Foires Aux Vins = Wine Galore

The wine fairs have started!   A fixture of French culture and life  that I always get excited about every year.  Everywhere in France, the largest grocery chains, wine boutiques and online wine sellers offer special promotions on wines usually not always available.

Most offer degustations in the store or a night before they start.  So every September, you will find me pouring over reviews and recommendations from published sources that I trust.  It is a great time to pick up some bargain and find bottles not ordinarily on the shelf.

The other day, I was in my local Monoprix on the first day of theirs, when I saw a lucky lady piling up her cart with some fairly expensive bottles of Bordeaux.  It is best to go with a list of what you want to buy and stick with it, otherwise you will be too tempted to splurge.

Most French take advantage of these special fairs that occur twice  year to stock up for their cave.  The autumn one is always larger that those in the spring and seems to generate more excitement in the press.

These wine fairs are also wildly popular with citizens from neighboring countries,  who flock in droves to buy huge amounts of wine.  Along the border of Lorraine and Alsace, stores are flooded with Germans who buy loads of cases.  Around Geneva and Lac Leman, the Swiss predominate so much that if you do not get there early, they will quickly buy up the stock!

However much I anticipate and enjoy looking over all the wine catalogues that each store produces, I admit that I do not buy the bulk of my wine at this time.  At the end of Novemeber each year, there is the Salon des Vins des Vignerons Independant that captures my interest  and pocketbook the most.

Nevertheless these fairs afford me the opportunity to pick up some hard to find wines at little prices.  Rarely, will I buy a case, preferring to pick and choose many different ones, unless I run across an absolute winner at a great price.

With that disclaimer, I do not buy in general the better wines from Bordeaux or Burgundy.  Again I wait till November to buy direct from the winemaker.  Even then my limited budget dictates that wines from those two areas are only a few to be saved for special occasions like holidays and birthdays!

You can find absolutely stunning wines from all the other wine regions of France, not mentioned above.  At prices that are not inflated like the wines of Bordeaux and Burgundy.

I do not buy and drink labels.  I buy wines for my pleasure depending on my preferences and budget.  Sometimes I discover some real knock outs in non AOC(appelation d’origine controlee) .  Whether vins de pays, or VDQS, there are beauties out there at prices to steal.

To me wines are more than a beverage to drink.  Each one has a story and memories associated with the region they are from.  If you ever grace my table for dinner, you know I will spend some time talking about the wine served.

I prefer in general to buy my wines for my cave directly from the wine makers.  That is why I prefer to buy from independent wine makers that grow their own grapes, and distill their wines on their property.

Each time I open one of their bottles, I like to think of them and the passion they have that they put into making their wines.  Most of the times I will designate names like Stephane’s  red amboise, Marion’s Fitou, or Gilles’s Cahor.  While drinking their wines, I see their faces and remember their stories and even scars on their hands from pruning.

I am sure I will write another post come end of November, after being able to meet again all my favorite winemakers.  The bottles in my cave have dwindled down and some of my favorites have long been drunk.

So these wine fairs will allow be to buy some more bottles at little prices  to keep me going till end of November.  So cheers to you where ever you are!