One of the highlights of this trip was to be a wine tour for 8 of us in the Chateauneuf-du-Pape region. Francois of Avignon Wine Tours met us at 9AM this morning to begin our wine tour. As we were traveling down the gravel driveway he set the tone by playing  Nat King Cole belting “Unforgetable” and Francois joined in singing that our tour and our tour guide would be “Unforgetable in every way.” And it certainly was.

Our first stop was in a vineyard. We learned all about planting the grenache vines. The ground is cobblestone providing distinct growing conditions. It forces the roots to grow down deep to reach the nutrients and the sun heats the cobblestones to warm the vines at night. The wine growers keep the vines short so they can absorb the heat of the rocks. There are set perameters that must be met in order to be considered an official Chateauneuf-du-Pape wine. Some include once the vines are planted they can’t be harvested until they are 3 years old, and can only be watered once in July and once in August. So the weather conditions year to year are very much a part of the quality of the grapes and wine. Each vine can produce up to 8 bunches of grapes and it takes 3 bunches of grapes to make 1 bottle of wine. 

We tasted wines at four different wineries, but my favorite was the first winery Roger Sabon. That is where we had our initial introduction to the 6 steps of wine tasting. We learned about color, first nose, second nose, third nose, legs and tasting. It was interesting to me that it is during the various “noses” the characteristics of the wine … fruits, flowers, soil, spices,etc. … are identified. I was absolutely terrible at identifying the smells, but many in our group were very good. We also learned that you only serve wine in a stemmed glass and you always hold the glass by the stem. Never, never have fingers on the glass!!

Besides Francois, the highlight of our day was our lunch at Le Verger Des Papes. Chateauneuf-du-Pape was the summer residence of the Popes. It sat high on a hill overlooking the countryside. Le Verger Des Papes means “the orchards of the Popes.” The views were magnificent, the food excellent, but best of all, today is Gretchen’s Birthday and we had a wonderful celebration. When I made the arrangements for the tour, I told Francois that the day of the tour was also Grtchen’s Birthday. He did a wonderful job of providing special birthday surprises throughout the meal. We started our lunch with champange from Champagne for a birthday toast! Then we enjoyed a lovely lunch, which included white wine with the first course, red wine with the second course, a special lemon meringue cake with a sparkler mini torch, and espresso for the end of the meal.

Some of the countryside with a view of Mont Ventoux (you’ll see the mountain again as part of the Tour de France)

 

After lunch, we walked under the restaurant into a cave where the owners had discovered wine making vats from Roman times!

So many adventures, laughter, opera music and contests in the van!

We came home to a special Provençal dinner provided by Josie and Joan of escargot, French cassoulet made with duck confit and another pistachio ice cream birthday cake.

Tomorrow we are off to St. Remy!