Each year on the final Sunday in April, hundreds of people embark on a 9km walk through the vineyards of the Plan de Dieu. They are released in groups at given times, and walk from one wine cave to another. At each cave they waited on by local vignerons, and served one course of a five course meal. Each course is prepared by Disciples d’Escoffier an isd accompanied by wine and live music.
If you think the Vaucluse is only a summer destination, take another look.
This weekend Vaison-la-Romaine hosted the seventh annual ‘Rencontres Gourmandes’. The event brings together some 50 local producers of food and drink. There are demonstrations, workshops, tastings, competitions, and the opportunity to wine and dine in the centre of it all. And all the while you are being entertained by musicians, artists and chefs.
And I nearly forgot to mention – entrance is free.
Our village of Travaillan celebrated the ‘ban des vendages’ on Saturday. It seemed strange to me to be celebrating a ‘ban’ on something. However, it all became clear when I realised it was a shortening of the expression ‘lever des ban des vendage’ – the lifting of restrictions on harvesting the grapes. Since Roman times specifying the date of a vendage has been regarded as a public matter rather than something to be left to individual vignerons.
The communes of the Plan de Dieu
The evening started with speeches from our local mayor and representatives of all four municipalities that make up the Plan de Dieu appellation : the communes of Camaret-sur-Aigues, Jonquières, Violès et Travaillan.
How good will the 2016 vintage be?
Then the fun started. Local vignerons carried in baskets of red grapes and hand-pressed them. The juice was collected and the colour and sugar content assessed. From the cheers it was apparent that the reduced quantity of this year’s harvest would be outweighed by the quality. The recent drought conditions have assured that the 2016 vintage will have a high sugar content and that in turn will mean a high alcohol content.
The dates at which Plan de Dieu harvesting will commence were announced, with white grape harvesting preceeding the harvest of red grapes by one week. Everyone present then had opportunity to taste the freshly-pressed grape juice.
Coupo Santo
We were treated to the communal singing of ‘La Coupo Santo’ – the anthem of the Provence, which was sung in Provencal. It also happens to be the the club anthem of Toulon Rugby Club.
An opportunity to get to know local wines and their producers
Then on the serious businessof wine-tasting. The vignerons present brought out iced buckets containing bottles of their wines, and everyone present was free to help themselves. Meanwhile plates and plates of food kept appearing.
The evening was completed with a superb display of fireworks. Thankfully the mistral held off and there was judged to be no danger from errant fireworks.
Some of our guests from England had fun wine-tasting in Vacqueyras on Sunday. As France were playing in the UEFA Euro 2016 final that evening, the staff in the Cave Vignerons de Caractere were in celebratory mood.
