Bonjour, Kelly!

degustation

One constant concern for me is "how will i get all of this stuff back?" It is a worthwhile concern, especially since I've focused on aquiring an entire kitchen full of extremely breakable glasses and dishes. I thought (for a moment) that maybe I'd just have to suck it up and not bring any wine back -- then I recovered from my temporary, blinding insanity and assumed my normal attitude: Hell, I'll just buy it now and figure out what to do with it later! Thank god we're always in the present, so I'll never have to deal with "later"...right?

Right! Wow, what a relief. Otherwise, I'd be pretty pissed at myself for bogging myself down with a half case of wine, purchased after TWO full days of tastings.

On saturday, I went to Menetru-le-Vignoble to visit the open house (celebrating the beginning of the tourist season) of the Houville's neighbors.
This is taken from the winemaker-neighbor's house -- shown is chez houville.

Oh, this is at 6 in the evening. We actually sat on chairs outside, so that we could drink our wine in the sun.

Everyone there, besides me, was local. Really, it was an excuse for the neighbors to hang out, take a glass (as they say), and stock up their cellars before the tourists hit town. Everyone there knew that I was the American friend of the Houvilles -- even the mayor came over to say hello. I was hoping for some key-to-the-city ceremony marking my visit...but that's only because I'd like to wear one of those french-flag sashes that people don for such occasions.





I bought two bottles of a Cote du Jura, a Macvin, and a vin jaune (Chateau-Chalon appelation, bien sur).

Mmm! Just looking at that barrel makes my mouth water. Macvin is truly a splendid thing. It's a drink made with vin de paille, a raisin wine which ferments very quickly. They add Marc, a whiskey-like eau de vie, to stop the fermentation. Macvin is the standard aperitif here and boy howdy, it is tasty.

Afterwards, I learned that it's hard to take a picture of a fast-moving great dane. It's downright scary to try playing with one.



On sunday, a group of english assistants from Montbeliard came down for a visit. We spent half the day in Arbois, the next town over from me. Wine is the main industry there, made obvious by the fact that every other store sells wine. It was a fun, lovely day. We ended up spending most of our time at one producer -- the guy seemed really put off when we first entered, probably because we seemed like a bunch of American kids looking for a free buzz. Luckily, I could break out the Poligny cred (it actually does work here - people treat you totally differently when you're local) and any shred of Jura wine knowledge to help establish the fact that we were more than willing to drop our measly incomes on alcohol. The best part of the day was that I, for a few hours, was actually fluent in French. And it was before the wine even kicked in!

posted by kelly @ 8:33 AM