Travels with Claire and Clayton....

The second week of my past trip to France saw the arrival of Clayton and Claire from Saratoga Springs, NY. It was Claire's first trip to Europe and she was about as excited as a 6 year old on Christmas Eve. They flew directly into Montpellier Airport after an overnight flight to Charles De Gaulle, something I have never done but it worked out very well. Air France has so many connections for very little extra money that it perhaps makes sense to do this versus taking the train.

I got them settled in Christian and Corinne's charming Gite de Montlaur just steps away from the farm and after getting refreshed we hit the wine tasting trail (a rather short trail because wine tasting places are frequent and spitting is so gauche). But we visited Chateau Peuch Haut just minutes from the farm where one can see one of the fastest rising stars of the Langeudoc region in action, as well as St. Jean de L'Arbusier, an older and more tradtional family concern with chickens in the courtyard and Granpa peeking out at you around the doorframe, while you're tasting the wines his son and daughter-in-law make, both of whom are respected oenologists in the region.

Needless to say with their jet lag and more wine tastings we were planning on calling it an early night. But they had other intentions. Heading off to the market we bought a selection of foods and wines and made for the Farm to cook ourselves dinner. We tried many wines and much excellent food before capping off their first day with a wonderful selection of cheese and a fine glass of port by the fire.

On Sunday Claire & Clayton slept in a bit while Christian and I and his ister went to the antique flea market in Montpellier. It is a huge affari and they sell every concievable thing I could imagine. I was looking for a teapot and some chairs which I found easily as well as a bunch of other stuff for the farm. There were some beautiful antiques there but I didn't think the farm was ready for them yet. After returning to the Gites and waking Claire and Clayton we all went to an equine center, owned by a friend of Christian's where we had a barbecue picnic featuring a variety of meats traditional to the south of France and northern Spain, a region that still very much influences the tastes and culture of the Languedoc. The horses there were beautiful and i found out that riding could be done almost any day and lessons were available at very reasonable rates.

Sunday night we toured Montpellier, a beautiful southern French city, reputed to be the youngest city in France due to its large student population. The University of Montpellier, whose medical school was founded by Jean, the 1st, de Montlaur in the 1100's, has today 85,000 students in a town with an overall population of 400,000. As a result it is vibrant and vigourous with old and young alike walking the wide avenues and winding streets of this medieval town.

(more in Part Deux)

Food and Wine in the South of France...

There is nothing much finer than enjoying an incredible meal and a good glass of wine and it is in expounding on that sense that much of the Micro-Lease concept is based. This past trip I had incredible meals made in the real kitchens of people who have lived in the south of France for years, punctuated by wines grown locally that are among some of the best I've ever tasted.

If you are looking for any reason at all to justify why you might want to become a Micro-Leaseholder in Monte Lauro Vineyards you need go no further than the food and wine of the region. Experience flows from food and wine as water flows from a fountain. From conceptualization, to securing to preparation and consumption, joys of all kinds are manifest in the process.

Spices at the market in Sommieres...

Corrinne, the new chef of Le Ferme de la Chateau de Montlaur (a title we conferred upon her after much wine and another great dinner), provided a virtuoso performance for the time I was there producing an incredible array of dishes, both traditionally French and also local. She hales from that part of France that nestles up against Switzerland near Geneva and has obviously inherited a gourmand's love of food and food preparation (and managing to do it all one handed as she had her arm in a sling the whole time). I can't pretend to remember the names of everything but the Mousse au chocolat definitely got my attention. Corinne has planned out a four or five day cooking course on French cuisine that we intend to offer at the farm next year. So if you ever wanted to learn the art of French cooking on the ground then now is the time you should sign up. I will personally be doing the wine matches for the week long course and look forward to highlighting the various foods with my favourite regional picks. More information will be available in the near future and we can expect Corinne to post a few recipes to the Blog over the next few months. Bon appetit!

Corinne enjoying a light lunch at the farm...I think that is a Chateau-Neuf-du-Pape in the glass!

The Wine Report

In this blog I'd like to discuss wine. Of course I'm talking about both wine from the 2007 Vintage as well as wine from the new 2008 crop, a harvest you can see in the picture taken by Christian Chiriaeff. In years to come I'd love to see our clients in pictures like this but for now I'm just happy that we can begin to be a part of the rejuvenation of this amazing place.

The 2008 harvest, "les vendanges" as its known in France, was completed after an unusually wet August in the region, which contributed to increased mildew and mold develpment in the grapes. Inspecting several of the small vineyards it was apparent that the overall yield would be down from previous years by as much as 70%. Still , handpicking and hand sorting should result in a wine that is superior to the machine picked product from many of the other vineyards in the area. Occurriung over approximately three weeks, the harvest happened through most of September and in some areas of the region, even into October. This contrasts with 2007 where the harvest began much earlier, in August in fact, and was more or less complete by mid-September.

Time alone will tell what levels of quality are to be achieved with this vintage but the Cooperative, although gloomy ont he prospect of volume, felt excited by the prospects for the new vintage. Mind you, there are few French winemakers who don't get excited even by the idea of the next vintage so, as I said, we'll see by December where it comes out.

The 2007 vintage is almost ready for bottling and we are in the throes of discussing both that and the challenges of shipping. There are a variety of logistical issues to work out as this is the first shipment we are making but I expect that all things will fall into place by December and shipments will be made in January from France by boat. I suspect I will hand deliver most of the commitments for the year so hold on to your hats as we enter into this exciting next phase of vineyard ownership....trying your own wine. For those that might want to have their own labels affixed we need to get them composed and produced no later than January I think depending ont he form of shipment. It is by the way, a pretty good first production, by all accounts and I look forward to sharing a glass of it with each of you.