A Lesson in Vermouth

Last night, we ate out at a restaurant in St. Chinian for the first time - the Cafe de la Paix. This restaurant, right on the main road had a nice little patio out back, away from the noisy traffic. Dawn finally had her gambas flambe, while I opted for more foie gras, this time on a medallion of veal.

Today, we were in for a lesson in the manufacturing of vermouth at the Noilly Prat winery in Marseillan, which is a nice seaside village about 50 kilometres from St. Chinian.

We opted for the guided tour - in French - which took us through their various storage and blending facilities. The first thing we learned was that they use two grapes, picpoul and clairet. These wines are intiially stored in gigantic 100 year old Canadian oak vats.

Then they move the wine to the outside into smaller barrels, where the climate ages it. While walking through the barrel yard, the sprinklers came on the keep the barrels from getting too hot.

Finally the wine is moved back indoors where it is blended and the secret recipe of herbs is added. Noilly Prat makes only 3 products, dry white, sweeter red and amber, somewhere in the middle. It takes five years from when then raw wine arrives to bottling. Of course we only see the white in Ontario.
To conclude the tour we had a degustation of their products. Interestingly, there was a breathalizer in the corner of the tasting room that you were free to use - very responsible.


We stayed in Marseillan for lunch and ate at the Tavern du Port, immediately across the narrow boat dock from Noilly Prat.
Here we had some new culinary experiences starting with grilled oysters done in Noilly Prat sauce and sea snails - raw - Tony would be proud. Following that, we shared a fillet of sole - Wow! In the middle of the snails, shown below, is a dish of homemade aioli to die for.

As June slips past us, it's obvious that this area is gearing up for the coming sunseekers. For the time being, however, we have been very happy to be more or less on our own - no traffic congestion, no parking issues. By this weekend that will change dramatically. Fortunately, we'll be on our way north.