Wednesday 11 July 2012

Wine with Wendy


Wendy Gednes runs a wine tasting /touring company called Vin en Vacances, http://www.vinenvacances.com/   and I was lucky enough to go on one of her day trips last week.


Wendy spends the summer based in Caunes  and organises very special wine tasting tours in the whole Languedoc Roussillon area. In fact, if you want to go somewhere else….she’ll design a tour for you. Her expertise is amazing and her enthusiasm is infectious. I had a great day. This isn't an advert honestly.



We began in Caunes, and travelled towards Perpignan. There were 3 of us on the trip, along with Wendy, and her commentary as we drove past vineyards of the Minervois and Corbierres  was just like a chat among friends. However, with great subtlety,  almost incidentally,  she told us about the terroirs and the political and economic  ( and religious) influences that had affected the growing of vines and the production of wine in the area.
                              

Our first stop was at what Wendy called a “ garigista wine maker” in Maury. Corin and Jayne  Fairchild run a small operation, or at least that is what it looked like from the garage door  entrance to the winery. Hearing about their numerous vineyards however made us realise it was not just a little back garden operation.



Corin  shared his passion for making beautiful wine and showed us the various stages of wine making, enthralling us with tales of hailstorms, local jealousies amongst wine makers, the outrageous costs of barrels, and  whether or not corks, plastic corks or screw tops were best. ( Corks good for wine that needs to mature, screw tops good for wine that needs to be drunk now…..and plastic corks ….no good , ever, for anything, especially the planet ). There were also some interesting technical terms used such as not “filtering the arse” out of the wine, meaning that some microscopic bits if skin can be found in bottles….. and this is fine.

Wendy shared her expertise on wine tasting and the language of the art……basically if you think a wine smells of sweaty socks, that is fine, you’ll remember it, if you have noted the name with “sweaty socks” next to it……you wont remember not to buy it again just by the label, because you will have forgotten what the label looked like.  We swirled wine round in large glasses( or tried to ), noticing legs, ( I never knew wine had legs), colour and transparency. We sniffed it, and then we tasted it, noticing its effect on the tip of our tongues ( sweetness), our gums ( tannin) and our cheeks……..no, I can’t remember what that was for…. I’ll have to go again.


Jayne had prepared lunch for us, and we sat with Corin and Jayne, overlooking a spectacular hillside, with terracing dating from Roman times. We ate with Corin and Jayne, while they answered all our questions about their experience as wine makers. Their frustration at some large scale English buyers ( mainly supermarkets) was evident. The buyers don’t want to taste the wine, just buy the cheapest they can, and the fact that the labour intensive process, the cost of barrels etc means that better wine costs more to make, is of no interest to them. The UK tax on wine and the transportation costs means that Corin and Jaynes’s wine is never going to be able to sell in Tescos for £3.99. Their basic wine , called le Fetard ( the merrymaker), sells for about 6 euros a bottle,  meaning that once the extras are added on, and Tesco’s  profit margin, it becomes an expensive wine for Brits to buy, and they wont when there is so much cheap stuff available. Wendy reckoned that some of the wine we buy in English supermarkets, means that about 10p is actually on the wine…the rest is tax, transportation cost, bottle and label costs and supermarket profit margin. Corin and Jayne can’t sell their wine for 10p !!!!!!


The rest of the day with Wendy was spent travelling through some spectacular country side. We visited the Cathar castle at Peyrepertuse, which was stunning……but that is another story.


26 comments:

  1. Sounds great Janice - Tesco and some other supermarkets do sell more expensive wines but if you want the proper stuff like Corin and Jaynes surely its the wine clubs that stock the quality stuff and we should expect to pay well into double figures a bottle assuming it really is that good. Anyway looking forward to sampling some of the good stuff when we come over - want any water or ice (hail storms today)? I have never seen so much rain (- even in Reigate and yes on our garden!) what a washout of a summer in the UK!

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    1. It's good to hear from you here Rick, thanks for dropping in. I'll make sure there's plenty of the good stuff here for when you arrive, although to be honest, some of the basic local stuff is pretty good too. I saw the photos of your road..... aggghhh. It is gorgeous here at the moment. Sorry. J. x

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  2. Wendy sounds a great guide. You think you are having a chat and on looking back discover how much you have learned!

    I used to be a member of The Wine Society which was not at all as snooty as it sounds. There were some bottles from small producers there at reasonable prices but I don't know what it's like now.

    I liked buying my wine at source...and now you've visited a vineyard and had Wendy's explanations you can see there's no need to be put off by all the so called 'etiquette´' of wine tasting.

    Where I was living there were no spittoons or sawdust....such things were for wimps from Bordeaux!

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    1. I really do need the spittoon. I would have been asleep before lunch if I'd actually drunk rather than tasted. I also look forward to doing some tasting and buying without Wendy as a tutor.....although I do intend to go on some more of her trips....they are so much more than just wine tasting.

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    2. Have a look at the vignerons' revolt in 1907.
      Wendy might well have mentioned it...

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  3. Excellent day out- hope you bought a couple of bottles to try the tasting on Mark later on! There's a lot to be said for buying local - wine included if you're lucky enough to get it locally. Axxx

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    1. It was a brilliant day out Annie. We didn't buy any wine at Jayne and Corin's as wendy thought it would get spoiled being in the car for the whole of the rest of the day as we toured around..... but I am going to order some, and Wendy says she'll collect it, when the weather isn't as hot. Jx

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  4. Lovely to see that rocky landscape again. I'll pass on the wine-tasting tips to Mr N, though sadly he sometimes resorts to Tesco's plonk.

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    1. Although I think I now understand a tiny bit about what makes a wine complex and interesting, I know that I am very happy to drink very simple ( and cheap) plonk. Sometimes it just hits the spot. Maybe the thing is that here you can actually get lovely wine at Tesco plonk prices....its tax and transport to the UK costs that put the prices up.

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  5. Oh, this sounds like such an interesting time - I now I know all about corks and screw tops. Your photos are great, Janice, and I can just imagine your trip through your words. You have been very busy, haven't you?

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    1. I have been busy recently Penny, and after my 4 weeks of solitude, I get busier next week, when husband Mark returns as well as daughter, daughter's boyfriend, 2 of her friends ( who were also here in April ) and a friend of mine from my teaching days.

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  6. Hi Janice

    I'm glad you posted about this -- we've got family coming next month, and it sounds like something they might enjoy. I'm surprised you trekked all the way to Maury though, when you have great wines on your doorstep!

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    1. Some of Wendy's tours are more local, but I liked the idea of combining it with Peyrepetuse. I would really recommend her approach to it all, I will be going on other day tours that she organises. J.

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  7. What an enjoyable combination of wine and history, Janice. :-) As it happens Languedoc wines are some of my great favourites - Corbieres, Minervois.... I remember reading an article in one of the Sunday papers which praised the Languedoc as having almost perfect conditions for making really good, drinkable wine at a price we can all afford - not the grands crus, but great everyday wine, the kind I enjoy. :-)

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    1. I like the idea of knowing a little bit more about wine, but will be very happy to continue to have a couple of glasses of the local bar's house vin rouge. There are some lovely local wines, so I am looking forward to getting to know them. The combination of wine and history was just great, it really was an excellent day out. J

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  8. What a very interesting and enjoyable day trip..... historical and wine tasting. ;-)Hope you brought back some bottles for the gang when they come back to France.
    I live in the Niagara Wine region and I also love going on those 'wine' tours.....they do grow some grapes that were brought over from France and Italy.....I love the Ice Wine the best.
    Thank you for sharing your adventure.

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    1. Thanks Erica ( Irene), one of the things I discovered on my tour was that all vines grown in the area are grown on American vine roots ( I have no idea how that works ) but the European roots were all destroyed by a disease over 100 years ago, and American roots are apparently not affected by it. The things you learn eh? ! J.

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  9. Dear Janice - it is so interesting that there are many English people making wine in France, and good wine too. Unfortunately the large supermarkets are the dictators of the wine trade.They also dominate many of the other goods that we purchase.
    We have just been steeped in wine too, of the Moselle variety. I love looking at vineyards growing. I enjoy the precision in which they plant and tend them, and the lovely patterns that they make on the hillsides.

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    1. It's also sad to see land that has clearly been used for growing vines for centuries, now planted with something else, as more and more of the small winemakers go out of business, and can only survive by digging up vines for government subsidies. I guess that is down to the control over prices that the supermarkets are able to maintain. J.

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  10. Ooh my idea of the perfect day out. I love wine but know very little about it's production. I just know what I like and what I don't like. I didn't know wine had legs either...hmm interesting!

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    1. It was an excellent way to spend a day Ayak. I am sure I will forget all that I learned....and will continue to rely on " I know what I like and what I dont like ". J.

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  11. Sounds facinating. I don't know much about wine but am always pleased to learn more. The knowledge you picked up from Wendy and the producers you visited will certaily be useful to your visitors.

    With regards to pricing I think we are allowing the 'middle man' to take too great a share of the profits.

    With milk supermarkets are using it as a loss leader and the farmers are being squeezed even further (by 4p a litre in the past couple of months). The only thing left for the farmers to squeeze is a little more milk out of the cow!

    I guess the situation is the same for some wine producers. I read that in the Loire this has been a bad year for the grapes. I wonder what this will do to the price?

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    1. yes, supermarkets are great, for convenience, for bargains ( sometimes) and for doing everything under one roof.....but we give up a lot when we use them. J.

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  12. What a lovely post Janice and you captured Corin's satisfaction beautifully in your photo. The last wine tasting I went to was in Wakefield which is probably not a first place to think of for wine tasting.

    Anyway a local bistro holds a regular wine tasting and evening meal cooked by the owners which turned into a very pleasant and educational evening. I did buy a couple of bottles for the sheer joy of reliving the taste experience and I think for special ocassions I would invest in a more expensive purchase. Carry on tasting and sharing!
    Celia x

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    1. I think wine tasting in Wakefield sounds great and should be promoted..... I read an article today in one of the French papaers about the pretentiousness of some wine tasters...The article recommended just saying a wine is " complex" if you cant actually identify a flavour for it, or haven't developed the wine tasters' vocabulary that seems to be required for such things.

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