It was a long hard drive from the Eurotunnel shuttle at Calais to Royan which is a pleasant seaside resort situated on the North East tip of the Gironde Estuary. We arrived in the early evening just before the sun was setting over the mouth of the Gironde and quickly found a pleasant Hotel, The Foncillon, we booked ourselves a comfortable room for a reasonable price overlooking the estuary. The resort had a fifties flavour as it was re-built after the city centre was raised to the ground, in 1945, by allied bombing which was seeking to remove one of the enclaves still held by the Germans months after D Day. The resort is well worth visiting if only for the five beaches and the view over the estuary and it is a perfect place to start a wine journey through the Médoc.
The Gironde region is of course famous for its cuisine and above all its wine. After a long drive we needed both food a wine and food ourselves a good restaurant which was full of people - "Le Pavé Bleu". We had chosen well; some of the neighbouring restaurants were empty but the food and service here were very good even if the decor was a little tatty. My wife had an Assiette Fruits de Mers and I had oysters which we washed down with a half bottle of bog standard Entre-Deux-Mers white. This wine was bone dry and refreshing and tasty with hints of lemon and grapefruit and went down perfectly with the sea food. Afterwards we washed down Bavette steaks with a half bottle of bog standard Côtes de Bourg red. The steaks were perfectly cooked - rare. The wines complemented the food very well. Overall this was enjoyable start to our stay in France. On some websites Le Pavé Bleu does not get good reviews. The diners complained about the slow service and lack of quality of the food. Our experience belied these opinions. Perhaps things improve late in the season. In fairness, this was the only restaurant in the vicinity which was full and this is usually a good sign that the quality of the food and service is good. On that particular night not everyone was a tourist despite the fact that it was a public holiday; it was armistice day. Sometimes it is better to make your own judgements than to rely on comments on restaurant internet sites.
We still had no idea where we were going to visit next. The primary reason for our trip was not to taste wine but what better way to continue our trip the next day with a run through the Médoc on our way to stay a few nights on the Bassin D'Archachon. We caught the Bac which is a type of roll on and roll off ferry from Royan to Verdon which is situated on the northern tip of the Medoc peninsula. It was a pleasant twenty minute journey with a warm southerly wind. We drove down through the Médoc amidst the fresh smelling pines to Lesparre-Médoc which is a small unassuming town where we stopped for lunch. We found a very small restaurant, Les Baines, in the centre of town which again was nearly full and we were the only tourists. The restaurant was very basic and the decor was nothing to right home about but the service was quick and friendly. The service might have been unpretentious but the food was excellent. My wife ordered an Omelette with Ceps. The mushrooms were delicious. I ordered a Blanquette de Veaux which tasted home made. The quality of the food was great. The waitress recommended a pichet of Vin Rouge de Médoc which had been matured in oak. 50cl of this excellent wine cost 7 Euros and it was full of fruit and tasted of vanilla and cloves but the taste of the wood was not overpowering. The wine had a feel of velvet on the tongue just like some of the wines from Volnay in the Burgundy region. The wine was as good as any other everyday drinking wine that I have tasted; and at 12 Euros a bottle was exceptional value for money. The wine and food in this restaurant was the best value for money during our trip.
Why can ordinary wine from the Médoc be so good? The gravelly soil has got something to do with it. The soil is often filled with gravel to a depth of several metres but this gravel can be mixed with sand, limestone marls and clay. The soil in parts of the Médoc is perfect for viticulture. The climate is almost perfect for viticulture as well. The Médoc peninsula is bounded by the Atlantic to the West and the Gironde to the east so both these bodies of water moderate the climate and keep the it and the weather temperate. The Médoc is also protected from harsh winds from the Atlantic by the pine forests along the coastal strip. Viticulture and wine making is a way of life here and the wines are produced to match the famous cuisine of the area. To understand the quality of the wine you have to understand the way of life of the people in the area. A visit to the Médoc should be on every wine lover's list. Equally a visit to Burgundy and Champagne is important to make comparisons between the maritime climate and the semi-continental climate of Burgundy and Champagne. The climate does not just influence the wine, it influences the people too.
Of course, good and bad wine can be found everywhere and some Médoc wines can be rather coarse and rustic if you are unlucky enough to find a bad one.
From Lesparre we made our way down to Arès to the Hotel Grain de Sable which I recommend highly. Arès is situated on the North East of the Bassin D'Arcachon. The flood plain of the Bassin is full of Oyster farms and I am about to eat my fair share Oysters.
It is only two days into my trip and sunset over the Bassin D'Archon is particularly attractive especially as it is shirt sleeve weather on the 12th of November. We are now feeling relaxed. Time now to sample the local oysters after a long walk along the edge of the Bassin. The restaurant San Marco, just down the road from the Hotel is another unpretentious restaurant with good quality food and service. For main course my wife ordered Lingue or Ling, in English , and I ordered Magret de Canard. The waiter recommend a bottle of Entre-Deux-Mers to wash down the food. Blanc de Lisenne Entre Deux Mers can be obtained on a retail website for just over 5 pounds a bottle. The price for the 2009 at the restaurant was 15 Euro. This is the sort of mark up I would expect. The wine was of perfectly acceptable quality. It went down well with the oysters that we had for a starter. The wine is crisp and dry with a hint of lemons and grapefruit and a perfect accompaniment for oysters, fish and Magret de Canard. You do not see Ling on the menu very much in Britain. I was brought up near the fishing port of Milford Haven in West Wales. There was so much Ling available that it was regarded as a poor man's cod and was looked down upon. It is rather a delicacy in my mind. When I was young it was unheard of to drink wine with fish. Wine was regarded as a rich man's pursuit. How times have changed. But a cup of tea still goes down better with kippers than any sort of white wine.
Entre-Deux-Mers is rather a misnomer for the wine, as the district is situated between two rivers, rather than two seas, to the east and south east of Bordeaux. The two rivers are the Garonne and the Dordogne which form the Gironde river to the north. The grape varieties used to produce the white wine are Sémillon, Sauvignon Blanc and Muscadelle. These grapes thrive well in the alluvial soils between the two rivers. Sémillon, Sauvignon Blanc and Muscadelle are also used to make the sweet dessert wines in Sauternes and other areas such as Barsac. Sweet wines of course are produced by different viticultural methods. Just like Muscadet from the Loire region and Chablis from Burgundy, Entre-Deux-Mers white goes so well with fish.
The Entre-Deux-Mers district is now becoming renowned for inexpensive but good value reds, so watch out for them as well.
The next day was a Sunday and our morning walk to find some croissants and coffee was unsuccessful. Most places were shut but we found Tanya's tea rooms. When travelling in Europe I really miss a very well made cup of tea but I am not one for bringing supplies with me. There were no croissants on the menu but I was offered tea and scones by the waitress who only seemed to speak French. Scones first thing in the morning, why not they are after all made of flour and butter just like croissants? The tea and scones were just like back home and tasted great. I should have guessed it, Tanya was from Yorkshire. After forty years travelling to France I had finally found a place where they knew how to make tea; a little oasis in a sea of coffee. If you are desperate for a real cup of tea in France then it is worth the trip to Arès.
After a long and muddy walk across the marshes we were ready for supper; but not before we had engaged a friendly, french octogenarian on the hunt for some Ceps. Apparently the Médoc has its own particular variety. The woods around the Bassin area were just full of giant Ceps .
Guess what ? most of the restaurants in the centre of Arès on a Sunday evening in mid -November are shut. Our hotel did not have a restaurant but recommended the Incontournable which was a ten minute walk away just outside of town. I am always a little wary when I see restaurant walls plastered with photographs of celebrities who have never eaten in the place but we had little choice and we were in no mood for driving to the next town as we both felt that we deserved a few glasses of wine after our walk. We ordered oysters of course then Ceps with rice for the wife and Ceps with roast lamb for me. The food was much better than I thought it would be especially the mushrooms. The main courses needed a red wine so I settled for Château Nodoz 2008 Côtes de Bourg red at 19 Euros a bottle. I did not know this wine but as luck would have it I had fallen upon a good one. This wine was a fine example of the district with soft tannins even though the wine was only three years old. It had the typical flavours of Bordeaux red - plums, cherries and tobacco boxes. Even with the restaurant mark up I considered this wine to be excellent value for money. If you are ever in the Côtes de Bourg it will probably pay you to visit the vineyard to obtain a good quality wine at a reasonable price or alternatively try this http://www.chateau-nodoz.com/visite/. The Côtes de Bourg lies to the east of the confluence of the Dordogne and Garonne rivers. The soil consist of sand, clay and gravel overlying a limestone sub soil so it is very good for growing vines. The Côtes de Bourg is more hilly than the Médoc and the vines are less protected from the effects of the westerly winds. The district produces mainly red wine which is very good value for money and these wines are worth searching for at your local winery or supermarket. I recommend Château Martinat; their 2005 was exquisite with soft tannins, after several years on the rack, and very good value for money. The "house" also produces Château les Donats (Premier Côtes de Blayes ) which I can also highly recommend. For UK wine lovers both are available from Wine Discoveries.
The Côtes de Blayes is to the north of Côtes de Bourg and the wines from this district are also some of my favourites as they are exceptional value for money. The wines of the Côtes de Blayes and the Côtes de Bourg are ones to look out for in the future; the reds are made from predominately Merlot so they mature quickly and the tannins soften earlier than is generally the case in wines from the Médoc . Try these websites http://chateau-martinat.fr/ and http://www.winediscoveries.co.uk/.
The next morning Tanya's tea rooms were shut so there was no choice but to have my cup of tea at the Hotel, no offence to the Hotel but the range of teas was simply not the same, so I missed out on the perfect cup yet again. However, the day was sunny and warm yet again so we drove to Cap Ferret to walk along the sand dunes and to photograph Europe's highest sand dune, the 100 metre high Dune de Pilat, from the headland. This dune is truly magnificent and is built up from 60 million cubic metres of sand which overlooks some of the finest coastal scenery in Europe. http://goeurope.about.com/od/bordeauxguide/l/bl-dune-du-pilat-map.htm
A three mile walk across the dunes near Cap-Ferret set us up nicely for lunch at the Mirador Restaurant just up from the beach at the headland. We enjoyed a delicious Assiette Fruits de Mer which included some oysters from the Bassin D'Arcachon and because we were driving a half bottle of Château La Commenderie de Queret Entre- Deux -Mers 2009. This wine was well recommended as it matched the shellfish perfectly. We followed the meal with Ossau Iraty cheese from the Pyrenees; one of my favourites. Once again this restaurant receives many un-favourable reviews from travel websites , mainly from french people who seem to be very fussy about the prices. I can understand complaints about the price but even though the pound has fallen so much against the Euro, we did not find the meal especially expensive. My wife is french and she is just as fussy about food as her compatriots but she thought the sea food was excellent and that is good enough a judgement for me. We have had the good luck to try good restaurants all over the world, usually as a result of travelling for work, but the food here compared favourably in terms of price and quality with most of the ones we have eaten in. I do not think being on holiday spoilt our judgement.
In the evening most of the restaurants were shut but in the town centre we found a pizzeria L'Agora - a good basic pizza was washed down with 50 cl of Medoc red which was a great way to finish off our stay in the Bassin D'Arcachon. I thoroughly recommend a trip to the region to enjoy some of Europe's finest scenery and to drink some of the world's best red wine which is found just on the door step. And best of all you do not have to pay high prices to enjoy good quality wine; a carafe of anonymous wine can be delicious.
The next day we decided to make our way down to Pau using the D roads and stopping off for lunch somewhere along the way. We drove down through the forests of the Landes to find a small town called Roquefort with fortified walls on the river l'Estampon. It is a charming little town but is nothing much special as a tourist destination. We found a small brasserie on the square which was full of local people so you can expect the food to be good. They only had one dish on the menu which was Boudin Noir which is a kind of black pudding made out of pork and pig's blood. Neither my wife nor I could face this after a long drive but we persuaded the patron to make us Bavette steaks. We ordered a carafe of vin rouge which I suspected was Côtes de Gascogne . This wine is quite tannic being made from Tannat, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc but it goes down well with rich food such as Boudin Noir. Roquefort is in the heart of rugby country and is close to the Côtes de Gascogne district and the Armagnac town of Condom. It does not produce cheese. The Cafe de la Poste gave us great food and wine and lots of chat about world cup rugby for a peppercorn price so we were in the heart of the real France.
So now onto our friends in Pau another rugby town and bordering on the appellation for some of the finest sweet wines - Jurançon. The commune borders on Pau and reaches out to the foothills of the Pyrenees. Jurançon late harvested wines are subjected to noble rot and the grapes are picked into late October and early November. The predominant grapes made to produce Jurançon sweet wines are Petit Manseng, Gros Manseng and Courbu ; these grapes are mostly found in South West France. One of my favourites dessert wines is Château Jolys which is rich and sweet with tastes of honey and citrus fruits. It is readily available in the UK. The vines are late harvested by hand. Henry IV of Navarre was reputed to have been anointed with this sweet wine when he was christened at Pau castle. No wonder that he showed religious tolerance and was concerned about the welfare of his subjects.
Our friends greeted us with some small glasses of L'apéritif du Roy - 2009 which does not quite have the same class as Château Jolys but it is perfectly agreeable and we were not on trip to taste or discover the top "crus". http://www.vin-cuisine-eleclerc.com/blancs-moelleux/le-sud-ouest/l-aperitif-du-roy
And so to the Le Palmorium Brasserie in Pau which has an exotic african flavour as did the food. This was not classic french cuisine but more like fusion food. My wife decided upon a Wok de Magret de Canard and the rest of us had Dorade or Sea Bream. We selected a dry white wine which was a blend of whites from the south west region. Lionel Osmin's Villa Beau Rivage 2009 at 14 Euros a bottle. It was basic wine which was fresh and fruity but obviously did not have a flavour typical of a particular district or region. The New World "trick" of blending wines from different regions was probably copied from the French.
The next day we headed off to the mountains and the Col du Portalet. It was a beautiful sunny day and even at 1794 meters the temperature was still 8 degrees at lunch time; not bad for the 16th of November. We drove over the border to eat in Spain. My wife and her friend both drank Sangria, ugh, this is not my favourite drink even on such a sunny day. I stuck to water as it is safety first on the mountain roads and you really need your wits about you on the steep bends. On the way back to Pau we stopped at Laruns to buy some delicious Ossau Iraty cheese straight from the producers and afterwards we stopped at the Cave de Gan to buy some Jurançon Sec and AOC Béarn Rosé to drink with supper. Rosé is not my favourite wine but the AOC Béarn seemed to be reasonable. Jurançon Sec is acceptable as an everyday drinking wine but it has nowhere near the quality of the sweet wine. We had a very agreeable stay in Pau ; the town, Château Jolys and the Cave de Gan are really worth visiting to appreciate some great wine and cuisine and to learn some history about the region and its relationship with the rest of France and Northern Spain.
The next day we drove north through Gascony to Villeneuve sur Lot to visit relations for a couple of days. On the way we stopped off at Auch which is the historic capital of the region. The birthplace of D'Artagnan , Lupiac, is nearby. There is a statue in his honour just below St Mary's cathedral. The Tower of Armagnac indicates that we are in the district of the famous brandy. Armagnac competes admirably with Cognac and it is one of my favourite and occasional after dinner tipples. We ate lunch in the Bartok restaurant it was excellent food even if the service was a little slow. We drank Côtes de Gascogne rouge with Rumpsteak and Côte de Veau aux Pleurotes (oyster mushrooms). The Côtes de Gascogne is more renowned for its Vins de Pays white wines, made from a blend of Petit Manseng, Gros Manseng, Columbard, Sauvignon Blanc and Ugni Blanc grapes. These wines are also distilled to produce Armagnac. White wine makes up more than 80% of the wine production. The red wine of this area has improved from the rustic wine used to wash down the rich local cuisine. Our pichet of vin rouge, was rich and fruity and more akin to its Bordeaux neighbours but at a more reasonable price. The Bartok was good value for money and fitted in well with the intention of our trip which was primarily to visit friends and family rather than splash out on expensive food and wine. The Bartok could not really be faulted.
On the way to Villeneuve sur Lot we drove through the the Côtes du Brulhois district just south of Agen. Côtes du Brulhois is little known outside of France and I have never seen it in a British supermarket or wine merchant. These wines , however, are up and coming and are achieving quality levels approaching those of their neighbours in the Bordeaux region. Once considered to be rustic these wines are becoming finer and I expect them to be promoted from VDQS to AOC or AOP status in the near future. The red wine is produced from Malbec, Tannat, Cabernet Franc, and Merlot grapes. There is also some production of a Côtes du Brulhois Rosé which I have not tasted.
We arrived in Villeneuve sur Lot in the early evening to stay with my sister and brother in laws' hotel. Villeneuve is situated on the Lot river some 22 kms north east of Agen and about 80 kms west of Cahors. It is a fortified town built on 13 th century ramparts. There are many mediaeval period houses within its walls . It is a small and very attractive town. See http://voyage.viamichelin.fr/web/Destination/France-Aquitaine-Villeneuve_sur_Lot. The town is not famous for wine but it is surrounded by the high quality wine producers of Bordeaux to the west, Bergerac to the north, Cahors to the east and even the Côtes du Brulhois to the south. It is renowned, however, for its plums and prunes and its south west cuisine. Truffles are readily obtainable. There is a vineyard at Thezac in the Lot valley which produces a favourite wine of mine - Vin du Tsar Cuvée du Millénaire which is red wine matured in oak barrels. It is very fruity and keeps well and it is reminiscent of the more famous Cahors wines to the east.
We were greeted by a fish stew and a bottle of of Château de Navailles 2008 AOC Jurançon Sec which I think is one of the better dry wines from the region. It shows well balanced acidity to go with a tangy lemon flavour. It was an ideal prize winning accompaniment to fish. The next day we ate Poulet aux Carottes and drank Chateau La Rose Gadis 2009 rouge which is a medium bodied fruity wine but in true Bordeaux style from south of the river Dordogne. And so to the final evening of our trip when we dined at La Galerie restaurant. For once the comments on the restaurant websites agreed with me. The food and service were excellent. I enjoyed a plate of Confit de Canard with my wife and her sister and brother in law. We had sampled a good few wines from Bordeaux and the south west so why not finish the trip with a Dordogne wine. Domaine L'Ancienne Cure Pécharmant red wine is produced by a family run business near Bergerac. Pécharmant is one step up from Begerac AOC and this wine was fruity and silky with hints of spice and oak vanilla. It was medium bodied and you could mistake it for a Saint Emilion. Domaine L'Ancienne Cure also produce Monbazillac the sweet dessert wine of Bergerac. La Galerie was the perfect way to end our trip by enjoying good company, good wine and good food.
Our trip back to the UK was an arduous affair we ate at a motorway cafe and only drank water and coffee. But with every sip of mineral water I could recall each of the high quality but medium priced wines that we had drunk. What a perfect way to spend a holiday.
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