Domaine Henry Vertical Piss-up

December is the time of Christmas fairs, vineyard open houses and lots of fun and jolly japes.

I went to one such last Sunday with pal B. Domaine Henry was having a vertical tasting. Hands up those who know what a vertical tasting is as opposed to a horizontal one... My hand would have been firmly stuffed in my pocket before this weekend, rest assured, but I can now speak with confidence about such winey events...

If a vineyard is holding a horizontal tasting, you'll be offered all the bottles from their different production lines for one year. A vertical one is the same line over several years. See?

So we were tasting the Chaille range from 1998 to 2006. It is considered their 'tête de cuvée'. Chaille is silex (slate?) and the particular quality of the wine derives directly from the quality of the land as well as the cépages (Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre). The vendange is done manually and its matured in casks and cuves over 24 months.

We started with the youngest and worked our way chronologically backwards. These wines have the most incredibly fragrant 'nose', full of blackcurrant and other red fruits. If the quality is not considered sufficiently high, no Chaille wine is produced and the wine just goes into the Domaine Henry normal range. For this reason years 2002-2004 were absent.

The 2005 was an exceptional year and the wine was full-bodied, silky with a whole range of in-mouth sensations. I also particularly enjoyed the 1999 although the first bottle we tried tasted corked. We drew our host's attention to this sorry state of affairs and while much tasting and smelling went on, eventually it was conceded that perhaps it wasn't quite right, but it wasn't corked... Bottle two was exquisite...

We accompanied our wine tasting with bread tasting. A local artisan baker/chocolatier had come along with various breads to try, soak up the alcohol and hopefully sell along with a selection of chocolates one of which had been created to go especially with the Passerille late harvest wine.
It's a sweet wine, uncut by alcohol, fabricated along the lines of a Sauterne. It costs a bomb but is one of the most delicious liquids you could ever hope to make it past your lips. Goes marvellously with chocolate and Christmas pudding.

Because it's so difficult to make, it's very rare, hence its price, but if you ever get the chance, do try it. You certainly won't regret it and the sumptuousness of the sensations you'll experience will stay with you for a long time!

M Henry, besides being a dedicated vigneron, is also a keen historian. He has also developed the renowned Mailhol wine which "is a reconstitution of St Georges d'Orques wine in the 18th century, made from the grape varieties of this period (which have been forgotten since the phylloxera epidemic). In 1710 this "Cru" was often compared to the Cote de Nuits wines... After patiently searching the archives, in 1998 we planted a vineyard with these forgotten grape varieties such as 'œillades' and 'aspiran'. All work was done exactly as in the past (crowded planting, harvest time, vinification, ageing of the wine)."

The result is an amazing, fresh, fruity wine which is totally different to traditionally made wines of the present. I love the stuff. Unfortunately, it's 35Eur a bottle... We were lucky enough to try straight from the cuve a sip of the 2007 millésime. It promises to be an absolute stunner because it already sends your taste buds jumping for joy...

Last of the big spenders me, I just bought a loaf of pain aux lardons and said a sad good-bye to both the Mailhol and the Passerille. Times are hard...

Drowning in Town

The title's a bit dramatic, isn't it? I suppose it must be my melodramatic side coming out, but it did feel like it yesterday afternoon. Not drowning in rain, but drowning in a sea of people.

I strongly dislike crowds. If I were to be asked in a survey about my feelings towards crowds based on numbers one to seven where one is 'Don't give a shit' and seven is 'Strongly dislike', I'd go for eight 'For fuck's sake, get me outta here!'

So, what the hell was I doing in town on a Saturday afternoon, Dec 1, Christmas shopping countdown, nice weather, etc.? Well, it was the annual Fête du Vin and it's traditional for me to go with pal B from work. So I braved the hoards of overly made-up teenage girls, hoody-clad youths, raving university students and others of a more normal allure.

We started off buying Advent calenders for the boys. Not ones with crappy chocoloate in, or Playmobil bits 'n' bobs, or Action Man or any other completely manipulative attempt to spend even more dosh on our little darlings BEFORE Christmas. No, I found two which relate the story of Christmas, you know, the one with Mary and Joseph. It's difficult to remember the point of Christmas these days...

Having been successful, we then made our way to the wine glasses booth to buy our wine glass and 3 tokens for the princely sum of 2Eur. You're supposed to give a token each time you taste the wine, but many producers allow one token for two people, or even one token for two people tasting their full range! We like those places best!

As night fell, the whole of the Place de la Comedie twinkled and sparkled, not only with the tasteful Christmas lights, but the effect of the wine in people's eyes. The atmosphere was terrific with merry folk happy that they were not being ripped off, happy that they had fabulous wine to taste and happy that they could enjoy themselves outside in a temperate climate mooching from booth to booth without freezing or getting soaked.

We tasted at three excellent booths: Domaine Desvabre at Montferrier sur Lez (just down the road), Domaine Henry at St Georges d'Orques (our fave) and Domaine de Pailletrice at Perols. We also tried some organic white wine which tasted like vinegar so I won't bother to mention them.

Domaine Desvabre had a delicious light red which can be drunk in summer, lightly chilled instead of rosé. I must admit it was very good, and not a poor excuse for a heavier red which you have to chill to take away the bitter taste!

Domaine Henry produces the fabulous Mailhol wine made with ancient cépages using ancient techniques. It's different, authentic and beautifully fruity.

Domaine de Pailletrice was this year's 'find'. Everything we tasted had won a medal and quite rightly too. You have to go their domaine to buy the wine. I gathered that it's not commercialised through wine outlets.

So, having drowned in the sea of humanity, we then pickled ourselves with a tip top selection of wine, and rounded off our fun afternoon with dinner at L'Entretemps, 4 rue du Puits des Esquilles in Montpellier (04.67.58.97.42). We had the menu at 30Eur which was a winner with a varied array of delicate dishes including foie gras, scallops, magret de canard, gazpacho and apple Speculoos crumble. The waitress is an odd looking lass - face piercings all over the place, totally baggy trousers and a Mao-type shirt. Pal B said this meant only one thing... and she did only really address me...
Recommended (86Eur for two including wine and aperitif).

Great Christmas Feasting 2006

I always love hearing what other people eat at Christmas and have been reading some salivating accounts of scrumptious dishes on various blogs. Here, therefore is my version of the Great Christmas Feasting 2006.

Christmas Eve took place chez NG who describes herself as a French hybrid and declares she makes the best foie gras in the county. We were pretty keen to test her out, although, to be honest I do not have much to compare with as I usually buy pots of the stuff already prepared. NG has been giving elegant dinner parties forever and can not only prepare delicious food, but she presents it beautifully on one of those perfectly decorated tables. We felt very 'Home & Garden'.

Christmas Eve/Réveillon Dinner was thus :

• An aperitif of nibbles of guacamole, and salmon mousse with linseed bread; magret de canard snippets on sticks, and fine champagne.
• We then moved to the work of art that was the table, and started with mise en bouche. Before she developed a very nasty bone disease, NG used to make these exquisite mouthfuls set in tiny dishes herself, but cannot now do this because the fiddliness of putting them together is too much for her painfully swollen finger joints.
• These were followed by her famous foie gras mi-cuit which, I have to say, was simply utterly delicious. It was rich, but wasn't greasy, and at the same time had a wonderful finesse of taste with perfumes that were revealed in the aftertaste as it slipped silkily down the hatch.
• When the champagne bottle was empty, we continued with one of my three bottles of Chateau Margaux, which, as it came into contact with the palette, vied with the foie gras in silkiness. It's not often we drink such wine, and it was thus all the more appreciated as a rare pleasure.
• Dinner continued with gravlax and giant prawns, salade de magret de canard et noix, and freshly baked rolls from the artisan boulanger over the road. A heart-shaped camembert au lait cru preceeded dessert of exotic fruit salad, a pleasantly refreshing end to the meal.

We ate, not at midnight, but around 8pm which meant we could all get a decent night's sleep having digested properly.

Christmas Day's lunch was at my house and traditionally English. The table was laid with the best porcelaine, crystal and cutlery; remnants of wedding gifts, on an overtly Christmassy table cloth in red, green and gold thread. Festive although lacking a certain finesse...

• We started with Florida Cocktail. To this traditional Hague version of fresh segments of orange and grapefruit we added fresh lychees for the RA. It is simply the best way to prepare for the onslaught of the rest of the meal. Refreshing, cleansing, and you should always eat fruit at the start of a heavy meal rather than the end to stop it fermenting in your stomach.
• The roast turkey was stuffed with a French farce of chestnuts tossed in cream with fried shallots and doused liberally with cognac. I placed bacon slices over the breast until it was time to brown the skin, and cooked it at 190°C for around 2.5hrs plus resting time. It came out moist and perfectly cooked.
• The turkey was accompanied by Nigella Lawson recipes of roast potatoes dusted with semolina, parsnips roasted with maple syrup, and her wonderful sprouts dish with fried bacon, chestnuts, cognac and parsley. I strongly recommend this way to eat sprouts. It has to be the best way ever! We also had a purée of potato and celeriac; bread sauce, gravy, steamed broccolli, chipolatas, and devils on angels' horseback made with prunes we'd soaked in cognac for 12 hours. There was a certain themed ingredient to our meal as you can see...
• Pudding was the classic super scrumptious one and only English Christmas Pudding! We served it with... cognac butter, and cream.
• To drink, we started with champagne, finished the end of the Margaux from the previous day, and continued with the Mailhol from Domaine Henry that we had bought during the Fête de Vin. We opened the Passerille to go with the pudding, and were pleased to note that it went beautifully.

We had a gastronomic feast, making the most out of both French and English traditions. Isn't that the best way to live?

Taking that which is good wherever you find it?

A glass in the hand...

Last week the Telegraph and The Times both ran articles on the health benefits of drinking wine from the Gers in France, and Nuoro province in Sardinia. Apparently these wines contain high levels of tannat grapes which are themselves especially rich in procyanidins. These

offer the greatest degree of protection to human blood-vessel cells. Pro-cyanadins suppress production of endothelin-1, a protein that constricts blood vessels.

Happily, the Telegraph wine correspondant gives us a list of wines from the Gers region available in the UK so there is no excuse for Brits not to live happily, healthily and inebriated. Drunkenness is a state that large numbers seek to find on a regular basis. Now they can find it and know they'll live to be 90 in the process...

Having recovered from the blind Bordeaux tastings of last week, I was looking forward to the annual piss-up put on by the Montpellier Agglomeration to promote Agglo wine: the Fête des Vignes. This event has been going on now for three years and I'm proud to be able to tell you I have been to every one. At the first, I discovered the wines of Domaine Henry at St Georges d'Orques. From the dazzling array of choice presented to me that first year, I selected a domaine to taste based on the photo in the publicity pamphlet of M Henry and his wife. It showed them looking at each other and smiling fondly, even lovingly, and this is what cinched it. With such a loving atmosphere, the wine could only be good. And it was.

Yesterday, time was running short by the time we got to the Place de la Comedie and we were not able to spend ages lazily working our way through the tokens presented to us together with the dégustation glass which we bought for 2€.

I did not have a lot of time to go into town to enjoy myself, but we had to go and the prospect of the wine tasting was extremely attractive, so we took the tram, bought our tokens and glasses and headed east. Our first stop was at the Domaine Verchant. I had received excellent reports of this place from NG who had been there for the launch of a beer made of wine, as one of the artists invited to compete to provide the producers with art for the labels. She had brought back a bottle of the rosé which was simply scrumptious. We tried the other reds which, despite being vin de pays, were excellent. When I made this observation, I was told that the vineyard had been taken on by the present owners only recently, and they wanted to experiment with their production which would not be possible if they had the AOC constraints right from the start.

From what they had produced to date, it is obvious they are on the right path to succulent excellence.

Next stop was Domaine Henry to say hello and indulge in a little taster of their totally gorgeous wines. This is the producer of the Renaissance wine I wrote about last year; the Mailhol. M Henry was offering the 2003 with a bottle of the Passerille for a special Fête des Vignes price. This is how the Passerille is described:

Très grand vin rare, il est le premier rouge moelleux français non muté. Elaboré à la manière d’un Sauternes, c’est un vin de folie, à commencer par les rendements, de l’ordre d’un unique verre par souche !

The stuff is very pricey, but we will be in France for Christmas this year, and I decided it would be a terribly good idea to drink de tels merveilles as part of the celebrations.

We did not stay long but we did make excellent use of the time we had available!