Wine, food and friends

On Friday we finally managed a visit to a local wine estate - Domaine la Bouscade, which is based in Puicheric and is owned and run by an English couple, David and Jo Cowderoy.

We first came across one of their wines when we sampled their 'late harvest' naturally sweet wine at a wine tasting at VinEcole with Matthew Stubbs, who praises David at every opportunity as one of his favourite 'garagiste' winemakers.

And you know what, they really do make the wine in the big garage next to their house in the middle of the village - the vineyards are a few kilometres away. Jo very kindly gave us a couple of hours of her time and showed us round the wine making process before sitting us down at their dining room table to sample some of their wines - whites, rosé and reds.

We have been meaning to visit vineyards and meet the winemakers since we first came out to France, but somehow have never found the time. We actually have a really good reason for doing so now as we need to source a good house wine for the suites and for the dinners. The wines from La Bouscade might well fit the bill and so we bought a good selection to try out over Christmas and beyond.

All of which made us a bit late getting back to the house and left us with a bit of a rush to prepare dinner for our lovely French friends, Nathalie (8 cookbooks published in France) and Fabien and also Xavier (marketing director of the Hotel de la Cité) and Charlotte. We have cooked many dinners over the course of the year for guests but this was our first local soirée and we wanted it all to go right, which, typically of course, it didn't.

Nathalie had promised to show me how to prepare a fresh foie gras and so I had purchased one that morning in anticipation but her email with the list of ingredients that I needed didn't reach me for some reason and as a result I was ill-prepared for my cooking lesson - so Nathalie showed me how to de-vein the liver and explained the recipe so that I could make it the next day.

Whilst I was slightly embarrassed with my cooking lesson, Debrah was being embarrassed by her beans, which having been soaked overnight, were being decidedly stubborn when it came to being cooked, taking at least an hour longer than they should have. Beans have been a recurring (or should I say, repeating) problem over the weekend - more of that later.

So we ended up eating a bit late but everyone seemed to enjoy the food and everyone seemed to have a lovely time, although Fabien started to feel a bit 'malade' towards the end of the evening. I'm certain it was nothing to do with anything we served but it didn't help our paranoia.

You so want your first dinner party for local people to be absolutely perfect - it wasn't but it was a success nonetheless.