By Emma Krasov, photography by Emma Krasov
Cultivé dans le Sud de France
Sun-drenched and fertile, Languedoc region produces all kinds and colors of wine known to contemporary man – red, white, rosé, sparkling, mildly sparkling (cremant), dry, naturally sweet, and fortified. Sud de France brand includes over six thousand foods and wines brought to the local, national, and international markets by almost two thousand producers whose number is constantly growing.
On my recent trip to France
Traversing the region with a group of my compatriot wine enthusiasts I met plenty of wine and food growers in picturesque local towns and villages whose life seemed full of joy, and whose work looked pleasurable and easy.
Collias Gourmet
In the village of Collias , our group visited Domaine des Cabotines whose owners not only produce wine, but also educate the public in their L’Ecole des plaisirs Bachiques (“School of Bacchus
The school offers 2-hour group lessons for those who want to know their wine – or to know it better.
Our lesson consisted of a short lecture, some taste bud prep work, and some bottle and barrel tasting, and was taught by Natalie, who came from the Natalie showed us how to evaluate by eye, nose, and mouth the wine we were about to consume, and made us try some water with salt, sugar, citric acid, and quinine, so we could better understand what part of our palate is engaged in distinguishing different tastes.
When it came time to try some of the wines produced by the Domaine des Cabotines, my favorite was 2009 Liberte de Pansee (“Freedom of Thought”) – 50% Syrah and 50% Grenache; matured for 20 month 60% in French oak and 40% in stainless steel; ruby-red; black cherry on the nose; prunes, cherry, spice and pepper on the palate; full-bodied, strong, dense, but not sharp, with round tannins, and young enough to be kept in a bottle for 3 to 5 years.
After thoroughly tasting and analyzing this and other wonderful wines, we walked happily to the Le Castellas Hostellerie – an exquisitely renovated hotel in the 17th century building in the heart of Collias.
Visitors to Nîmes, Pont du Gard and Uzès like to stop for lunch at the hotel’s restaurant, Le Castellas, ruled by the Two Michelin star Chef Jérôme Nutile.
Seated outside, in a cozy patio under blossoming wisteria, we were served by an impeccably dressed team of waiters in black suits, white shirts, and salad-green ties. Our first course was also green, but mere words cannot describe the beauty of it.
Let me start with the amuse bouche though. It was delivered on a doll-house cutting board and contained tiny flat bread with rosemary; a Lilliputian fritter of pork feet with tartar sauce; liquid chicken liver cream in a shot glass; mini Madeleine cake with anchovies; lollipop pizza on a toothpick, and a little purple macaroon with black olive jam.
A glass of local Viognier accompanied this bacchanalia of delights.
Our bright-green first course was made of haddock ravioli stuffed with a mixture of brandade (salt cod – a specialty of Nîmes); chicken wings, and mussels (sounds strange, but enormously delicious) in a velvety-green watercress bouillon. The meat course (veal with foie gras sauce, wild mushrooms and summer vegetables in walnut oil) was paired with the red Vin de Pays Duché from Uzès – a beloved local blend of Grenache, Syrah, and Carignan.
A traditional Floating Island dessert was served in a dough cup filled with whipped egg-whites and roasted almonds, surrounded by a lake of vanilla cream over rhubarb confit and Gariguette strawberries, and crowned with a pink caramel tangle. The screws of Saint-Gilles
The road to Saint-Gilles is an endless mosaic of green vineyards, silvery olive groves, and blossoming red poppies – “the fields of dreams.”
The town is named after a saint who lived here as a hermit and whose tomb attracted thousands of pilgrims, resulting in a construction of an abbey in the Middle Ages. The ruins of the Abbey of Saint-Gilles are famous for the surviving Vis de Saint-Gilles – a spiral staircase considered to be a masterpiece of medieval masonry, a.k.a. “screw.”
I found subtle irony in what looked like its modern-day replica in a local double-hotel Mas du Versadou and Château la Pompe, located on the former property of the abbey, where our group landed for the night.
Standing in the spacious living room of the Château la Pompe, generously decorated with modern art (some produced by the hotel owners) I looked up from the base of a metal corkscrew staircase leading to my bedroom. There was no way both my hips and my luggage would fit into a space between the spiral railing and the pole around which it wound up. The same thoughts visibly occupied my fellow travelers who were contemplating three other “screws” in the other corners of the room.
Gallantly, our host took our luggage upstairs, and brought it back down before our departure, but I still can’t imagine how he did that.
In the morning I had a chance to see the many other curiosities of the historical property – a bamboo-lined canal that runs between the two buildings, with ducks and koi; open-air swimming pools, fountains and outdoor sculptural compositions; a couple of free-roaming peacocks; and the hotel’s own Roman baths, made out of several gigantic wine vats placed next to each other, equipped with plumbing, and appropriately furnished and decorated. 
Our breakfast of freshly-baked croissants, home-made jams, coffee, and orange juice in glass amphorae was served in Mas du Versadou, filled with family heirlooms, in a narrow dining room with a long table, Romanesque chairs, and multi-colored glassware, called Roman Tavern. 
Both hotel buildings and the land around are owned and operated by husband and wife Marie and Michel Durand-Roger, who were previously engaged in winemaking. 
Some of their neighbors combine their vine-growing business with hospitality, renting out a couple of rooms during tourist season, and offering home-cooked dinners made of local specialties. 
We had a memorable wine-tasting seminar and a delicious catered dinner at Le Château La Baume (“the cave”), originally built as a guest house to accommodate the pilgrims of Saint-Gilles. The current owners of Le Château La Baume, Sandrine and Jean-François Andreoletti, produce white, red, and rosé wines with an image of an ancient Roman statue of Bacchus, the god of winemaking, on the label. 
The original Bacchus statue graces the tasting room of the property that leads to the cave – the 18th century mansion occupies a site of an excavated Gallo- Roman villa. At dinner, our gracious hostess Sandrine treated us to a succession of excellent wines with the Bacchus label, and explained the intricacies of the fermentation and blending methods employed by her husband, a fifth-generation winemaker.
In Sandrine’s kitchen, chef Eric Hugnin prepared a traditional Saint-Gilles meal for us – mixed greens salad with blue cheese; slow-cooked beef with Camargue rice and sage; and a dessert of local strawberries and cream.Cassoulet de Languedoc
Speaking of traditional dishes, cassoulet is the most notorious of them in the Languedoc region, and we had a pretty good one at Les Calicots restaurant in the town of Fabrezan
The real cassoulet is prepared the night before, and involves soaking of the beans, simmering of the broth made with pork feet, shank, and rinds, various meats cooked in duck fat, and presumably preparing your own duck confit and lamb sausage several months prior. Well-aware of my limitations as a home cook, I tried to order cassoulet in almost every restaurant we visited, and loved each one of them.
That night, we stayed at a large and well-appointed hotel Les Jardins de Saint Benoit in the After a night of undisturbed sleep in the fresh country air, and a filling breakfast in the hotel’s sunlit dining room, I felt too relaxed and carefree to remember that I left some local treats which I bought as a gift for my family, in a fridge in my cottage.
I called Les Jardins de Saint Benoit the next day, and a friendly staffer mailed my package to my home address in California, delivering the sweetest memories of Languedoc right to my doorstep.
More information:
www.us.franceguide.com Atout France
www.airfrance.us Air France
www.sunfrance.com Languedoc-Roussillon Regional Tourism Office
www.tourismegard.com Gard Department Tourism Office
www.audetourisme.com Aude Department Tourism Office
0 comments:
Post a Comment