Wandering Vignerons
Paul and Denise travel the world!

Our visit continues at a fantastic pace; visiting vineyards, wineries and tasting a large range of wines. Incredible. We have even visited DRC and met the winemaker, Bernard Noblet. For the unintiated that is DRC is Domaine Romanee Conti - who make some of the most expensive wines and possibly the best in the world. We have only had one day off during this period. On Sunday we had a 3 and half hour lunch at Lameloise. This is one of the top restuarants in France with 2 Michelin stars (formerly 3). It was a new and memorable experience for us. It was a set menu with 3 courses on the menu. However they deliver much more than the 3 courses we chose and we lost count at 8 dishes including a pre and post desert! not including the chocolates. (Thanks Gordon for the recommendations)

On our last day we had a long lunch which included a tasting of 14 wines from Olivier Leflaive, one of the best producers based in Puligny-Montrachet. It was simple traditional food but the wines included a Corton Charlemagne Grand Cru 2000 which was sensational. There were some local winemakes at lunch and we had a chance to taste an intensely flavoured 2003 1st Cru Pommard from Jacques Prieur. Lunch finished at 4.00pm and we retired for coffee at The Montrachet hotel where we met some Australians who were on a similar mission. We had one last rendezvous at 6.15 before we could go home. To be honest we were tired and hoped it would be a short visit. That's not quite how it turned out....we meet Frederic from Traransaud (one of our barrel markers) and he took us to visit winemaker, Jean-Claude Ramonit, in Chassagne-Montrachet. We started with some nice Saint-Aubin and Mersault village wines but we soon moved on to a range of Chassagne-Montrachet and Puligny-Montrachets of various vintages before trying a number of wonderful Grand-Crus. The absolute standout for me and the best white wine I have ever tasted was a 1990 Bienviues-Batard-Montrachet Grand Cru (Domaine Jean-Claude Ramonit). We then moved on to 3 very respectable Pinots. At the end of the visit we had tried 13 different bottles, most of which were opened especially for us. Dispite the fact that Jean-Claude did not speak english, we got on very well... the language of wine is universal.

Internet access has been really hard but we are hoping that the cruise ship will have reliable and easy access so we can again keep the Blog up to date and up-load some more photos. We have been very happy with our accomodation which has really suited the length of stay. Most nights we have eaten at home and have sampled some really good local produce. Soon we will be heading back to London where we will catch the plane to Istanbul.

Have spent a couple of days visiting some really interesting Wineries and learnt a lot about how things are done here compared to home. The wines we have tried have not been Grand Crus but have been very good with fine flavors and very aromatic. Interesting most of the wineries and caves (cellars doors are setup for tasting but, at least in the better ones, you can not buy their wine. Most of the wine is pre-sold to customers or to wine mechants and shops. You need appointments to get into the better winemakers. There are plenty of caves open in the small villages along the cote d'or and in Beaune but these are usually not very good quality. So far we have found neally all doors have opened for us even though they are busy with the tail end of vintage or the start of winemaking. They are very hospitable and answer all our questions and one was even kind enough to joke that she hoped we wouldn't learn to quickly!

We have managed to visit all the great names in Burgundy (The Grand Cru vineyards such as Corton Charlemagne, Clos Vougeot, Romanee Conti etc) and observe the picking, taste the ripeness of the grapes and the condition of the vines. We are hoping that before we leave we will get a chance to sample a few Grand Cru's!

We plan to continue over the next few days with more visits including to two barrel makers. We have also been enjoying the food and have over indulged but figure we wont get this opportunity again for a very long time. I am trying to work it off by walking.

We had to move out of our B&B for the weekend as they were fully booked. We had a trip preplanned to three of the great wine growing areas of France all in 3 days! We mananged to observe vintage and visit some fantastic producers in all three locations AND to sample a large number of wines. It was a very hard weekend!

Had a interesting day, exploring the famous vineyards of Pulligny-Montrachet and Meursault. They were picking in many vineyards but we had an opportune meeting with the vigneron and wine maker at Le Montrachet who we inspecting the vines. They will pick on Friday as the flavour ripeness is very close with the baume sitting at 13.3-13.4. We have taken copious notes.

We have arrived and our bed and breakfast is fantastic. It was picked from the internet so we were taking our chances. We have a large room and access to a lovely lounge, welcoming fireplace and a kitchen. We have met up with our friends Patty and Jud and are really enjoying our time in Burgundy. We will be staying here until 5 october with the exception of this coming weekend when the accommodation was fully booked. We will be visiting Sancerre and Epernay-Rheims on Friday and Saturday.

Wonderful day touring southern and northern Cote du Rhone visiting Caves or cellar doors, wine museums and vineyards. Learnt quite a deal as to why not to grow Rhone varieties and got some tips on marketing and packaging if not on viticulture. Tried a very good Cote Rotie.

A very long day on the motorway for 600 odd kilometres with some 15 toll collection points and a cost of 35 euros/50 dollars. We were also concerned about being stopped by the police over our missing number plate. Fortunately we had prebooked our accomodation and so we could go straight to our hotel and relax. We stayed in Orange in the Rhone valley. It is an old Roman town with a reasonably well preserved Amphitheatre which we enjoyed exploring before dinner. Our meal that night was the best we have had on the trip.

Left Barcelona full of anticipation looking forward to a drive down the coast and many quaint small fishing villages. However the first part of the trip the villages resembled a Spanish Gold Coast. We stopped for lunch at Salou to find as many English signs as Spanish and hordes of English tourists.

Moving on further down the coast we found the Spanish holiday town of Benicarlo which is mainly low rise apartments and hotels skirting the beach. The beach is beautiful, with azure water, and beautiful views down towards the headlands with castle in the south and the breakwater in the north. We managed to find a fairly new 4 star hotel at a rate of 84 euros a night including breakfast and dinner!

We have made good use of the beach and caught some sun but the highlight has been the visit to the castle of Peniscola which was the seat of Pope Benedict XIII at the time when there was a pope in Avignon and a pope here in Spain. The castle was built by the Knights Templar and was a stronghold for them for some time. As we were leaving the castle we happened upon a bullfight at the base of the castle. It was free and we were able to get access close enough to take some interesting photographs. We dont approve of the cruelty but we didnt stay long enough to see any bloodshed.

Today we took Paul and Carolyn to catch the train to Valencia and tomorrow we head back to France.

First day was spent quitely as we were exhausted after the drive the previous day and we needed to do some administation... clothes washing (denise), trying out the hotel pool (paul) and other bits and pieces. We had to sort out an issue as we had lost the rear number plate from our car on the motorway coming into Barcelona. It took many phone calls to Paris but we did manage to arrange a replacement and to understand what we need to do in the meantime. In the evening we meet Paul and Carolyn and walked along the water front and into Los Ramblos (very busy old area with many interesting small shops and restuarants). Second day we spent visiting the main sights such as the Gaudi architecture, Cathedral and the Picasso museum. The other highlight of our second day was visiting the Sagreda Familia, the church that Gaudi planned and was working on when he died. It really is amazing: all of the columns and ornaments are based on nature - trees, fruits etc. The scale is awesome. Work is proceeding on it as the city has made an undertaking to finish it. When Paul visited about ten years ago there was no roof and now it is fully roofed. Paul actually climbed the spiral staircase up to about the second level which is probably about 160 metres and his photos are awesome



We also managed to find a police station and fill out the appropriate forms to report the loss of the number plate from our car. At least now if we get pulled over we can flash some official papers explaining what happened and that the car isnīt stolen! We have one more full day in Barcelona before heading south along the coast of Spain for a couple of days. We will then part ways with Paul and Carolyn and head back to France.

Day 3: We have visited the Parc Guell which is a park that Gaudi designed and again it was really amazing and we have photos to prove it. Also there was the house that he lived in for the last twenty or so years of his life which was very interesting.

We have also visited the Miro Foundation where Paul really enjoyed seeing so much of his work. It is in a beautiful location in gardens on a hill above the city reached by furnicular railway.

We have been using the metro to get around in Barcelona. It is clean, runs like clockwork and is very cheap. A ticket costing about two dollars gives you access to as many lines and stations as you want in one journey. We bought a ten pass tickets which cost about eight dollars. It certainly saves our feet.

Drove to Montserrat arriving about lunchtime. Very long drive up winding roads to the top of the mountain to find the rest of Barcelona parked up there.

We visited the Basilica to see the Black Madonna which was very old - possibly 12th Century. Views from the top were amazing.......






Thence to Barcelona and our hotel - the Acevi - which is very good and at a good rate negotiated by Paul Takac.

Arrived on Saturday afternoon in Zaragoza to find a large, very busy city which all the accomodation fully booked! Paul managed to locate a hotel on the motorway to Barcellona so we headed off. By now it was getting late. When we finally arrived it was a truck stop and the motel was not very nice*. *understatement! We had seen another slightly better motel just down the road so we turn around and tried it. It turned out to be clean and comfy with nice food and at 35 euros it was a bargain. Our room even had a nice view arose a river to the distant town and hills. We ended up having a very pleasant evening with Paul and Carolyn sampling the tapas and drinking local rosato.

Loverly drive through the country with nice scenery and short stops. Fasinating to see all the pilgrims on foot making the long journey through this area on the way to the Santiago de Compostela in Northern Spain. We stopped for lunch at one of the small villages where the Pilgims stay.

We moved on to Haro center of the Rioja wine area and stopped at a very modern Bodegas (vineyard) called La Emperatriz. Quite large and modern but very well done and with excellent wine made mainly from Tempranillo with 5% Grenache and Mazuelo. They started the winery operation recently and had their first vintage about three years ago and bought all mostly new American oak in the first year. The oak in the wine we tasted was not too overpowering but it must have been a problem initially. Barrel maturation time is 14 months.

A very good Rioja we tried was a Luis Canas Crianza 2002. Deep Cherry red colour. Nice depth of red berry fruit on the palate. Good mouth feel and structure with the normally harsh tannins of tempranillo and the bitter notes not too evident. A very nice food wine.

It was made from 95% Tempranello, 5% Grenache with
7 days fermentation
28 degree fermentation
15 days maceration
12 months in barriques
70% french oak, remainder US
average bottle age when released 3 years
13.5% alc.

We spent the morning before leaving Bilbao at the Museum of Fine Art. This is a new gallery and one of the best we have seen in terms of use of natural light and space. We were drawn to the gallery by a temporary exhibition called Ļ"The Paris Sureallists" which was an extensive collection of Miro, Dali, Picasso and many others. It was very interesting and detailed the history and directions of the movement.

We left, concerned about the roads but the traffic was easier and weather was improving and we enjoyed the scenery driving through the Pyrennes outside of Bilboa heading towards Burgos. The landscape soon changed as we left the mountains into more typical spanish ranges, passes and plains. The roads were now very quick. There is a 120 Km/hr speed limit but no body seems to obey it. Mercs, Audiīs and BMW were passing us leaving us standing!

We managed to arrive at our next destination in time to meet our friends, Paul and Carolyn off their train. Amazing timing. We now had a tour guide and fluent spainish speaker!!! so finding a hotel was relatively easy. We were not booking in advance and so far it had worked out well. Burgos is in Central spain (Castilla Y Leon) and is the home of El Cid (famous spanish warrier). It has a large Cathedral and an extensive old town where we stayed.

The road to Bilboa was supposed to be a major motorway but there were multiple roadworks which slowed us down and lots of heavy traffic. It was also raining and the Pyrenees that the road cut through were shrouded in cloud. So much for the views which could have been spectacular. After a long hard drive from Barritz we arrived again exausted, but this time we lucked on to a great hotel at our first try (we had not prebooked). It is a modern boutique, aventgarde hotel called Mirohotel and we have a good view of the Guggenhein Museum. Magnificent and we are so glad we didnīt miss it!

Had a lovely half day exploring the ancient hill city of Carcassone. It had stopped raining and there even were glimpses of sunshine. We took lots of photos but have not managed to upload them.

We then headed off towards the Atlantic Coast and ended up in Biarritz. This was much further than expected because we had trouble finding accomodation on the way. The hotel in Biarritz has a magnificent view over the beach and we were fortunate to arrive in time to see the sunset.

On leaving Arles we were concerned about the developing storms and sure enough the heavens opened. Before long we were stopped by a policeman who diverted us down a small country road through vineyards. The rain was now torrential and we felt sorry for the vignerons as their crops were ripe and not long before picking.

The rain and hail kept coming and many of the roads were washed out. We ended up in a small country town but the road ahead was blocked so we tried alternate routes only to find that they were blocked too. We retraced out steps out of town but were probably one of the last cars able to leave as the rising waters were cutting off the last remaining access to the town. This water was local water only from the cloudburst and the water was halfway up the door of the car as we ploughed through (slowly!!) We finally made it to the motorway without assistance from the police or maps. As we drove south to Carcassone we saw a convey of emergency vehicles towing boats heading north on their way to rescue the stranded. We arrived in Carcassone quite late and fortunately were able to find a nice hotel.

We arrived in France and picked up our new Peugeot 407 at the airport. Unfortunately we made a wrong turn at the first intersection out of the airport and navigating without a map together with driving a six speed manual on the opposite side of the road was a challenge. We made it to our hotel at Aix en Provence safely and managed to recuperate.

The next day as the rain began we drove to Arles which is an ancient town with Roman ruins. It is also a centre for the arts and the town where both Vincent Van Gogh and Picasso painted many of their major works. We visited an interesting exhibition of Picasso works, mainly of Lee Miller and of his wife, in an exhibition entitled Arliennes.

From the Isle of Wight, we headed to Worthing which is situated on the coast near Brighton, were we stayed with Paul's cousin, Norman.

We have had a really relaxing time and got to know the newest members of the family. Lucy (Norman's daughter) and Sean have 2 beautiful young children who we have loved playing with. As you can see this has not been a tourist time although the weather has been absolutely perfect for sight seeing. We had a family lunch today followed by a walk through the Gardens and the photo shows our family group (Denise, Norman, Jenny, Jean, John, Lucy and the children.)

Tomorrow we head for Gatwick for an Easy Jet fight to France and some serious work.

After a long drive and a short ferry ride from Portsmouth we arrived on the Isle of Wight and stayed at a B&B called Adgestone Vineyard. This is the first place that we cannot recommend since we arrived in England. We visited Osborne House which is where Queen Victoria and her family spent a lot of time - it was really interesting. We then had a pub lunch (a baguette filled with local crab and a ploughman's with local cheese) in a very old pub called the New Inn in a village called Shalfleet. We drove to an area called the Needles via Falmouth which is a big yachting and boating centre. The Needles was spectacular with vast chalk cliffs. The coastline from there to around Ventor was really impressive and there was a beach at Compton where they have discoved dinosaur footprints and the Jurassic sands in this area has yielded a lot of important dinosaur bones. Just near where we were staying at Brading there was a Roman Villa with very well preserved mosaics.