenium or so. He has a bunch of other parcels as well all in northern zones and tends to make pretty muscular CDP. I was excited to see him again, as in January I began working with him to create a private label Cotes du Rhone Villages cuvee for Petit Louis and Bin 604. The 2004 we had settled in January and I had tasted through his 2005 cepages and parcels to start talking about that vintage. His raw materials in both years are just terrific. Partly that's due to the excellent sites (really terroirs) that he has just outside of CDP to the north - literally next to two of his CDP parcels. I was already excited in January by the prospect of bringing a wine as serious as this to market under our joint label. Daniel is a serious guy and does so much of the work himself.

There are winemakers and there are vignerons. I am very happy to support a really talented vigneron. It's not the language that makes the difference, it's the idea. A winemaker is as likely to be in California, as Bordeaux, as Rioja and conversely you will find a vigneron in all the regions of the world as well. When I say vigneron I mean someone who is in touch with every vine and that they have hands involved in every step of their proccess that leads to bottling. The hands themselves are a dead give-away, just like with Chefs.

Daniel is tall and vigorous and as always we saw him come striding through the fields to the cave when he noticed our car. I've never shook hands with him when he wasn't brushing his hands off coming in from the vineyards.

We tasted through his vin de pays "Chaussynette" rose and red which were pretty darn solid and dirt cheap. Fruit for this comes from the other side of the Rhone. Next we tasted through the various CDR cuvees from 2005 and 2004. Excellent material in all and the 2004 had begun to settle down and fatten up promisingly in the bottle. I will admit to puffing out my chest (I never do this, never) at the tasting. But Daniel did 100 percent of the work. I just picked the right guy. We went through various versions of the 05 and settled on a blend that we both liked. The 05 will be probably even richer and more forward than the 04.

The CDP cuvees were superb. His work has gotten stronger and stronger since 98. His regular cuvee will be an excellent buy in CDP in both years and the "Cuvee de Quet" - an old vine selection - will age very well. The 2005 in particular (we just tasted component parts) has an amazing rich base of old vine grenache. All the grenache for this bottling is from vines of 80+ years and averaged +/- 20hl/ha, i.e. Darn low yields meaning great concentration and expression.

We worked on the logistics of labels and shipping and such and expected to get the "Cuvee de Louis" to market by summer.

Next we headed to visit a legendary figure that I'd never met in a number of visits to the region Henri Bonneau. He's considered to be a bit of a wizard among winemakers and is held in reverance amongst the local growers.

CDP's most respected vigneron does not live in one of the fancier, more modern houses like many of the better known growers. He lives in one of the original houses in town, his father's house, above his cellars. Which aren't too big. One reason his wines are so rare is that there just isn't much wine...so it drives the price. After meeting M Henri and his quiet wife and affable son Marcel, we went down to taste.

Tasting Chez Bonneau is 90 percent Bull session and 10 percent tasting. Instead of commentary that 10 percent consists of everyone staring at the faces everyone else is making. Curious wordless appreciation.

During the endless stream of jokes, off-color stories (there are people that should expect a few of these jokes when I return) and discussion of politics and fishing equipment, all in Henri's Provencale twang we tasted through the 2000, 01, 03, 04, and 05 cuvees. He makes a cuvee called "Marie Beurrier" that is his more entry cuvee (if there is such a thing) and his top wine which is "Reserve des Celestins.". He sold off his 2002 fruit, as that was such a rotten year with all the floods at harvest.

The 05's did not show the huge size up front or the color that many of the wines we'd been tasting at other estates from 05. Only on the exit do you get a sense that something serious is there. The blends are not yet done so we tasted parcel to parcel with the fruit from La Crau being the unusual standout. The 04's had developed further and were richer in texture than the 05's. The 03's did not show the cooked fruit characteristic that many wines had but had good freshness. The 01's were blended and both were robust wines. How does this evolution happen? The 2000's were superb. Powerful, authoritatve and focused. Incredible details, silly to desribe. Makes other wines seem sort of incomplete in comparison. The MB cuvee will drink sooner and the CdC will take cellaring to become complete. They both should be bottled soon. One of the few things Henri said that I can repeat was "toujours grenache" meaning always grenache in responding to a question about how CDP terroirs are best differentiated...meaning that you can see the truth of the terroirs through the grenache cepage. He always tells me to send greetings to Dr. Jay Miller. We finished with a glass we did not spit of the 1998 Celestins which is a massive wine that wants at least a decade of cellaring, but good God it's worth the crazy price.

P.S. Easy does it with the excitement in East Baltimore.

East to Avignon

Monday, March 27th

After lunch and politics I headed off to Clos la Coutale, the Cahors producer whose wines we have used for the last few years at Petit Louis. Philippe, the winemaker/proprietor, was an engineer in a former life and always explains his work in very clinical fashion. Not history or earth speaking through the vines for him. The wines reflect his approach and are solid, consistent and reflect less vintage variation than Gamot.

After this visit I have a pretty long, 5 hour drive back through Toulouse, stop in Carcasonne for a quick coffee (amazing walled city from the middle ages) and continue on through Nimes and Montpellier and up to Avignon. The autoroutes are easy but the tolls are much higher than we are used to. Arriving in Avignon I have clocked 1871 km so far.

I'm excited to meet my friend Alain Junguenet and his son John aka Jean for dinner at a little place called La Fourchette that Alain has spoken of fondly. Alain is a French-born wine importer who lives in New Jersey. In a former life he was a race car driver in France (possibly a rival for my wife on the road). Alain has been a hugely important importer of CDP in particular and a number of other wines of France. His company is predictably called Wines of France. His son has recently finished college and joined the business. Alain is a gentile person but not remotely fussy.

John is an affable, good-looking 22 year-old who has probably already tasted more great CDP than almost any of the millionaire collectors in the US.

La Fourchette is one of those little tucked away places that assumes you already know why you are there. On mange bien. Alain certainly doesn't love this place for the wine list. It's sort of awful considering what you could have available to you. We quickly sit after passing all sorts of rustic pastries on a big display table and settle in to a brightly lit room with no pattern as to it's decoration. There are places that are rustic and charming. This is not one. The walls are covered with any number of strange items including a number of painted wooden locust carvings.
We order a few bottles: Fonreche's excellent rose called l'Instant, 2001 CDP from Gardine (last good wine I had from them was 1989 Cuvee des Generations, they are very inconsistent, but we wanted to try), and 2000 CDP from Paul Autard. First courses were sort of disappointing asparagus and artichoke dramas. Then John got excited. We had all ordered the Boeuf en Daube - a very typical provencale dish. He said that he'd been coming with his Dad for years and that this was the thing, the raison d'etre for this restaurant. He didn't over sell it that's for sure. Braised forever, deep in flavor, lots in strong red as part of the braising in evidence it was super. Two little pieces of carrot on the edge of the bowl, hilarious.

Best of all the Chef sent us an entire iron casserole to back up what he had already sent us. AND...just killer mac and cheese, but certainly in the style of the house using sheets of lasagna, cantal cheese and garlic. Happy, happy.

I followed that with a big old Baba au Rhum, served with the bottle of old Martinique rum on the side to do with as necessary. I did. More simple happy. Time to sleep as we had a big day coming tommorow.

North to Cahors

Monday, March 27th

Busy day. Ran off to my first rendez-vous with Yves and Hermann at Clos Gamot and Chateau du Cayrou, two Cahors estates that he and his wife Martine own. Yves can talk. Lovely, warm man, maybe 50 strong SW sing-song accent.

He toured me through their two different holdings and different chai. Truly sperate estates and terroirs.

I learned a great deal about the various sites in Cahors in a short time, especially which side of the Lot you wanted to be on. Clos Gamot is a cooler site than Chateau du Cayrou and delivers a different aromatic profile. Gamot also has very old vines which helps keep their yields down to 20-25 hl/ha, which in an appellation like Cahors is kind of crazy low. Gamot is 100 percent Malbec or Auxerrois as it's called locally (or Caute in the slang). Cayrou is 73 percent Malbec and 20 Merlot and the rest Tannat and a drop of Gamay.

Yves also gave me a serious lesson in the history of Cahors as the Jouffreau family had been in the area since 1190 and making wine since 1590 under their name. The history of the family is the history of Cahors. History buffs will know Cahors was the best known red wine of France from the middle ages through the mid-1800's when it started to get more competition from the Brit-money influenced Bordelais wines and the Napoleon-famed Burgundian wines. Phyloxera killed off Cahors utterly and many growers went to other countries. Many from Cahors went to Spain, a few Argentina. The Jouffreau patriarch joined the army in time for the Franco-Prussian war. After the war he returned and helped his brother get them started up again. We tasted through 4 different cuvees in some years. The others being an old vine cuvee culled from the Gamot (very concentrated and old-vine intense, buy it if you ever see it) and a single vineyard wine also made at Gamot called Clos St. Jean, named for the founding father of the modern estate. The wine wonderfully spicy, soft but great deep, plush fruit. Comparitively not very tannic. I was struck by the vintage character showing through the wines as well as the consistent character of the sites showing through the wines. 2005 will be a super year, every bit 1985 again, best recent vintage. 04 solid and classic. 03 the cooked fruit freak show one expects. 02 a little closed, for aging as is 01, but 01 is a bit richer. 00 lovely broad wines, 5 more years to hit their plateau of maturity. 99 lighter, drink now or forget. 98 is what you expect 04 to become. Older wines were a fabulous truffle-scented, rich 88 Gamot that still has loads of fruit and tannin left and an 82 Cayrou was very rich, opulent and a little vulgar in a good way. We then headed off to Payssac for a quick lunch of stuffed pig's foot, some Cabecou and a long discussion of what is wrong with the French economic system. Coffee was Yves trip to the States in 1979 on a Greyhound bus.

SUNDAY, March 26th

After a breakneck drive from St. Jean de Luz on the Atlantic, 10km from Spain to Puy l'Eveque, just west of Cahors I walk into a very strange but nice film. After one 15th century building after another, I come open my Hostellerie Clos de Loup. Pretty and organized outside, it's a bit nicer than where I have been staying. Inside it's all white, cream and pink stone. I walk into a cross between Santa Claus and Jerry Garcia singing French folk songs to the 15 lunch guests. It's a little wacky, but very charming. Madame is very welcoming, tells Chef I am hungry after my drive and all I have to do is pick my Cahors and tap my foot. This guy is pretty good. He’s got voice a bit like Burl Ives singing about love and death in flamboyent French. When he breaks for his dessert I send him a drink (why not?). I sense enough to let Madame choose her favorite Cahors from the producers I don't know on the list.

The wine is excellent right now. She knows what she's doing. 2000 vintage "Quintessance" from Chateau Les Regelets.

First plate: Foie Gras au Torchon avec Gros Sel and Brioche de la Maison. Simple, rich, refined, very, very good Torchon. Foie Gras always has it's best texture with this method. Fig chutney is good, but I don't like sweet garnishes with my cold foie gras. Sue me if you want, but it kills any dry red you ever have with it.

Burl is getting his butt kicked by that Armagnac. It was a little big. He drank it very fast. Now it's political songs. Great, I'm the sole Yank here. He's going to incite the various octogenarians in the room to set my car on fire. Gotta keep my head on a swivel...

The rest of lunch is uneventful. My plate of Quercy (local) lamb arrives. Good flavor. Cooked a little bit more than I want it to have been. I always ask for dishes to be cooked to the Chef's taste in order to understand the Chef. The sweetbreads are good, but not with the same flavor as yesterday's. I chat with the Chef for a bit when he comes to my table and he sits to have a glass of Madame's favorite wine. I learn that he is from Sicily where after we do a strange thing and mix Italian and French and trade pasta recipes. He tells me that the local green asparagus is great right now. I tell him that I want him to just feed me tonight. I am glad not to be leaving here so fast. It's Sunday, maybe I'll have a siesta.

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After a siesta and a good walk (dry country, here, like a drier version of the Morvan plateau near Burgundy) I head to dinner in my little hotel. At lunch I had asked Chef for a menu with whatever is in season. I start with a white from Lot AOC that's 100% Chardonnay from an estate owned by the Prince of Denmark. It tastes a whole lot like a chard from the Santa Cruz mountains in California right down to it's acid profile and the oak. This will fail completely with Asparagus. I am stressed anticipating it!

Not spa food here. Amuse Bouche are roasted figs wrapped in caramelized bacon and bayonne ham. Alright. German whisperers are the most dramatic, loudest and far and away the most irratating. Wine good, good, calm, calm.

First plate is showing Chef's Sicilian roots: marinated blue fin tuna with fennel seed with a salad of sweet sicilian cherry tomatoes, opal basil, mizuna, zucchini, farfalle pasta and a tart red wine vinaigrette. Nice to get these tomatoes now. Actually the Chardonnay is not at all bad with this. I guess the wood helps. The weight is correct. I will be persecuted by wine intellectuals everywhere for saying that this works. That's the problem with theories! They are never specific enough. Information and instinct always serve better with matching dishes and wine than rules.

The Germans are spitting back and forth about dessert. They seem excited but as yet no one has pounded their fist on the table. Chef will probably make it to tomorrow!

Next plate is a two in one sort of dish. Asparagus risotto garnished with very fresh small langoustine tails. I eat shellfish first. Superb with the wine. Then risotto...oh my god is this rich. Oozing butter and cheese. Great flavor though. Exercise tomorrow, check. If you are going to have asparagus with oak-aged chardonnay this is how the wine is just a fresh counterpoint and not cutting. Not a wine I'd recommend for asparagus without a mountain of dairy and starch.

I spent a long time discussing business with Madame. She said business is tough now, has been for a while. The new clientele are all from other countries. Last summer was a short season and the winter was tough. She wonders if the socialist system is choking them. She says it's tougher in Germany where they moved from after ‘96 when it got so tough there. It's hard to think of this little place as struggling. It's such a gem and they are so nice and quality-oriented.

Lastly a plate of the first local strawberries with crumbled ammaretti cookies. Simple, light, nice. It's nice to taste the season in advance of ours.

Weekend in South of France

SATURDAY, March 25th

Sat A.M: Breakfast is teeth-staining black coffee, croissant fashioned as if by a caveman and a slab of butter the size of the croissant. I understand the Chef's intention and equally match the two and wash it down with the darkness.

The drive to Domaine Charles Hours is uneventful and I actually arrive exactly on time. The final km of the drive is up a bit of a sheepherder's track. My chugging diesel Peugeot only just gets me there. You can see that Charles is a retired rugby player. In the States he would be a retired Defensive Lineman from the 60's Colts. He has been a grower I've wanted to see for years ever since Alain Dutournier turned me on to his wines 7 years ago in Paris at Carre des Feuillants. His dry wine is named for his daughter Marie, his sweet is named for his Domaine: Uroulat. Both see some time in barrels: the Second 10percent new, the Doux 20 percent. The dry wine is almost all Gros Manseng, the sweet is all Petit Manseng. His dry wine is far and away the most pleasing of the appellation ages incredibly well. We tasted 2005,04,03,01 and a beautifully evolved, complex 1986. Still fresh and great depth of fruit. Then the sweet: 2004, 03, 01, 86, 84. His manages to keep the Petit Manseng from being as austere as it sometimes can be. The younger wines are still gigantic, fluffy, plush stickies hiding good acidity. The mature wines have fabulous aromas and have melted away a little sugar and have a bit of grip. Need sheep's milk blue cheese, now!

He recommended a jolly drive (this is a set-up) through the foothills of the mountains and then lunch in a Basque border town Barcus. Restaurant Chilo. Along the way I can not count the number of switchbacks that I switched or the high-pastured sheep that I saw. Very hungry now for Agneau de Lait.

Just before Barcus is a town called Equilluile (just make 6 gutteral sounds in rapid series to pronounce correctly). Even here there are 50 year old women with purple hair and a Jehovah's Witness Hall. America your reach is now so far! It may have been my imagination, but I could have sworn I smelled hotdogs driving through the town.
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L'Agneau de Lait from Axuria Wines at lunch: 2003 Cuvee Marie from M. Hours. Brilliant stuff. Great depth, viscosity, acidity, amazing minerality on the nose and a whiff of tropical fruits - passion fruit actually. On the palate too, along with a tart butterscotchy quality.

Amuse Bouche: 3
- Mousse of farmer's cheese (brebis) with Saffron and red pepper mousse
- Raw beef "cannoli" filled with fresh brebis and served with parsley and tomato oil
- Pig's foot terrine en croute, banyuls reduction

Very well executed stuff. I may fulfill my sheep needs here. You know what I mean? Also killer simple still-warm- from- the -oven walnut bread with walnut oil on the plate instead of butter or olive oil. With the wine I have now, an apple, piece of brebis and a tree I could pass a happy afternoon. First plate is L'Anguille or eel stuffed with blood sausage and served with Granny Smith Apple. This is one of those funny great content/silly garnish dishes. The eel is super fresh and great flavor, cooked and seasoned perfectly. The blood sausage is rich, sweet and a little vulgar as it should be. The rest is unnecessary. Dried green apple and gooseberries are like feathers in front of a jet engine with this dish. The heart of it is killer, though. This dish is better with the white's acidity than the red Irouleguy from Riouspeyrous 2001.

Okay. I don't like when someone tarts up a classic dish. Making an elegant version and making a fancy version are very different. The elegance is an aspiration and the fancifying is a sin. Bleeck! Amazing fresh eel though. I adored this grower’s white wine last night. The red unfortunately does not please in day light. Reminds me of college a bit - I mean the wines I could afford, not the way you may be thinking…

Non-sequitur...I'm wondering about the whole mountain cheese and fruit conserve match that is omni-present here. Is that the original source of the quince paste/white cheese match in the Spanish-speaking world? Or the other way around? The white asparagus is breaking my heart, with olive oil and salt. How radical! Thank God...this requires no embellishment and doesn’t get one! There is a wonderfully loud family across the room. 4 generations, 15 total. It certainly creates ambience. More whisperers would just upset me.

The weather is a lovely change from B-more, I have to say. March can be so hard over there and here it's already green and goes from 12 to 23 degrees each day. Having lunch at the open window with first Spring veggies that are a month away for us and overhearing the scandal of Anne-Marie's pregnancy is a great treat (they want me to tell you that it's not their kid, but from another very respectable family!) Why do pink tomatoes here have flavor and in the States they taste like Adidas?

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FRIDAY, March 24th

Hostellerie L' Horizon
http://www.hostellerie-horizon.com/
Hostellerie l'Horizon –
Chemin Mesplet –
64290 GanFrance
Tél: +33 (0)5.59.21.58.93
Fax : +33 (0)5.59.21.71.80
Email: eytpierre-hotelresto@wanadoo.fr
http://www.hostellerie-horizon.com/

I narrowly escape another rail strike in Paris and find myself down in Montpellier by mid-afternoon. Greeted by some bored but dangerous looking soldiers, I made a speedy exit from the train station and picked up the obligatory Peugot to head West.

My plan is to discover the South-West, from Basque country to Cahors, an area whose wines I have enjoyed but a place I’ve never been. Then I’ll swing back over to Chateauneuf, because I simply can’t resist. I’ll be doing a lot of driving so please add to the blog with your thoughts and tips – it’d be good to hear from y’all!

Why am I here?
My goal is to get a sense of the terroirs as they are such good sources for fairly-priced bistro wines. I also want to find a Jurancon grower for a sweet private label wine for us. More of that later...

My second evening I eat in. Not room service I hasten to add, as the violently violet décor would not be good for the digestion but the slightly cutesy dining room of the Hostellerie Horizon in Gan. I order two wines more out of curiosity than anything else.

White Wine: Arretxea produced in Domaine Hegoxuri by Therese and Michel Riouspeyrous 2004.60 % Gros Manseng, 40% Petit Manseng. Crisp, bright, big acid, long white fruits...cuts through the very rich Cremeaux de Langoustines that I start with. There is always something pleasantly of green onions in these wines from Irrouleguy (Pays Basque).

I take a flyer on the red: Cotes du Marmandais "Clos Baquey" 1999. Recommended strongly by the grandmother at the next table. Reminds me of a more refined version of Cahors. Similar aromas of violets, dark fruits and that which can best be described as "farm-like" aromas. Aaahh, yes. La Belle odeur de France! Medium-bodied on the palate, now's the time to drink it. Probably exactly the right weight and structure for a delicate but fatty roast milk-fed suckling pig that's on the way.

For the fish course I take Seared Sea Scallops (small, size of half-dollars, very fresh) with seared cubed of foie gras served on a puree of celery root and potato with jus made from deglazing the foie gras pan with young Banyuls. There is something naughty about this dish. Not perfect, but very satisfying in a way you may not be entirely proud of.

Thank god I didn't have a sweet wine with it - I might have taken my shirt off! Only fault: scallops slightly over-cooked and lacked a little salt. But certainly good. Interesting how big the wine became with the dish as much was asked of the acidity. The combination drew out a lot more stony pear fruit in the wine and showed of the body. It needed something to bounce that acid off of. Music sounds so sweet in a room rich in fabrics and heavy with history.

The Pork is really good, no it's not that young, yes it's also a little over and needs some gros sel. Can’t help but ponder why it is that people whisper in a dining room that is slow? C'mon. Who's not trying to have fun? Take a deep breath and speak, it will be OK!
The reason the pork is so good is that he's caramelized the heck out of it and covered in a sauté of Cepes, Pork Cracklings and first Artichokes. How is he getting the Cepes at this time of year? The dish crushes the red though - shows its lack of spine and density. I'll admit I was led to expect a more delicate dish. I guess we have to open something else. C'est la vie...and they have quite the collection of old Armagnacs.

Finishing with Brebis des Pyrenees: sheep's milk cheese from the mountains. Served traditionally with a conserve of fruit, this time figs. This one is from Irraty. Pas mal. Excellent for the white.

Armagnac: 1942 Domaine Laberolive -- Huge, vulgar, cask-strength hooch from a great producer. Orange peel, tobacco, anise. Massive viscosity. Jane Russel-like spirit (based on reports of her potency c. 1942).

First Night in South of France

Stay tuned...more details to come.