How to Shop for Wine in the South of France
Summer in Provence is awash in delicious local fruits. On this visit our favorites were the outstanding variety of cherry called “belge” which tasted like solid wine. But the favorite for hundreds of years is a small cantaloupe known as the cavaillon melon. Traditionally the melons are cut in half, de-seeded, and filled with cold sweet wine — Muscat de Beaumes de Venise or Rasteau vin doux naturel — before serving:
Rasteau’s sweet wines, which have held this appellation since 1944, come in all three colors – red, white and rose – and also a golden-brown oxidized style referred to as Rasteau Rancio. Rancio is a term used in several languages to describe wines which have been deliberately exposed to oxygen or heat (Madeira is produced in this way). All are made in the style of vin doux naturel (naturally sweet wine), which is produced by using pure grape spirit to stop fermentation while there is still a significant quantity of sugar remaining. This process results in a sweet wine with a higher alcohol level (around 16% in this case).
All Rasteau sweet wines are made from 90% Grenache (this can be Grenache Blanc, Grenache Gris or Grenache Noir) and 10% of any other grape sanctioned by the Cotes du Rhone appellation laws. In the case of the sweet reds, the fermentation takes place with extended skin contact, whereas for white and rose sweet wines the juice is separated from its skin and pips prior to fermentation. The Rancio wines are aged for a minimum of 12 months, during which time they are deliberately allowed to oxidize as the wine naturally evaporates from the barrel.
Should you be lucky enough to find some foie gras to eat, these two sweet wines are the preferred complement to them in this area.
Lovely article. We were in Normandy last year and for me, admittedly not much of a food-and-wine connoisseur, it was heaven. I don’t think it’s possible to imbibe badly there- just too much!
Here’s how I shop for wine in France:
1. Go to the grocery store. Any one will do.
2. Go to the wine department.
3. Buy wine where you can clearly see the locals have already taken a bottle or two of that brand off the shelf.
4. I do draw the line at pumping my wine into my own container (like gasoline), but I like the novelty of it.
5. Enjoy!
avoid supermarkets wines, we don’t know how they were stocked
the best is to buy it direct from the productors’s caves (less expensive), otherwise, there are special stores, where a connaisseur can advise you
Of course supermarket wines may be not the best, but if you compare with supermarket wine from other countries (Italy, for instance) the French supermarket wines are a lot better. Not that I dislike wine from Italy, they have very good ones too, but only comparing the “Supermarket” wine, French are the best in that one.
Why does the baloney persist about wine? Like anything, you tend to get what you pay for. The ludicrous poseurs, often but not always French, rarely survive a blind tasting but on they go, yadda yadda yadda, arrogant, ignorant and ludicrous.
The ‘best’ supermarkets everywhere in Europe rarely stock anything costlier than non-vintage and young vintages. Certainly, the wine receives nothing like the care Costco gives to its older vintages. You simply need to watch how the shelves are stocked in Europe to know how true that is — and to be sure that what you can’t see (shipment, warehousing) can hurt you. It usually doesn’t, though, since non-vintage wines neither need nor receive careful cellar treatment, especially the whites — just temperature control. And a bulk buyer, and sometimes a specialized shipper, will almost always undercut the vineyard price.
How to find the best buys in the most civilized environment, with a min. of attitude, if you find yourself in SW France? Head on S through the Pais Vasco, then on to La Rioja.
Yes, Dana. It’s great fun and you can find good wine at good prices almost everywhere there.
There is a typo in the final caption. It should read Domaine du Mourchon,
I lived near Avignon nearly 15 years ago. I’m no wine afficianado, but simply went along with the locals I knew there. I never bought wine in a bottle. We took jugs to big places(?) and filled up for a few francs (ah, those were the days) from big, gleaming tanks of some kind. Is this another instance of the-truck-drivers-know-the-best-places-to-eat story being bogus?
Jacobite,Had I had time I wanted to go to one of those big wine coops nearby where the growers bring their grapes which are tossed into a press and fermented in giant tanks to be sold in plastic jugs (dirt cheap ) for table wine. I’m sorry time didn’t permit.I know pictures of that would have been fun to see.
Brava, Mme. Feldman! Superb article.
Provence travel tip: Never buy any wine sold like gasoline or in a plastic box. The local coop wines are the French equivalent of Coke and just as sophisticated. We found a good correlation between price and quality, starting around EUR 20.
Alas! A long article too short. A lovely writer and a magnificent subject.