Surviving The Biggest Wine Tasting On Earth

With close to a 1000 vintners offering their wines to taste and for sale, the sheer size alone is  so  staggering as to be unbelievable!  Mon Dieu!  Surviving means tasting but not drinking!

However beautiful a wine is, you can not swallow it if you want to be able to taste other wines you are interested in.  If you did, your palate would become less able to distinguish the varied subtleties of wines due to the alcohol ingested.

The annual autumn Salon des Vins des Vignerons Indépendant at Porte de Versailles, becomes a trial of discipline and study, if you ever want to get through it sober and standing.

With the exception of a few micro sips, here and there, I have to let decorum fly and lean down over the spittoons to spit out many a delicious wine, however tempting it is to swallow.

Cruel reality, I know!  Full enjoyment will have to wait till it will be on my dinner table.

The salon offers you the opportunity to sample and buy wines from every known wine region in France and even some you don’t know!

We may all have our favourite regions, but there does not exist a “best” wine, only many delicious variations to delight in, that each have their unique personality or taste of the land, what the French call “terroir”.

Hear yea, hear yea!  I do not drink labels! I choose my everyday wines from different regions and  vintners that I have come to know and appreciate, not only for their wines, but for their wonderful talent, dedication, kindness and unique personalities.

A winemaker’s energy and his generosity is transmitted to his wines.  In many ways they are reflective of the wine maker’s personality.

A prestigious and very expensive wine might more reflect someone’s need to feel elevated amongst others,  or just plain show off  in serving it, rather than offer a mind blowing experience.

Labels are more for pretentious wine snobs, rather than for those who quest to delight in magnificent discoveries, regardless of their origin!

An example of this was a recent blind tasting of pinot noirs, by Revue de Vins de France, mostly from the impressive domains of Burgundy.  What blew them out of the water was a pinot noir made in all places; Normandie, which may be famous for apple cider, but not wines!

When I find a wine that titillated my taste buds and nose, it is really hard not to swallow to fully appreciate the experience, especially the desired aftertaste.

You can tell quite a bit about a wine without swallowing, though not all! Swirling the wine in your glass helps releases the perfume, which for me can be as enjoyable as drinking it.

Taking a  sip of the wine, while sucking in minute quantities of air helps release even more aromatic esters  for your nose and palate.

Not something you can do with these picnic wine bags seen for sale.

I like robust and powerful reds with heady noses, with perfumes resembling blackberries, cassis, cherries, spice, smoky, earthy, leather, cocoa, leather, violets, pepper,  prunes or even tobacco.

Some vines grown in sandy vineyards close to the see, like Fitou, produce wines that you can taste  hints of the many seashore herbs known as “garrigue”.

With white wines, the perfumes can be citrusy, vanilla, mineral, herbal, pineapple, and white fruits like peaches and apricots and floral and so on.

Rosés can be said to have strawberry, raspberry, bonbons and even pomegranate noses. I tend to buy  more rosés at the spring salon for the warmer months ahead.

Rosé champagnes or cremants are another story! I love them anytime of the year, not only for their pretty colour but for the sight fruitiness given off on the palate.

This wonderfully vast salon is for me not only a chance to buy wines that I  want for my cave, but a time to see  and visit with my favourite vintner friends.  Some of whom I have been buying wines for over 10 years!

I have seen sons and daughters grow up and poised to takeover over the daily chore of winemaking from their parents.  Most vineyards have been handed down through multiple generations, as it is extremely expensive to buy  them, and in some regions , practically impossible to  obtain, especially if you are an outsider.

Knowing that their vines will be in the loving  and knowledgeable hands of their children is a overwhelming desire and concern amongst winemakers.

The  Bauer family Alsatian winery in Egusheim is an example.  Arnaud, one of their two sons, after completing his oenological studies several years ago now is completely integrated in making the family’s beautifully structured and flavourful wines, cremants and eaux de vies, or fruit brandies.

 

The salon started with a special before opening invitation from one of the kindest  and most generous and humble of winemakers, Monsieur Gilles Bley.  His top notch Clos Siguier Cahors are consistently wonderful, rich and well priced and he has quite a devoted following.

Cahors, otherwise know as the legendary black wines because of the darkly purpled Malbec grapes from whence they are made was at one time the favoured wine of king Francis I and a French pope.

There is a resurgence of interest in Malbecs, here in France as well in the world in part due to marketing success of Argentinian ones.

Perfumed, rich and chewy, I adore them, especially with magret de canard, game and char grilled beef.  The only drawback is that your tongue and lips take on a purple tint  as a testimony of having enjoyed them.

Just slightly west of the Cahor region is Gaillac.  Gaillac wines, made mostly from an ancient grape called Braucol is one of the oldest known wine regions of France, dating back to early Gallo Roman plantation of vines.

They too are powerful reds with almost a spicy overtone.  The Carcenac family are extremely friendly, with their son Cédric now on board who has a winning smile, making lovely Gaillacs.

Within the same region are the Cotes de Tarn near Albi,  and for the first time female wine maker Caroline Schaller presented her delightful wines for Domain d’En Segur.  I was enticed by the Syrah Duras,  for the explosive flavour and great price.

From the Bordeaux region, I love the exquisite Entre de Mers white wines of Laland Labatut, made by Régis Falxa, who also has wonderful reds and cremants. Régis always is jovial and robust in his friendliness, which plays out in his superb wines.

Here I am with Felix and his assistant Olivier.  Besides making wines, I learned that he is originally from the Basque country and occasionally plays peloton!

One of my favourite cremants from Burgundy is made by Pascal Laboreau, a friendly discreet vintner, who also makes the powerful and expensive famous reds of Pommard, Volnay and Corton Charlemagne amongst others.

His family has been making wines since the unbelievable year of 1640!  His Blanc de  Noirs and his Rosé cremants can rival Champagnes, which  actually borders the northern part of Burgundy.

I did buy some new Champagnes this salon, tasting several before I made my decision.   Champagnes is an expensive treat, so I look for ones that are offer a great quality/ price ratio, and I found two exceptional ones this year, one of which is  Lacroix.

I find it better to drink an excellent cremant, than a poorly made champagne, only meriting the label because it was produced within the Champagne district, not for what is in the bottle.

One of my favourite robust and aromatic white wines comes from Gascogne region,  in Southwestern France where Armagnac is produced, that is also foie gras country.

Domaine Lartigue white is a powerful complex and perfumed wine made from sauvignon, columbard, and gros manseng and priced like a dream from talented ladies, who enjoy leaving their husbands at home while they tend to the salons.

Their Armagnacs are wonderful as well and they have some old ones to choose from.

Domaine Le Fort is located  near Carcassonne, where Stephanie Fargues and  Marc Pages , seen in the photo produces wonderful well made wines from  different  varietals, including a pinot noir I like that doesn’t carry a huge price like the ones from Burgundy.

I also love the rich well bodied red wines of the Loire, primarily those from Bourgueil, Saint Nicolas de Bourgueil and Chinon, all made with the cabernet franc grape. They have a delicious cherry flavour to my palate and go wonderful with all red meats.

Another red wine I adore is not really known much outside of France is called Mondeuse.  Made from the Mondeuse grape grown exclusively in the Alpine Savoir region, it has a smoky earthiness and that compliments beef perfectly.  I generally lean towards the Jean Vullien winery who does a great one.

On a sad note, I learned that my favourite sauvignon blanc, made by a female winemaker from the Loire had to sell her domain due to a divorce property settlement that she had inherited from her father.

If you were to come to my dinner table, I would delight in serving wines from these adorable wine makers.  I always like to not only describe the wines served but tell you about the winemaker who made them.

Every wine is unique and has a story from where it was produced.  Because they come from grapes grown during a certain year, they may reflect even your own personal memories from that year to share, especially if you had been in the wine’s region.

After I light my candles, and start to serve these wines at dinner, I feel that a part of these vintner’s energy is present with me to enjoy around my table.

Lord Byron summed up some of the virtues of wine:  “Wine cheers the sad, revives the old, inspires the young and makes weariness forget his toil”.

For me I like the quote Jean Anthelme Brillat Savarin as well: “A meal without wine is like a day without sunshine”

Cheers!