It's all in the name

C and I drove out to the suburbs today to do a big grocery run (read: buy cheaper booze).  I was walking around the wine aisle looking for some whites & rosés for summer picnics, and came across this bottle:

It might not jump out at you, but the "Produit en Bretagne" label was the first thing I noticed.  See, I am a big fan of Loire Valley wines - give me basically anything from this map below, and I am a happy girl:

I like the rosés from Anjou, the reds from the Saumur area (Chinon, Bourgueil, Champigny), the sparkling wines from Vouvray and the whites from Muscadets Sèvre et Maine.  They're all versatile, reasonably-priced wines that merit being more well-known.

I think that part of the problem for the Muscadets in particular is that most people think of it as a sweet wine.  I often serve Muscadet sur lie for dinner, and people are always surprised, expecting it to be sweet - but that would be more so the Coteaux de Layon, just a little further east.

Having lived in Bretagne for five years, I also know practically zero wine is made in Brittany because of the lack of sun. Those of you who read my old blog may remember some of the many photos I posted leaving Nantes and heading towards Brittany - as soon as you exited the city limits, you'd almost systematically see black clouds ahead of you and sunshine behind.  So the "Made in Brittany" sign left me a little perplexed.

I must have looked it too, because one of the employees came over and asked if he could help.  I pointed out the sticker, and he basically said "And your point is?".  I replied "Well this wine doesn't come from Brittany, so it can't have that sticker on it".  He proceeded to insist that it did come from Brittany, and thus began a five minute argument about whether or not Nantes was part of Bretagne.

He maintained that the bottle could have the sticker because it was historically part of Brittany (something I'm sure Lilian would agree with :) ).  I maintained that because Nantes has not been the capital of Brittany for several hundreds of years, it should not have that sticker.  He started rambling on about Anne de Bretagne and the duchy, etc and I was like "Look buddy, Rennes has had the parliament of Bretagne since the mid-1500's...it's time to let it go."

Granted, I may be a bit biased too after all of those years in Bretagne - Nantes is considered to be the pushy older sister to Rennes and a lot of folks are quite happy to have it be part of another region, but still.    I guess it just irritates me to see them so stuck in the past.  I mean, half of North Dakota and South Dakota belonged to Minnesota at some point, and you don't see people in those regions insisting they still live in Minnesota (and those folks would actually have a reason to say that - their states suck!). 

We would probably still be there arguing about it now if C hadn't pulled me away, using the frozen food as an excuse.  Needless to say, that particular bottle of wine did not end up in our cart...

Some of you may remember that C's family has their own vineyard in St Emilion. One of his great aunts lives in Paris and has a gigantic stock in her cave, so we usually buy a few cases from her each year.  We got an email from her a while ago saying that she was hosting a wine tasting for the newly-bottled 2011 vintages, and we were welcome to attend. 

I'd had a long day of classes Friday & Saturday, but we don't often see C's family, so I still wanted to go. Plus they live in an uber fancy apartment in the 16th, and I love going there to picture what our life would have been like had C's parents not shunned their family's money.  I'm telling you guys, this apartment is nice - at least 120m2, lovely parquet floors, crown molding and antique furniture and art everywhere you look. I wouldn't necessarily want to live there, but I do like looking at it, and it definitely oozes old money.

There was some kind of incident on the line 6 that night, so I ended up going there straight from class, figuring that my semi-work attire would be appropriate enough for a family wine tasting. 

Boy, was I wrong.

We showed up, and first of all, we were the only people under 50. The women were all perfectly coiffed and wearing LBDs and pearl necklaces. The men were wearing blazers and ascots. All of this left me and C (who was wearing a nice button-down RL chemise and a sweater) looking like kids at the adult table on Thanksgiving.

When we came in, the aunt introduced us to everyone as the young newlyweds, and we were greeted with a few nods, but then everyone immediately went back to their conversations. We sort of stood there a bit until someone finally brought us a glass of the newly released wine.  We tried it and thought it tasted alright, though everyone around us kept murmuring about how it was too closed yet and need to age a few more years. 

We are definitely not wine experts.

We tried a few of the different 2009 and 2010 variations, and finally a Belgian couple came over to talk to us.  There were about ten minutes of awkward conversation - I mean, really, what could we have in common with a couple in their 50's living in the 16th?  They had three kids and the wife was a stay-at-home mom. The dad traveled a lot for work, so I tried engaging him about that for a bit, but it didn't really go anywhere, and they eventually made their way towards the door. 

And so did we after a few more glasses of wine and some fancy snacky foods. To top it off, as we walked out, the concierge peeked through her curtains and gave us a suspicious look, and I thought "Really? We are wearing respectable clothing and we both look completely harmless.  Was that really necessary lady?"

You know what, maybe we're not missing out on that much after all....

Minnesota wine (not an oxymoron)

While I was in the US, we took our European customers to a wine tasting at the local vineyard. 

First of all, yes, there are vineyards in Minnesota - in fact, according to the Minnesota Tourism board, there are now 39. The University of Minnesota Research center has developed several grape vines that can resist up to -30°F temps, which I think is pretty cool. Truth be told though, the wine they produce isn't really that great, though I think it may have more to do with the people mixing it than the grapes themselves.

But back to the wine tasting. We tasted a total of 13 different wines, and they were all awful. Terrible.  Now, to be honest, I'm not really a discriminating wine drinker. I can drink just about anything, but I still dumped 11 of the 13 out after just a sip. I'm pretty sure the Europeans dumped 13 of the 13 out. I even heard one of them say that he wouldn't even clean his paint brushes with that stuff.  I've been to this vineyard several times before, and while the wines weren't great, they were never this bad. Which left me wondering - is it a bad year, or have my tastes changed?

The following Saturday, my family and some co-workers all headed back there again for the annual Wine Stomp.  Now say what you may about their wine, but they have done a great job of promoting it with various events that occur all summer long - concerts, comedians, meals, etc - it just makes for a fun place to hang out on a warm summer evening.  And all of it culminates in September with the Wine Stomp, where teams of two people try to do just that - stomp on as many grapes as possible in 3 minutes in an attempt to produce the most "wine".

This year's theme was "Prom and Bridal Wear", meaning the contestants were supposed to show up in (duh) prom or bridal wear. They also had another wine tasting, with different wines than the ones they'd given us a few nights earlier.  A handful of them were at least drinkable, so I don't know why they chose to give the worst ones to people who are used to drinking higher quality wines...

Most of the women who showed up to do the wine stomp were in prom or bridesmaid dresses, but one was in her wedding gown. Afterwards, it was completely covered in grape stains.

It all reminds me of the recent "Trash the Dress" trend.  I just don't get it.  Why would you spend all that money on a dress (not to mention the amount of time spent looking for it), just to completely trash it? I mean, I get the symbolism of it, ie that you are married & will never use it again, or you don't want to store it forever, but still. Sell it to someone who can't afford it. Donate it to a woman's shelter. But why destroy it?  If anyone has done this, please feel free to share your reasoning if there's something I'm missing.

Unfortunately also while I was in the US, a 30yr old Canadian woman drowned while being photographed swimming in her dress in a river with strong currents.  The dress became so heavy and weighed down by the water that it dragged her under. It just seems so senseless and not worth it...

Wine-oh!

A few weeks ago, Anne posted about some of the crazy wine names popping up in the US. After a trip to the local liquor store last night, I saw all of those and more. I don't know about you guys, but these names almost turn me off.  Who wants to drink Fat Bastard wine??

Can you imagine bringing this one to a dinner party?  You'd leave the hostess wondering about your post-party intentions....

And don't even get me started on these bottles of Beaujolais Nouveau that were selling for a whopping $16.49 per bottle!

Lastly, this one isn't wine-related, but we went out to eat the other night, and I was sad to see that my favorite childhood drink now contains 0% juice.  That is crazy!  And so sad.

Things are *finally* advancing with the wedding plans since miracle of all miracles, I am home for four whole days in a row (and C has the week off- no surprises there).

The biggest news is....drumroll please.....despite Fab doing his best to stop us, we finally have a date!Woohoo!!!

We have also booked the restaurant, the photographer, hair & make-up "artists" and the cake-maker. The invitations are done and ready to be ordered. And today I am off to meet with someone regarding dress alterations. So to my great relief, a lot of the big stuff has been checked off the list.

Leaving time for some of the more "fun" things - liking heading over to the family wine depot in the 16th to decide which wines we want to serve. We came home with quite the selection to try - so come on over! (PS. Teresa, if you read this, please send me an email, I am still extremely curious about your connection to them!!)Lastly, on our way back from the cake tasting, I looked down to see this between our feet:Now if that's not a sign, I don't know what is!

State Fair à la française

I had a co-worker in town last week, so in an attempt to make him feel more at home, we went to check out the Salon de l'Agriculture. I'd never been before, but I spent many-a-summer at the Minnesota State Fair, so I was sort of curious to check it out, especially after seeing online that we could get in for free due to the nature of our work.

As expected, there were some monster cows (or bulls in this case). You only need to look at the people standing around them to see just how big they were - 1000+ kilos:
There was also this weird, hairless, pink species - if you cover up their heads, they almost look like pigs:
We had lots of chickens growing up, so then it was off to check out the poultry area:Where there was a surprising number of "prize pigeons", including a bunch with these abnormal growths:I'd been trying to convince C to come with, but he refused, saying it would be overcrowded with people. I thought "No....who would spend their Friday night at the Salon de L'Agriculture??"

I thought wrong:This is one of my favorite French sayings:Which may be why this little guy looks a bit worried:And then there was this poor lass, caught with her pants down:All in all, it was a fun night - we ate a lot of cheese, had a bit of booze* and came home smelling like a farm, as you would after any good State Fair.


*I was a bit disappointed though that the large majority of wine vendors here wouldn't give out free samples - you had to pay to try their wines, especially the champagnes. And they'd also jacked up the prices - most bottles were selling for 20+ euros. So I was very excited when I came across a stand run by my favorite Cave (located near Saumur) . As usual, they were very friendly & generous with their wine. I am always amazed by the quality of their product and by the low prices - we both walked away with two bottles for 10€. So if you're every in the area, I highly recommend stopping by...

I know I said no more alcohol during the week...

But how could I say no to menhir wine??

As a sort of recompense for my toils last week, C & I decided to do a bit of sight-seeing on our way back to Paris.

Our first stop was at the biggest dolmen in Europe, found just outside of Saumur. It's hard to tell from the picture, but it's gigantic - over 23m (75ft) tall and 18m (60ft) long. And C, who's over 6 feet tall, was able to stand up inside of it no problem. Not bad for a 5,000 year old structure, eh?Then it was on to Troglodyte country - some of you may remember that I visited some troglodyte caves around this time last year. Well this time around, we found some that had literally been built into the side of a mountain. Wouldn't this be a crazy place to live?
In between stops, we would our way through many a tiny, deserted village:
Stopping along the way to taste & purchase several different wines - among them were Saumurs, Chinons, Bourgeuils, and a magnum of Crémant de Loire for Thanksgiving dinner. We'll just say that I did most of the tasting and C did most of the driving. And luckily the more I drank, the less I minded the slow driving - it made for easier picture-taking anyways. :)
And lastly, what's a visit to the Loire Valley without a stop at a Chateau? I've been to most of the big castles here over the years, so this time we stopped at the Chateau d'Ussé - which is supposedly the castle that inspired the writing of Sleeping Beauty. I don't know if that's true, but it sure was a neat place to visit:And then it was back to Paris and the horrible traffic jams caused by the "snow" that day. I ended up driving since we were running short on time to return the rental car, and man - it was one of the most stressful things I've ever done. But I did it, and we made it back just in the nick of time. It's funny though, because there are a lot of great destinations within an easy drive of Paris - but the Parisian traffic is so bad we never want to go. Our travel time last week was doubled (4 hours instead of 2 hours) just because of the traffic. So how people commute everyday in IdF, I will never know!

Part II of "How to open a bottle of wine with no cork screw"

At at picnic the other night along the Seine, we found ourselves with several bottles of wine but no cork screw. A bunch of the guys started talking about a video they had seen on Youtube, showing how you can use a shoe and a wall to open the bottle. I sort of thought it was like that video showing the cell phones causing popcorn kernels to pop and was like "Yeah, Yeah" and went off to borrow one from some fellow picnickers.

Later on in the night though as we were walking home, we came along a group of guys who had just opened a bottle using that very same method. So it really does work - sorry Gui & Go for doubting you! Here's a quick videoing showing how it works:


Just look at the kind of useful things you can learn from my blog...

:)

A (long) weekend in Bourgogne

Bottles purchased: 54
Vineyards visited: 5
Wines tasted: too many to count
Hangovers: 2
Cities visited: 4
McDonalds eaten at: 2 (yuck- broke my ten year Macdo strike)

Fun had: too much to quantify

Thanks to the Justin for hosting us all!