Wine Tasting

Lots has happened this week - most of which I can't tell you about because it hasn't and won't come to fruition for a long time yet and now is not the time to talk about it. All very exciting though and all filling our heads on an hourly basis. Oh - what a tease!

A group of four new guests arrived from Australia on Wednesday. Two of them stayed here last year with their children, so it was great to welcome them back - especially as they have come all the way from Adelaide.

One of the reasons they are here is a brother who works in the wine trade here in the Languedoc. They have also invited friends from the UK to visit at the same time - so it was that I hosted a wine tasting for seven last night and will host a dinner for seven tomorrow night.

It's fine to host a wine tasting with guests who have no idea what you are talking about and believe every word you say - it's slightly more intimidating when there is a wine professional involved too. I don't claim to be a Master of Wine or any sort of guru on the subject but I do know a fair bit after years of extensive personal research at the expense, no doubt, of the health of my liver. So I was mildly relieved and greatly reassured of my knowledge when it turned out that I was as well informed about this great region's wines as my wine making friend was - it just goes to show that nobody can ever know everything about wine - ever.

The wines that took my wine making friend by surprise were a Sauvignon Blanc from Rieux-Minervois and a late harvest sweet wine made by an English winemaker, also in the Minervois.

This whole vast region is known predominately for it's red wine - from Minervois to Corbieres to Fitou to St Chinian to Faugeres. Yet, it is the white wines that I taste that most astound me with their quality.

The reds all seem to be made to a pattern or formula that you expect and there are plenty of them so differentiating between them is more difficult - don't get me wrong, there are some delicious exceptional reds here and the average bottle is both extremely affordable and very drinkable.

The whites take me by surprise though - because I don't expect the quality and finesse that I constantly find - maybe I should stop being surprised.

Last night we had a Sauvignon Blanc from Domaine Saint Francois that was delicious in every respect - floral, aromatic bouquet and a mouth full of fresh peachy, apricoty flavours and just a hint of the oak barrels it had been in for 12 months. It was sublime in every respect and a total bonus as I had just picked it up that day in trying to find something different. The Aussies thought it had to be a Chardonnay but they were wrong and the winemaker vowed to visit the domaine as soon as possible.

The last wine we tasted was a sweet wine - Late Harvest from Domaine La Bouscade. The whole process of making a late harvest wine is an act of faith and as much of a gamble as buying a lottery ticket - the odds really are that bad that the right weather conditions will occur at the right time and the grapes will react in the right way. I think that running a holiday business is a gamble - winemakers make me look positively conservative.

Needless to say, everybody adored the wine and the winemaker actually clapped his hands in appreciation of a top class well-made product. He knows what's involved. My compliments to David and Jo Cowderoy out in Puicheric for turning out the best dessert wine I have ever tasted.

It's a job - but it's a good job.

All Change

It's been a busy day here in Carcassonne. It was a lovely day to be out and about. It was a lovely day to be my guests - breakfast brought to the room, clear blue skies, warm but not too hot so perfect for exploring the Cité and then a wine tasting with me in the evening.

My charming American couple are on their honeymoon trip around France and appear to be loving every minute - which is as it should be in every sense.

This evening I put together a wine tasting of local Languedoc wines plus a few 'tapas' to compliment, which went very well - so well in fact we were still sat round the table three hours after we started which is a long time to taste five wines. You are probably thinking that we polished off the five bottles between the three of us but nothing could be further from the truth - one glass each from four and we finished the fifth.

We started with a Blanquette Methode Ancestrale from Limoux and then sampled a white from Picpoul de Pinet (heavenly with the local oysters - sadly we didn't have any this evening) and a local chardonnay before comparing a red from the Minervois with a red from the Corbieres - which was everyone's favourite and the one we finished off.

We had started thirty minutes later than planned because I was running behind schedule. I had wasted a good hour driving from shop to shop looking for a clothes rail - it's never straightforward finding what you want is it? I went to four different stores convinced that each would have what I wanted, but to no avail. I wasted twenty minutes in Tridome because they had moved everything around - why do stores do that? - I knew where it all was beforehand and it's no clearer or better now than it was before - and then they didn't have what I wanted.

The reason for the rail is that I am moving out of my bedroom into the spare room and need to move all our belongings out too. To maximise income the main bedroom has now become the Master Suite and this weekend will see the first clients arrive.

You think that you don't have much stuff - my God, we have so much more than meets the eye - but I think I have found a home for it all - I am very good at packing and stacking!!

Let it snow, let it snow

When we awoke yesterday morning it was snowing - not a little bit of drizzly sleet but proper, big, slow falling, settling when they landed snowflakes. In no time at all the top of the cars were covered.

Two hours later it was still snowing steadily from a leaden grey sky, the road was slushly, the rooftops were white and Carcassonne had turned into a winter wonderland.

Sadly, the snow turned to rain in the afternoon and the magic slowly disappeared.

It was cold and damp and we didn't really feel like going out. We were also all still full and jaded from Christmas day so decided to postpone the wine tasting with the clients by 24 hours and watch a dvd together instead - it was an excellent decision.

We took a bit of time to get going today as well - I was up to sort breakfast and even Christian was up before 10.00am which is something of a miracle, but we were all a bit half-hearted at the market and a bit lethargic for the rest of the afternoon - well all except Christian, who knocked out another couple of lovely paintings in no time at all in a hastily put together studio in the hallway of the office space - they'll look great on the apartment walls.

I had a night off from cooking. Debrah did the majority, so that whilst I sat and spouted off about wine to our clients, Debrah brought a succession of fabulously tasty morsels to the table that complimented each of the wines we were tasting - which worked really well.

It's all over now - everything except the glasses has been washed up - time for bed.

Not standing still

Anna and Aib have gone back to Aquitaine but it won't be long before we see them again because at the end of next week my whole family will be descending on the chateau to celebrate my father's 80th birthday.

In the meantime I have guests to think about with two new couples arriving tomorrow for the weekend and two couples during next week for two nights each. The rooms were prepped this afternoon and all is set for airport pick-ups in the morning at 10.30 and 12.30.

Anna bought some of her lovely vegetables and herbs and flowers from her garden (which of course makes us think about our lack of outside space) and we enjoyed a tray of roast vegetables with some of our delicious local pork this evening.

In my time in France I have grown to appreciate the fig, and fennel and celeriac and have mastered the preparation of the artichoke - all things that were unappreciated in London in their raw and unripe state. However, we still haven't conquered the aubergine despite the absolute beauty of the vegetable in it's many different forms here. Tonight was no exception, with the pieces of aubergine in the vegetable bake proving the hardest to swallow. We are not going to be defeated though, and the uneaten vegetables will be mixed with more tomatoes and peppers and cooked again and given another chance. Food absolutely never ever gets thrown away here.

It's always interesting talking and exchanging ideas with Anna and Aib. Things that work for them and don't work for us and vice versa are usually just down to the different scale of our respective operations - but there are areas of overlap and areas where we genuinely help each other out.

Debrah and Aib spent some time this morning discussing website build and design (Aib can build them and Debrah can design them but they couldn't possibly do each others role - which they readily admit) Both of us are looking to update and indeed possibly redesign our respective websites and are keen to add more services for our clients.

Here at 42rvh we need to promote the wine tasting possibilities (as discussed yesterday) and we have also had a discussion with Christine, who runs the beauty salon on the ground floor, about promoting her services to our clients. Both need adding to the website so that clients are aware of the full range of available enjoyment to be had.

It's all about enjoyment - for them and for us. When it stops being enjoyable it will be time to move on - but that is happily not a factor at the moment. Fun is good and fun it still is.

Go on, laugh.

Hosting and Tasting

My new guests arrived yesterday - his birthday, her treat - how sweet. Before they went off for dinner last night they asked if they could contribute some extra money to the wine budget for dinner tonight - "well, of course", I replied and instantly turned this evenings supper into a wine tasting evening.

The upshot was a very pleasurable day for me - planning, buying, researching and finally providing. I decided on three local wine regions to taste side by side and then visited our fabulous local delicatessen/wine shop,'La Ferme', to select a wine from each region. I did a bit of research on each wine and the region they came from and made some notes so as to give my guests as much information as possible.

Every time I present or partake in a side by side regional wine tasting I am always amazed at the differences in wines that are made less than 30km apart from each other. It was also fascinating that, although we all liked all the wines, we all preferred a different one and ranked them all in a completely different order. Despite that we all agreed the order that we would drink them in and duly set about despatching all three bottles over dinner - plus half the bottle of dessert wine that was also requested and included. All in all, another top 42rvh dinner, I think.

Can we introduce 'wine tasting and dinner hosting' to the next 'limpics'. Medals to be awarded not for guessing the wines or the grape varieties but for having an enjoyable evening and a good giggle about life in general. Anyone taking it too seriously will be disqualified immediately.

Bastille Day

It was Bastille Day yesterday, which of course means a French national holiday, trading in the streets, pomp and ceremony at the 'Monument des Morts', the second largest firework display in France (after Paris) and a thumping DJ late into the night. Something for everyone I guess.

The day itself was relatively quiet - in fact it seemed to be quieter than a usual Sunday, which was a bit strange. There was a fairly low key farmers market, where we bought a huge sausage sandwich as breakfast and three bottles of 'Carthagene', a local aperitif - but it was a bit early in the morning for wine tasting (even for me!) so we said we would come back but we never did.

So we wandered down the main shopping street and bought shoes. Well, Sandra didn't buy any because they didn't have her size in the ones she liked and I spent €14 on some summer knockabouts and Debrah bought three pairs - plus ca change.

After a lovely dinner on Sunday evening, which both sets of guests seemed to thoroughly enjoy, we had to plan a pre-firework supper. It was meant to be a barbecue down at Patrick's house before viewing the fireworks from his terrace - but he seemed too pre-occupied with the bar build and a little freaked about having to provide food for our two vegetarian guests, despite me assuring him that we would have all that taken of. So we decided to eat at home first and then wander on down there about an hour before the kick-off.

To spice things up, we did a wine tasting - compare and contrast three reds from different wine regions within the area - which was a lot of fun. I cracked my usual joke about 25 years of research before I realised I couldn't drink Bordeaux reds because the Cabernet Sauvignon grape gives me indigestion and everybody laughed except Debrah, who stifled a yawn.

That's not fair really, because Debrah has been joining in everything despite feeling really grotty with a horrible summer cold that she bought with her from The UK last Saturday. It's probably not a summer cold because I hear it is still winter in the UK!

I didn't get to see the pomp and ceremony at the statue to the dead but I know it happened - some speeches, a few medals, a lot of bowing and handshakes, an enormous amount of kissing and a band all trying to play in time and in tune - even the same tune - but failing.

The fireworks were as spectacular as they always are and my guests thoroughly appreciated the private viewing platform rather than slumming it in the street with the half million visitors that annually attend the event. I have seen it four times now and it didn't have the same impact as before despite being every bit as fabulous - I don't think you can replace the first time that you see it because it just blows your mind - every first timer yesterday said it was the best firework display they had ever seen (including Hong Kong handover, Millenium etc)

None of us stayed long after the event and I don't think any of us lingered in the square where the DJ was in full swing as we passed through on the way home. We are just far enough away not to have been kept awake by it (Chris said the windows were rattling in their frames, in his apartment overlooking the square, until after 2am) which is just as well as I had to be up at 6.30am this morning to give guests a lift to the station for an early train.

After a bit of fun and festivity at the weekend, it was back to room chnages and washing and cleaning today, with a new set of Irish arriving mid-afternoon. Debrah and Sandra have swanned off to the coast and then the mountains to see Nick and Chris down at Argeles and Ceret - lucky devils.

Oh, to be so laissez-faire now and again.