James Bridle seeks some intoxicating recipes for everyday cooking, both in deepest France and closer to home
The big excitement of the week was finally getting my hands on some wine I've been desperate to try for several years - since I made it, in fact.
A few years ago, as the culmination of several years in the drinks industry, I took myself off to the South of France to get some first-hand experience of wine-making.
The vendage, or wine harvest, mobilises the whole countryside in the wine-making regions. For an intense couple of weeks in September, in the Languedoc heartland of the Minervois, the roads are clogged with grape-loaded trailers. When the vines are at the perfect ripeness, it's all go until the grapes are gathered in.
I lived and worked right up against the Black Mountains, which stretch east from Carcassonne across the dramatic valleys and gorges of the Haut-Languedoc, overshadowing the vineyards of St Chinian and Minerve, and further to the south the wild hills of Corbières. This region produces some of France's most idiosyncratic and often overlooked wines, much of it destined to become anonymous plonk, but some of it transmuted - through sweat and sheer determination - to liquid gold.
Three years later, and some of the wine I worked with is finally available, deep ruby red Syrah from the fields of La Livinière, complex Petit Verdot from the high slopes of the Combebelle, and higher still the sweet sticky Muscat of St Jean De Minervois, a tiny village at the entrance to the spectacular Haut-Languedoc national park.
My favourite is Les Veilles Vignes de Chateau Maris. I'm particularly close to it after, having spent two months daily sloshing and spraying it from dawn to dusk, descending into the great steel tanks to dig out the rich and stinking skins. A robust and venerable Carignan, it reflects the rocky but life-enhancing ground it comes from. I've bought a couple of cases, and I'm in danger of running through them pretty soon.
.jpg)
Find a wine to match your favourite dish.
Your Comments
Post your comment
Please note: In order to post a comment you need to be registered and logged in to Channel 4:
Sign In Here or Register Here
Comments closed
Comments are closed at the present time
Comments
Thank you for your comment!
Your message will be reviewed and the best ones will be published below.
If you intended to make an official comment to Channel 4 please contact us.