2006 Pahlmeyer Chardonnay, Napa Valley

Winery:	Pahlmeyer
Location:	Oakville (Napa Valley) California
Wine :	2006 Chardonnay, Napa Valley
Appellation :	Napa Valley AVA
Price :	$65 to $75
Color :	Green – gold.
Nose:	Smoky, burnt almond, orange peel, botrytis ‘marmalade’, fresh cut hay, burnt caramel. Butterscotch, cream Bruleé, browned apples, bananas, roasted pine-nuts.
Palate / Balance / Flavors:	Mouth is rich and full, seems high in alcohol, moderate acidity. Buttered popcorn and smoked oak, a light continual astringency and light bitterness of oak tannin. Our guess is Napa Chardonnay
Style:	Style-driven. No faults in this wine at all, rich and oak based. Going for maximum richness and sweet / browned character over fruit. A triumph of winemaking over fruit character (maybe that’s too harsh, but definitely an example of a wine that was ‘made’ as opposed to ‘grown.’ I know that a lot of people really love this style of Chardonnay – I am a white burgundy guy at heart though…)
Analysis:	14.4% Alc, 3.67 pH, 5.5 TA, 0.0 ML, 1.0 g/l rs(FOSS winescan)
Comments:	95 pts Robert Parket (Wine Advocate,) 90 points Jim Laube (Wine Spectator,) 90 points Steven Tanzer – We tended to agree most with Robert Parker’s assessment that this is a baked and spice wine with astringency and smoke, but we aren’t sure about the score bit. 3,000 cases produced.

Avignon

I intentionally did not plan my entire trip before leaving for Europe. I like the flexibility of several unplanned days; I like being able to say ‘Yes’ to opportunities that crop up, and I like getting the lay of the land and a sense of what else is available nearby. I will point out that this has led to some disasters in the past – but on the whole, being open to the moment has brought me great memories, experiences that have broadened my understanding of this world, and in several cases new friends who continue to enrich my life every year.

I weighed the options – I could go back to Barcelona, or I could stay in Montpellier for a longer period of time – or I could do something else entirely. Barcelona had proven to be beautiful and exciting, but also quite expensive, and I knew that I would have at least one more night in the city before flying out from the airport. Montpellier was great, and I had been enjoying it a lot, but I wanted to see more of the countryside.

Marseille was not far away, and reputed to be France’s second city, after Paris. Nice and Cannes were also within reach, with great beaches, etc… But the weather was still cloudy and cold.

In the end, I decided to go to Avignon. It was right on the rail line to Lyon, situated in the midst of the Cotes du Rhone wine region, with the famous rocky vineyards of Chateauneuf du Pape just a few miles outside the walls of the city, and within the historic kingdom of Provence.

It was an easy 1.5 hour ride to Avignon, with castles and cities, rivers, windfarms harnessing the energy of the Mistral, and as we approached my destination more and more vines and orchards. Departing the station, the ancient walls of the old city are immediately in front, amazingly well-preserved and dominant. My hotel was immediately up the main street about a half-mile, and I just walked with my rolling suitcase. I am glad that I did, as the choked, narrow main way was so crowded that a taxi would have taken twice as long. After a short nap and a change of clothes, I went out to walk in the narrow, medieval streets to get my bearings.

My hotel was right by the center place, with the city hall and its impressive clock. Lots of street restaurants, tourist shops, and shopping everywhere. Within 3 blocks or so was the Palace of the Popes – immense and imposing, with a small cathedral adjacent. Avignon actually functioned as the seat of the Popes for about 100 years – the papacy lived in exile from Rome, due to political instability and infighting that made them feel not entirely safe. The Avignon popes lived under the protection of the French king of that time – though the city of Avignon was still within the Holy Roman Empire at that time, France began just across the Rhone river. The residence of the popes in Avignon brought a huge amount of fortune in the form of trade, commerce, and political and religious importance to the region – this is reflected in much of the fortification and architecture in this region. (And the city remained a possession of the Catholic papacy from 1348 until the French Revolution in 1791.)

Avignon is situated near the confluence of the Durance and Rhone rivers, which have always been important to trade – even today the Durance provides huge amounts of water for irrigated agriculture in the Provence region, and river barges can enter the mouth of the Rhone and follow the systems of canals ultimately as far as Paris and the North Sea!

Wandering around the walls to the Pont d’Avignon (bridge of Avignon) which once connected the Roman Empire to neighboring France just across the river, (only a few of its arches still remain,) I learned that when the river crests and threatens to flood the city, they can close the tower gates, barring them, and the walls keep the river from inundating the streets and businesses within the walls. Not bad, to think that even 800+ years later these walls are protecting the city!

It was really windy, but I climbed up the towers from the bridge side to a rocky garden atop the cathedral area – from here one can look out over the countryside, seeing the river stretch off into the distance – Mt Ventoux, the beginnings of the Alps, over the rooftops of the city, and the jagged toothlike low range called ‘les Alpilles,’ which were painted famously by Van Gogh.

Click here for more photos from Avignon and surrounding areas on my flickr.com site.

O2 Wine & MacroWine

I realize that I have neglected to mention much about the very reason that I ended up in Montpellier. I was in town to attend two wine science conferences – the first, ‘O2 Wine,’ was the first annual gathering of an industry / academic partnership by the same name which is dedicated to defining and in some cases funding needed research into the interaction of oxygen in wine at all stages from crush through bottle aging. It is made up of members from primarily industrial equipment and materials suppliers, as well as laboratories and scientists affiliated with the top wine universities and research institutions in Germany, Australia, France, South Africa, Spain and the United States. The second conference is called ‘MacroWine’ and it is the second annual meeting of this group, which has a similar mission, but is more related to uncovering the secrets of macro-molecules in wines, such as tannins, polyphenols, colloids, proteins, and protein / phenol complexes and the way that they influence wine quality, sensory perception, and stability.

(I was invited to attend by a synthetic closure company whom I have been in contact with following (or rather during, as it is still ongoing,) a production-level trial in which I have been following the development and aging of a wine that was finished with a variety of closure types, including screwcaps, synthetic corks, natural corks, and an engineered cork closure. All of these products allow varying amounts of oxygen into the bottled wine during aging, and thus provide different rates of oxidation, different life spans for the wine, and different sensory results in what was at one time an identical wine.)

This was a pretty heavy week of information – much of what was presented was very academic and assumed a daily familiarity with the subtleties of organic chemistry, protein and enzyme synthesis and activity. It was very cool to be seated in a room with some of the best names in wine science – I seriously know most of these guys from reading the papers that they have published in AJEV and other research publications that are becoming foundational to these fields of research. Several of the presentations dealt with laying the basics – what are the best methods to categorize and measure such complex and diverse groups of chemical species – the scientific equivalent of building a language that can be understood and used by all who are pursuing research in these areas. Secondly, these kinds of meetings of the best like-minded scientists in the world can only lead to more rapid advances and better understanding for the industry as their discoveries are shared and cross-pollinate and illuminate one another. The industry affiliates whom are largely funding this group are also poised to be the first to benefit as they incorporate and have access to the minds and information that are involved.

I am sure that this will lead to better products, better understanding, more rational winemaking, and ultimately better wine made in a more efficient way in the future. Not quite at the level of curing cancer, (although some of the phenols involved are being shown to do just that, so who knows!) but I believe that better wine is a cause we can all get behind!

The conferences were hosted at the INRA (Institute National for Research Agricultural) which is certainly well-known as the birthplace of many wine-related improvements. Many of the specific yeast strains that are used worldwide, many of the certified rootstocks and grapevine scions were developed here, and it was very cool to walk along the edge of the experimental vineyard.

Montpellier is actually a strong center of Agricultural research of many kinds – SupAgro (the specific part of the INRA that we met at,) is the nickname for the top agricultural school (Superior Agronomy, or something like that,) in France, and there is another related research facility called Agropolis, basically an academic research campus that is dedicated to developing new ways to farm crops worldwide, with an emphasis on hot-climate agriculture for the developing world, specifically food and cash crops for Africa, Asia, and elsewhere. In addition, this campus hosts one of the most important research projects into the questions raised by agriculture and global climate change. Very interesting place, and very important in the world!

Shatter

2008 is proving to be a tricky year for wine growing in Paso Robles, for a lot of reasons.

With severe frost in the first few weeks after budbreak, many grapevines in the colder areas had their primary shoots frost burned down to the cordon. When this happens, the vine has a safety mechanism - the main bud has secondary and tertiary buds which, while smaller and less robust, at least allow the vine a second chance at getting some shoots and leaf area out for growth during that season. The problem is that these secondary shoots are weaker, and typically contain few viable clusters - and those that actually are able to pollinate and set will be weeks behind the rest of the vine in maturity, making harvest a nightmare of over-ripe and under-ripe side by side on the same vine.

For varieties and locations that escaped frost damage, the extreme swings in temperature have had further implications. Much of Paso Robles' Cabernet Sauvignon (along with other Bordeaux varieties like Cab Franc, Sauv Blanc, and to some extent Merlot,) all seemed to bloom right around the time that warm, balmy weather changed back to cold days and nights with drizzle and overcast. Although grape vines have perfect flowers, (they have male and female parts right on the same flower, so they don't require bees or insects to help with fertility,) they don't do well with cold, wet weather. When this happens, we are left with a lot of "Shatter" the name for the stage at which the vine aborts the unfertilized berries, and when you shake a cluster at this stage, the dried up brown berries fall out of the cluster, leaving only the viable berries behind, reducing the crop sharply. (See the lower photo above - these clusters have 100% shatter, or NO BERRIES AT ALL!)

Sometimes there is incomplete fertilization - the berry fertilizes, but the seed inside doesn't grow. This condition is called "Hen & Chicks" - in the middle photo you can see how the berry size is mixed - some berries are sizing up - they are normal and have 2-3 seeds in each. The small berries do not have viable seeds, and they will remain tiny and sour. If the vine gets stressed, the small berries will become necrotic and fall out of the cluster later in the year. If this doesn't happen until the other berries size up, they can become trapped inside the cluster and promote growth of mold and disease. If they stay living in the cluster, they can go through to harvest and contribute their green, unripe, tart flavors to the wine.

The bottom photo shows the most extreme example of infertility - this is at a block of our Petite Sirah which was frost damaged, and then just recovered when it was hammered by cold weather during bloom. The vine just gave up on reproducing this year, and the clusters have all died and dried up. Very sad, but it is a mechanism that will allow the vine to put all of its energy into storing carbohydrates for next year, when it will make a renewed attempt at carrying a crop load.

Overall, estimates seem to be that we will have a 20-30% smaller crop than average this year locally for Cabernet Sauvignon, and several other varieties will be affected as well. The bigger picture seems similar - there were severe frost events throughout Northern and Central California which should make for a very small overall grape harvest, (and thus potentially higher prices for grapes on the spot market this year, and for bulk wines early next year.)

Brown Bag Fridays - 2004 Tenuta L'Illuminata "Colbertina" Barbera d'Alba

Winery:	Tenuta L’Illuminata
Location:	La Morra, Langhe (Piemonte) Italy
Wine :	2004 Tenuta L’Illuminata Colbertina - Barbera d’Alba
Appellation :	Barbera d’Alba DOCG
Price :	~$30 retail (Imported by Blavod / Sapphire Brands)
Color :	Deep Claret. Translucent ruby, to slight orange. Pleases the Eye, giant Legs, viscous.
Nose:	Crushed Currant, juniper, orange peel, pepper, salumi. Black-cherry. Musty, fresh-dug earth. Earthy – espresso & chocolate
Palate / Balance / Flavors:	Unripe raspberries and cherries. Herbal, camphor, dried-fruit, citrus. Acidity higher, tannins lower than the balance we are used to in California. Cleansing acidity. Raspberry & plum. Long finish, slight back-palate bitterness. Cleansing acidity – would be an excellent wine with food. Paired with the right meat, something with a high fat content, this wine would show well, (Lamb, duck confit?)
Style:	This is definitely a wine that is balanced toward the herbal and earthy as opposed to overt fruit – it is lean, a bit racy, and moderate in tannin. Appropriately earthy for a wine from a region famous for wild truffles! The fruit character that is present seems like dried strawberry & slightly unripe raspberry. Definitely opens to more floral, rose-like aromas with some air. A well-made wine, it will shine at the table without overwhelming the food. It is nice to taste something that is so clearly not of the California mold. -NRC
Analysis:	13.76% alcohol, 3.24 pH, 7.3 TA, 0.00 g/l RS, 0.00 g/l ML, 0.073 g/100ml VA
Comments:	Barbera tends to be a fairly high-acid grape variety – there is not much of it here in California, but it does well in hot areas that tend to shed acid. Barbera a moderately deep-colored variety, but can be very aromatic and long-lived.

We started having ‘Brown Bag Fridays’ at work – this is a tradition that I am borrowing from Edna Valley Vineyards. The idea is to bring in a few wines, from anywhere in the world, stick them in a brown bag so that they are not visible to anyone, and leave them open so that members of the winery team can taste them throughout the day and offer notes on aroma and style of the wine, as well as venture guesses as to the origin of the wine. At the end of the day, the bottle is revealed to all, (I think that EVV used to give out a prize if anyone guessed the variety and region correctly, but we haven’t developed this that far yet.) The comments are a composite of all the tasters, (though style comment is my own.)

Green Mango

Just the other day, when trying to come up with some tasting notes for a wine that will be released soon, I was struggling with a taste/aroma that was hard to define in a white wine. An intense fruit character, very tropical, but not sweet, a little floral, and quite green - unusual and different from the more common peach / citrus / pear / white floral notes. Whatever it was seemed familiar, but just out of reach.

And then it hit me; green mango! When we were in El Salvador earlier this year, and though ill-advised were wandering through the shantytown market area of the center of the city, I saw a woman slicing up green fruit into bags. On close inspection, the fruit was a hard, green mango, which she peeled and pitted, then sliced like a potato or apple into hard, thin slices. I asked her if I could purchase a bag, and she added lime juice, powdered chillis, hot sauce, and pepper to the bag. The combination was cool, refreshing, crisper than an apple, and piquant from the spice. The underlying flavor of the mango was definitely floral and green in a positive way, tart, and pretty darned delicious! A terrific snack, and one I wish we could find here.

Je t'aime, TGV

I just need to point out here how much I truly love the TGV; or rather rail travel in general throughout Europe. Speeding from city center to city center in very little time, efficient, on schedule, frequent, comfortable, relatively clean and through interesting countryside. The TGV has almost eliminated commercial air travel within France, as it is so much more convenient to simply take the train, with similar travel times, less stringent security screening (though in Spain it looked like they were getting more serious about it on some routes, no doubt in wake of the Madrid bombings,) and generally you can grab a metro from near your home to the main railway station, eliminating the need for parking hassles, etc... Even the local trains are very quick, and since they run on electrical lines overhead, they don't kick out pollutants non-stop, and are fairly quiet compared to the big Diesel-Electrics on American rails. (We know, we used to live next to the train station in SLO!)

I am sure that someone might point out how European rail travel is imperfect, or subsidized by the government, etc... But think about how we subsidize the auto industry in this country, with our road building and maintenance, our billions-of-dollars-a-week oil wars, publicly funded parking structures, etc... Or the way we keep bailing out the domestic air carriers when they fail to manage their businesses effectively (though Southwest is proving that a company can cut costs while keeping service at a high level, providing some of the lowest fares by ensuring its bottom line is healthy - without government handouts or nickle-and-diming its clients.)

Rail travel here in California is a far cry from that of Europe. I took an Amtrak train from San Luis Obispo to Martinez CA last year, when I had a meeting up in Sonoma, and a ride home available. It was a study in mediocrity. The trip took nearly 8 hours, (driving takes about 4-5 hours,) the train was nearly empty of people. The train was slow - we had to pull over numerous times to let freight trains pass. Mostly, it traveled through the industrial areas of the towns we went through, although the scenery on the Central Coast is pretty amazing to look at (particularly on the way south, along the ocean toward Santa Barbara.) The train was filthy, the windows were all smudged, so it was tough to get a good view outside. The interior was stuffy and uncomfortable, the food that was available was comparable to that available in a second or third-tier gas station. I at least expected that there would be a wireless internet connection, so that I could be somewhat productive on the journey, but no, not even that was available. And with crappy schedules, I could only arrive at 11pm in Martinez, the train station nestled alongside a grubby portside oil refinery with no travelers amenities at all - had to wait 20 minutes for a cab to arrive after the station master locked me out in the drizzle.

Imagine if there was a high-speed train available on this route instead. At 150-200 miles per hour, a trip into San Francisco could be cut in half - even with a number of station stops, it would take less than 2 hours. Or Los Angeles to San Francisco in 3 hours, even with stops in San Fernando Valley, Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Salinas, San Jose? I have to think that ridership would be very high, particularly with the frustration involved in getting to LAX / SFO with your car, security clearances, flight delays, etc... And using electric energy rather than gas is a no-brainer - most of California is so sunny that a large amount of the daytime need could be met by solar arrays along the right-of way, with nighttime runs using less expensive off-peak transmissions.

What if we could cut the number of cars driving back and forth on highway 5 & 101 by a few hundred thousand a year? Maybe millions of trips a year? That would have to do something good for the oil situation, right? Probably a lot faster and a lot more permanent solution than drilling in the Arctic, or off the coast of South Beach for oil that we couldn't fill our tank with for at least another 15-20 years?

Farewell to Montpellier

I eventually had to say goodbye at the end of my week in Montpellier. I will always have fond memories of this city that is not too big, but full of things to do and of warm hospitality. I definitely must make it back - I really want to explore the region of exceptional wines surrounding it, and to enjoy the laid-back atmosphere of a city that is first a city of real people, not a tourist place. Thanks to everyone who made it a fantastic time!

Many more photos - some with my real camera, with better quality at my flickr.com site

Say Cheese

One of my friends emailed me to ask if I encountered any good cheese in France / Spain.

Indeed I did! I think that in Spain I was so favorably overwhelmed with the Jamon Serrano / Iberico that the cheese took a backseat - but there were really good semi-hard and mountain cheeses there too.

In Montpellier, I visited an affineur, or cheese seller - although here they do much more than simply sell cheeses wrapped up in cellophane - it might be more proper to say that they 'finish' the cheeses here, taking them from relatively young and immature, and bringing them to the glory of full maturity carefully over the course of weeks of time at careful temperature and humidity, delicately turning and washing the rinds, and finally choosing them at just the right moment to be offered to their customers, to be taken home and enjoyed.

The local cheeses of the area are mostly Chevre - small goat's milk cheeses which are semi-soft and range from fruity to pungent. As you can see in the photos, they can take on an almost ashen coat of fungal growth as they approach maturity - this is a beautiful thing, trust me! The aroma in the shop was nearly overwhelmingly delicious - a mix of truffle-like fungal and fresher dairy / goaty aromas.

Also of interest were the farm-cured sausages on offer at the outdoor market. Too bad that I was in a hurry and leaving for Avignon in the morning - these looked amazing too - I just had to snap a photo!

Pic-St-Loup

On Wednesday, Philippe took me out to the village of Pic-St-Loup. This is about 35km outside of Montpellier, away from the coast, and into the hillsides. As we drew near, the vegetation became more sparse and dry in appearance, and the hills more dramatic and full of cracked rocks and jutting craigs. As we entered Pic-St-Loup proper, the mountains to our left were amazing – towering peaks along a high plateau, with a cut, or canyon between two of the highest of the points.

As we were late in the day, it was difficult to secure appointments with the Domaines which reside in this area. We stopped briefly into the Chateaux de Cazeneuve, (www.cazeneuve.net) which is a beautiful small estate located midway up the slopes above the village. They were not undertaking tasting at that time, but suggested that they would be pouring their wines at the 1^er Anniversary of ‘L’Atelier’ (a wine bar) in Montpellier that very evening. Since Philippe had been too hurried to have anything at all to eat for lunch, we ordered some water and Philippe ordered some locally-cured ham to eat in the gardens of the L’Auberge du Cedre (www.auberge-du-cedre.com) located across the gravel path. This is a gorgeous place – leafy and green with gardens, filled with blossoms of every kind – it has a view of the escarpments above the valley, and vines just across the plaza. The Auberge has a small kitchen, and turns out very good food – in addition, it has a cellar from which it can sell the wines of the domaines in the area – so if you call an estate, and they are not open, you can purchase from the cellars of the Auberge instead. With a swimming pool, hiking trails in the hills, a court for playing boules, and an outdoor table for playing ping-pong, I could easily imagine spending some serious time here somewhere in the future.

We had to head back to Montpellier, and stopped at a Caviste, or wine shop near Les Arceaux (the ancient Roman aqueduct.) (Les Cave des Arceaux – www.cave-arceaux.com) This caviste sells many of the best wines of the region, and he also can fill people’s bottles from bulk wines which he keeps in the back of the cellar. He was doing just that for some local people. They gave me a bit of shit for not speaking French, so I started to talk in the small amount of French which I am able. (Usually here, whenever I try to speak French, my speech is so bad that they come right back at me in English…) So, I did okay, could understand them mostly, and when I spoke, they sometimes had to correct my pronunciation, but generally I can get by okay – I know that I do not speak in the correct tense all the time, nor with the correct conjugation, but hey, whatever!

I told my very first joke in French, (merci to Pierre, with whom I used to work on a Yacht in the Caribbean / South America long, long ago,) and got a laugh, so that is good! Basically; “A person who speaks two languages, we call Bilingual. A person whom speaks three languages, we call Trilingual. But do you know what we call someone who speaks but one language?” To which the answer is; “An American!” (followed by great chortling and laughter… (well, the French are not great chortlers, nor laughers…))

My favorite site nearby was the area under Les Arceaux for “Les Bollistes” or the bowlers of Petanque; the relaxed, southern French pastime version of Bocce. Petanque does not require special, regimented courts, just a shady, flat space of gravel, with a glass of rosé or pastis close at hand.

After, we moved for a bit to the anniversary party for ‘L’Atellier’ wine shop, (see the 6-4 post, of which this is an expansion of the same day...) with amazing oysters, escargots, clams, and other appetizers paired with great wines. I was greeted with a glass of rosé with two ice cubes in it, which was perfect, considering the warm afternoon. (I will never be shy of adding ice to rosé again!) There were three chateaux pouring their wines, including Chateaux de Cazeneuve, as well as young Julien Chapel from Saint Daumary, (also in Pic-St-Loup,) and his companion, who expecting their first child. Their wines were beautiful; the blanc floral and cooling – the red was very serious, and new-world in style, while retaining the herbal and aromatic sense of the region. Also, I met a vigneron who had been to the Hospice du Rhone for the festival there, pouring his wines – “It was a disaster!” he said – “Me, pouring my wines for thousands of people, and talking to them!!” I sense that it was not a total disaster; he seemed to be pleased that he had been, and remembered the mechanical bull at Big Bubba’s Bad BBQ. I am sure that, though they like to play (bullfighting,) with the bull plenty in the south of France, they probably do not have opportunity to tangle with a mechanical bull on many occasions!

More Pic-St-Loup photos at my flickr.com account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/18097654@N05/sets/72157605570104068/

Saint Georges d'Orques

One day, Philippe took me into the vineyards around Montpellier to get a sense of the winegrowing that takes place around the city. Montpellier is at the heart of the Coteaux de Languedoc – one of the largest winegrowing regions in France. The nearest region to Montpellier is the St-George-d’Orques, within sight of the sea, from any hill. They grow white, red, and rose wines here – I believe that Grenache is a major part of the red and whites, with Syrah, Mourvèdre, making up the reds, with some Carignane and Counoise as well. The whites also take in Roussane, Marsanne, and some Viognier.

We stopped first at Chateau de L’Engarran, an impressive country estate with nearly 300 acres under vine. They are a relatively large winery for the region, and produce very solid rose wines. I enjoyed their whites and red as well, but the most expensive cuvees seemed over-worked and a bit tired – the white a touch toward oxidized, and the red very oak driven, with American oak prevalent. They had a rose from both a free-run process and from a drain down of juice from a vat of crushed fruit. The former was delicious; pale purple and filled with aroma and soft on the palate. The other was more herbal, but still delicious – just a touch of tannin, and loads of floral and herbal character.

The Domaine is owned by two sisters, and from the photographs on display, they throw some amazing parties! They had just finished the regional St-George-d’Orques springtime festival, where people can walk from domaine to domaine through the picturesque roads and sample wine and food at each of the 7 domaines. (Unfortunately, the weather this year chose not to cooperate, so they said that not too many people showed up, and those who did were in their automobiles!) In the autumn, the estate throws a party in their extensive and gorgeous gardens, complete with hired actors in 17^th century dress, to evoke the era in which the Domaine was established, and copious amounts of food and wine!

www.chateau-engarran.com

The second winery that we stopped at was called Domaine de la Prose. This was obviously a smaller estate, and their vineyards are spread gently along a long approach slope leading to the winery / domaine, with plenty of wild vegetation and semi-feral olive orchards on the approach. The wildflowers around the area are amazing, the poppies, or coquilles were on show in a way that people here say that they have never seen until this year. From the top of their slope, one can view the Mediterranean in the far distance, just a glimpse of azure flashing, past fields of green vegetation.

Bertrand, the son of the owners greeted us. He has studied winemaking in Bordeaux before working stages in Bourgogne, Corsica, and South Africa. He a few of their wines for us – gorgeous rose, perfectly beautiful Vermentino blanc, and intensely fragrant red wine from Cinsault, Syrah, and Mourvedre. Everything inside this winery was well-done and tidy, but on the exterior, there was a gracious squalor to the state of the vineyards. The vines themselves appeared well-attended, with proper shoot thinning and moderate vigour. But beneath the vines, in the cobbled stones of the vineyards, hundreds of different flowering and creeping ‘weeds’ or companion plants were growing side by side with the vines.

Bertrand said that they don’t farm according to ‘biodynamic’ principles exactly, but rather are somewhat homeopathic – they combine different herbs and composts into the sprays that are applied to the vines, to give them vigour and strength and resist diseases which could otherwise overtake the vines. As we talked, and I told him that I was in Montpellier to attend a conference at SupAgro, he said that often the students would come out from the university, and they would laugh at his rock. When I asked him which rock, he showed me a large, red standing stone between the Cinsault vineyard and the winery. “Before the stone, I would have problems in the cellar with the wines from this vineyard. I had a consultant visiting, who is familiar with these things, and he told me to place a stone there. Ever since; no problem in the cellar.” And so, there you have it!

The wines were really great – if anyone reads this with the power to import wines to the Etats-Unis; be advised that this could be a great estate to be involved with, and at much less than some of the Rhone wines! Just make sure to send me a few cases every year, okay?

For Benjamin

scooter
Originally uploaded by nrcarlson

I did a double-take when I saw this thing leaning against the handrail in Montpellier. It looks ancient, and seems to be some sort of hybrid between a bicycle and a scooter, with a gasoline engine on the front tire??

Montpellier – “Tamarillos”

On Monday, I had lunch at Philippe Chapon's "Tamarillos" restaurant, appropriately located at #2, Place du Marche aux Fleurs in Montpellier.

Pierre, though not much more than 40 years old, has had a strong career before starting his own restaurant in Montpellier. He trained as a patisserie chef, and was the French Champion chef in desserts twice, and worked in some amazing kitchens through his early career. His own restaurant is small in size, and nicely suited to turning out perfectionist cuisine that is inventive, delicious, and refreshingly lively in flavor.

I just had the lunch menu at this tasting – I am planning to go back Thursday evening for the full degustation menu.

Here are some notes from the menu – I will list them in order – photos are above, hopefully in the same order as the notes. Sorry, again just my iphone camera was on this jaunt, and it could be better as a camera.

Amuse Bouche: Foie Gras Vanille – This was a delicate slice of foie gras terrine, scented gently with vanilla, textured perfectly on toast points. Perfect!

Entrée: Scallops, seared and served with a warm spinach salad, pistachio, and fresh flowers. This had a balsamic reduction over the top – the flowers were impossible for me to identify, but they looked almost as if they could be arugula flowers, except that they were blue. This was delicious – the scallops were perfect. I had heard that all the French fisherman are on strike because of diesel prices, but Philippe knowingly said, "not ALL fishermen" so apparently he has a source that is happy to keep good clients well provided.

Plat: Veal Cutlet, Chestnut puree, sauce a l'Orange: This was incredible – delicate, fragrant, almost honeyed in aroma. There were tiny white flowers dusted over the surface of the veal, I would have sworn that they were Olive flowers – their nectar was beautiful and intense without being intrusive in the experience of the food. The orange sauce was light, zesty, just barely sweet, and delicious. Veal prepared just to rare – perfect.

Refreshment: Les eaux des Fleurs – (waters of flowers) – this was a light infusion of sorrel and hibiscus flowers, almost like a cold tea, slightly sweet and a perfect palate cleanser.

Desert: Tarte Vanille, dry Poires - this was great too. A classic, rich vanilla tarte, with crisps of pear as an accent. Light, delicious, perfect.

Café: a chocolate and hazelnut crisp served with the café. Sugars for the café are infused with various flowers. Perfect and delicious.

Notes on a few wines that I had with the meal:

Had a perfect rose to start with – not sure of the producer now…

2004 Chateau Puech-Haut, Saint Drezery – Deep color, dark chocolate character, aged tannin character, fruit receding towards dried fruits, plums, figs; very good wine.

2006 Chateau de Cazeneuve, "Les Calcaires", Pic St Loup – Deep color, fig & dust, great tannin, a bit of heat which this wine will certainly grow into. Fruit is secondary to herbal, chocolate, rich dried characters. Love the dusty, cocoa texture.

Mas Amiel "Cuvee Special" 10 Ans D'Age, Maury Appellation Controllee – This was a Banyuls-type dessert wine. It was served chilled. The label says that it is aged for 1 year outdoors in glass bottles, and then another 9 years in barriques prior to bottling. Simply GREAT. Chocolate / Tobacco / preserved cherries. Great residual tannins – this wine really held onto them throughout the slight sweetness and through the aging.

This is a must-visit for any serious foodie whom finds themselves near Montpellier.

Tamarillo's
2 Rue du Marche aux Fleurs
34000 Montpellier, FRANCE
04 67 600 600 phone
04 67 600 601 fax
www.tamarillos.biz

Montpellier 6-4-08

Montpellier
Originally uploaded by nrcarlson

This is from a party that I went to tonight - It was for the 1st Anniversary of a wine bar in the city. Several local vignerons were on hand to pour their wines, and needless to say - the food was darned good, as you can see!

Rode a rented bicycle to the Mediterranean and back this morning, did conferences (MacroWine) at the INRA / SupAgro all day long, and then went out to the gorgeous Pic St. Loup wine region about 20km inland from here - seriously great wines and beautiful, Edna Valley defying scenery, with escarpments towering over the vines. Just breathtaking.

Then this to cap the night!

Around Montpellier

Above are a few photos from around Montpellier. I spent Monday morning walking around, getting the sense of the place. By chance, I happened into the Hotel de Ville (the Town Hall,) and they had a really great scale model of the city and surrounding suburbs. I got a better sense of the layout of the city, and better yet, it showed where all the parks and interesting features were, including Les Arceaux, a huge Roman aqueduct that still cuts massively through the city, from just outside the western walls and towering over the lower part of the town.

I wound my way through the city, getting more lost than I would have guessed possible at first, until I found Les Arceaux. From the vantage at the top of the acqueduct, I could get a real sense of why Montpellier was constructed here; the surrounding area toward the sea becomes somewhat marshy and is a bit unstable. By building up on the higher hills (hence Mont,) the city had a firm foundation, and the fortifications were more easily defensible. From this view, I could see the mountains rising further inland, and view the sea about 6 miles distant.

The center square of the city is beautiful, and known as Place de la Comedie, after the large, beautiful Opera which dominates the western side of the plaza. The old city clusters around this area, with winding little streets with shops, restaurants, and residences. There is a new addition to the center of town, Le Antigone, which is vaguely nouveau Romanesque, built in the 1970 + 1980’s and still done on a giant but welcoming scale – this is a gathering place, shopping plaza, and offices on the lower, east side of downtown toward the river.

One thing that is really cool is that the entire city only used organic compost to fertilize all of their many grassy park-areas and boulevards. No scary chemical dependence, just trucks of rich smelling, good looking compost being raked into the grass and spread under the trees everywhere.

My hotel is even a bit further outside of the city to the east, alongside the river, which winds through a flood control zone with grassy parks on either side. It is flowing fast, no doubt collecting the heavy rains that have been coming down the past few days, and adding it to the drainage from the nearby mountains.

The city has bicycles available for rent for 2 euro per day. Apparently you leave a form of identification with them, and you get a little fob that activates the locks on bicycles which are parked at stations all over the city. You just get a bike, ride it wherever you are going, and then lock it up. Then you can grab a different bike and do the same. Repeat until tired. I think I am going to try to do that after the conference tomorrow!