Archive for February 2009
Isabella's glad to see her dad after a week awayI am sitting at my desk sipping a most unusual wine and one that's a sure fire contender for The Daily Drinker. Victoria's gone out to play tennis, the children are in bed asleep and I have taken the opportunity to open a sample bottle. It's one I've t…
Old vines beneath, moody sky above and in between a very pretty Provencal town, the name of which, sadly, escapes me. This view was captured half a mile down the road from Tempier and the vineyards are those of BandolAt last I have time to sit down and compose the final blog of my week in France. I…
Steam cleaning a tron conique at BeaucastelI had a moment of clarity yesterday morning on the way to Gigondas. We had stopped to snap off a few photographs - the sun's rays breaking through the lowering cloudbank; the morning light falling on a distant church: all very Wordsworthian stuff - when I s…
The view from the top of The Dentelles de Montmirail above GigondasDinner last evening was taken at Le Sommelerie, one of the two best hotels in and around Chateauneuf-du-Pape. On the road to Roquemaure, one can be assured, within its walls, to experience good food and a testing period of rumination…
La Mere Germaine: a fine Chateauneuf establishmentIt's been a mild day in the southern Rhône and a damp one, yet it's amazing how the best wines can dissolve the heaviest cloudbank, at least metaphorically.It's good to be back in Orange and, of course, to be exploring the wines of Châtea…
