Wine and Horses

October 15 (or 16?)

We stayed local this morning. We went to the other side of the village and stopped at the Beaumes-de-Venise wine co-op.

We got there, and Larry asked for a tasting. He had helped out as a volunteer in the tasting room before, so they told him, “You do it.” 

One of the things the co-op does is to separate the grapes into three groups, based on the characteristics of the type of soil where they are grown. One, called Ferisien, is grown in soil rich with grey marl that surfaced during the Upper Jurassic. Another, Bel Air, is from chalky limestone soil that’s a younger formation. The third, Trias, grows in the oldest soil, formed maybe 250 million years ago, that is rich in limestone and dolomite. Ferisien and Trias are both made from a blend of grenache, syrah, and mourvedre grapes. Bel Air is grenache, syrah, and cinsault.

The idea is to keep them as much alike as practical and let the flavor of the land show through. They are all wonderful, but if we had to choose just one, Larry and I both prefer the Trias. That comes in two versions, one aged in oak and one not.

Larry doesn’t like the oak aging. He says it tastes too much like vanilla. I like it and believe it’s the smoky flavor that I enjoy in many Bordeaux wines.

Claude actually cut time out of his schedule to take us on a tour of the place. I’m not going to recap it all, because I’m not sure my memory would be accurate anyhow. 

The co-op makes about 2 million bottles of wine a year. It is best known for a sweet muscat wine. When the wine reaches a certain point of fermentation, they dose it with almost pure neutral grape alcohol. This immediately raises the alcohol level to about 15 percent and kills the yeast to stop fermentation. That’s why it’s called a fortified wine and that’s why it’s fortified.

Wine ferments for a relatively short time, measured in weeks. The fermentation time varies according to things like sugar content of the grapes. Lots of other things, too. But I’m not a winemaker. I’m the guy walking through a winery for the first time.

The wine ages after fermentation has stopped. The co-op ages some wines in concrete tanks, others in stainless steel, and some in oak barrels, depending on the result it wants.

Joanna took a shot of some of the stainless vats, and it turned into a kind of inadvertent selfie.

The remains of the grapes were piled up outside for processing. There is still enough alcohol in them (you can smell it in the air) to make it worthwhile to extract it and sell it as industrial alcohol. Seeds become a source of grape seed oil, which is used for cooking. I think there are some other uses for the grape mulch, too. What remains goes back to the vineyard as fertilizer.

From the co-op we went back to the house for lunch. Larry heated up some rabbit cacciatore with linguine.

I got a little writing done, and then Wheels Leventhal had us on the road again.

We rode for a while on charming mountain roads, past a farm here, a village there, and then Larry put the car into a hard right. “I’ve been trying to get into this place. Let’s see if she’s here.”

I caught a glimpse of a sign with the word “cheval” on it. OK, so Larry has developed an interest in horses. 

But no, it was better than that. We drove up a stone road to a low house on the top of the hill. The house looked out over sloping grape vines and a granite bluff on the far side of the valley—well, canyon, really.

The tasting room was open, and we went in. Larry said something in French, and the lady behind the desk answered him in English. It turns out, Claude would tell us later, she comes from Germany.

Larry asked if we could taste some of her wines or if he should make an appointment for later. She shrugged. “I’m here now.” Hell, Joanna and I were game, but we were just along for the ride. Larry couldn’t believe his luck.

The lady’s name is Corinna, and she runs Martinelle, a small-scale artisanal winery in the village of Lafare.

There is a photo in the tasting room that was clearly taken just outside the door.

A man is working at the top of the vineyard, and you can see the rock face in the background. He is cutting weeds from between the vines using a device pulled by a horse. According to Corinna, he speaks to the horse in old Provençal.

Most of the vines are in the Ventoux growing area. A minority are in Beaumes-de-Venise. Some of her wine is a mix of the two. That violates government rules on appellations, so she has to call it wine of France, and isn’t permitted to put a vintage year on the label. 

She gives the wine a new name each year. We sampled a bit of Deuxieme, or 12th.  I wonder what year those grapes are from? The same mix from the year before is Onzieme, or 11th.

We had some other wines from ’11 and ’12, and Larry was remarking how one of the wines had aged quickly. Corinna looked up and said something’s wrong. I thought it was great, but what do I know?

According to Corinna, the cork had let oxygen into the bottle and aged it too quickly. She opened another bottle of the same wine and asked us to pour out what was left in our glasses. She set the cork aside to study it later.

This is where it got over my head. Larry showed me. You hold your glass at an angle over a white surface, and if the edge of the wine is dark, that’s a sign of immaturity. A lighter rim color is a sign of aging. I think I saw it, but can’t be sure.

I don’t know that my palate is sensitive enough to pick up much difference between those two bottles. It was all great wine, so Larry bought one of each bottle she had for sale, five in all.

He put the box, clearly marked "Martinelle," on the dinner table so Claude would see them when he came in. He saw them, all right, and his reaction was clear.

I can’t be sure that he actually said “ou-la-la,” but that’s what came across.

The photo of the day is Joanna and Larry collaborating on dinner, which was lamb shoulder. It went well with the 2010 Cantarelle and a 2008 Chateauneuf du Pape that we bought, in all places, at the local supermarket. 

I have to go drink wine now, so I’m signing off.

Love to all.

Harry

Oct. 16

Hi folks,

Perhaps I shouldn't be such a "budinsky," as my mother would have said, but sometimes I just can't help myself.

Let me first say, both Harry and Joanna are making quite an impression on our most gracious hosts. They are almost as excited as I am to have them here. Not only have they proven to be excellent company, but their enthusiastic reactions to almost everything is infectious.

I should also point out, just to clarify, that the "terroir series" (Bel Air, Farisien, and Trias) I poured for Harry at the co-op's high-style tasting room and retail space are actually dry red wines. Beaumes de Venise is best known for sweet wine, but also has an official appellation classification for its very nice reds.

And the trip to visit Corinna was very exciting for me. I've been hearing about her and her wines for months, but never got a chance to visit. Harry and Joanna were very patient with me and my wine obsession. I fell in love with both the wine and the woman (too bad for me she's married).

And in the photo, Joanna is actually helping me make the daube, a traditional Provençal beef stew, which won't be served until Sunday night. It's best when cooked and re-heated several times.

More importantly, our hosts are most excited that Joanna will be cooking a Chinese dinner for us tomorrow (Friday) night. My guess is it will soon be the talk of Beaumes de Venise!

I hope you all are lucky enough to visit this beautiful place someday!

Best wishes to all!

Harry's (and now Joanna's) humble sherpa,

Larry