On the way to Nyons, we made a stop at the Cave du Prieure at Vinsobres. We tasted some of their wines that are now considered Crus and were suitably impressed, not only by the quality, but also by the prices - way lower than other Crus. We had a nice discussion with the owner who encouraged us to wander about the Cave which had several very interesting displays, including labels of all kinds of famous French wines and some... not so famous.
After filling the trunk with wine, we finally rolled into Nyons, to find that our pottery people were absent today. C'est la vie! We did, however, wander further into Nyons than we had before and found it most enjoyable. Pizza seemed to be the order of the day once more and after choosing ours at the truck in the market, we headed back to Cairanne for lunch.
Our afternoon took us to Rochegude and its chateau about which the vintner in Vinsobres had talked to us. The hotel in the chateau is a 4*. It has been extraordinarily renovated with multiple sculptures and it has a restaurant with a fairly high end menu - maybe another day.
Next, we drove into Orange to confirm our car reservation for Saturday. There was no problem and in fact the VW Sharan we'd booked was already on site.
Then we drove a route to Chateuneuf du Pape never before travelled that took through the heart of this high-end wine country and brought us into town right at the chateau. The views of the environs, thanks to a stiff breeze today, were quite startling.
We must spend some time here with some of the individual producers, since I noticed a sign at one winery listing the vintages they still had in stock, going back to 1974. I'm curious about their prices - probably out of my range, but worth a look.
We did spend some time in the tourism tasting bar, who represent most Chateauneuf wineries and came away with a few bottles including a 1994 Clos Mont Olivet. Prices for most Chateauneufs start at around 15 Euros and at this outlet went up to 100 Euros. I'm pretty sure you can pay a lot more than that for older vintages at some distributors like Beaucastel and Janasse.
Tomorrow will be a shopping day, probably at Auchan in Avignon for our first set of company, so tomorrow's entry will be a more comprehensive tour of Peter & Margaret's house.
1 comment:
Bill and Dawn!
As life-long members of the Mas de Viales fan club, we are loving your blog. Sitting here in the pre-Labour Day sun of an Ontario evening, we are transported back to so many of our favourite haunts - la Place aux Herbes in Uzes, the gateway to the Mas, Mt. Ventoux.... Your wine tastings are a delight. In the heat of June/July, we have always found the local rose wines the best match with the setting sun, along with herbed black olives and tapenade from the Uzes market! Looking forward to a daily read of your progress!
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