Eating in France (Part 2 of 2)

Post 2 of 2, which will be devoted entirely to my amazing dinner at the home of Francoise and Pascal of Coupe Roses. See post #1 on my old blog by following this link...

http://whatteats.blogspot.com/2006/02/eating-in-france-part-1-of-2.html

We get into the town of La Caunette at a decent hour, check into our hotel, and unpack. We then walk right across the street to Francoise and Pascal's fire pit. As many of you know, I'm not the biggest seafood fan. They've got mussels and oysters, sardines and prosciutto. And white and rose wine. I devour the pork and wine. Fantastic. It's cold out, but the fire is toasty warm...

We then walk across town (the fire pit at the office and Francoise and Pascal's home are literally at opposite ends of town, but it takes less that 10 minutes to get there). Pascal opens a bottle of 1978 Calvados as we all have a little pre-meal aperetif.

With dinner, we taste all their current release red wines (which are all exceptional), the 04 Bastide, 04 Vignals, 03 Granaxa, and 03 Orience).

The meal is the real treat, though. But I am getting ahead of myself...

Before the Calvados, even before the fire pit, we are given a tour of some of the vineyards. We head up in their 4 wheel drive vehicles, as our station wagons will not make it. In advance, I have rough roads in mind, but we end up totally off road, on a limestone cliff, overlooking the town and other Minervois vineyards. I can't believe grapes grow here. Rocks, rocks, and more rocks. No dirt anywhere to be seen. Pascal shows us around 3 vineyard plots, one that is newly cleared, one young vine grenache vineyard, and the vineyard shown here, a roughly 5 year old parcel of Syrah. Pascal tells us how the wild hares nibble the shoots of the vines and cause some real damage, and that their vineyard worker shoots them upon sight. Notice the little green bushes between and under the vines? Herbs. There is thyme, rosemary, and lavender (among other things) growing wild in the vineyard. Amazing.

So, back to dinner....

We're all sitting around, drinking. I am fairly sure there is a salad served, but my notes do not reflect it. There is also bread. Pascal's buddy is a farmer, and he is growing this ancient, nearly extinct grain. Pascal got some, and made bread that day for our dinner from it.

And then, the main course. "Lievre de nos Vignes, au Granaxa." Yep, Wild hare from Our Vines, with Grenache. Mmm. So, the vineyard guy had shot three hares that morning (roughly 3 to 4 kg each). These were put into is pot, and a stew was made. Potatoes, onions, herbs from the vineyard, hare from the vineyard, and wine from the vineyard. Talk about a sense of place. Stunning. Bones and a little buckshot. I certainly had seconds tonight.

Then the cheese plate (platter is more like it) arrives at the table. Believe it or not, I am getting a little cheesed out at this point, so I pick the 2 most interesting looking goat cheeses and take a little. Pascal is sitting next to me, and asks if I feel sick. I say no, why, and he says I don't have enough cheese. He begins cutting giant hunks of cheese, cow, goat, sheep, and putting them on my plate. I haven't had this much cheese in a long time. It is all very good, and accompanied by more the the ancient grain bread.

Finally, dessert. Oreitta. Not sure I've got this name correct. I know it derived from the French for ear (oreille), but it certainly had a 't' in it. At any rate, it was an elephant ear. Francoise's mother had made these for us, so we were instructed to eat until they were gone. And there were a lot. We all had 2 or 3, and there was still a half a box left. We didn't finish them off, obviously.

I left in great spirit and slept like a baby until the alarm went off in the morning, and we were back on the wine road...

All horizontal photos by me, all vertical photos from Mike Daniels (east coast, represent).