38) Wine tasting

Rose from our local vineyard, Domaine de la Garde

At long last we have got round to the serious business of wine tasting.  The Cahors appellation takes itself quite seriously, but the wine does vary tremendously.  There are several hundred vineyards and so far we have been to two (we are looking forward to trying out the others).  In addition to the official Cahors wines (mostly along the course of the River Lot), there is an area of wines known as Coteaux de Quercy (we are just in this region).

The other week we went to an evening wine festival in Castelnau Montratier.  It was great.  We bought our two wine glasses (above - both of which we've now broken, I broke one, G broke the other) and off we went.  There were lots of producers from both Cahors and the Coteaux de Quercy.  We tried quite a few and bought several bottles.  We also had a rather good supper, sitting in the rain at trestle tables with all the French locals.  We had aligot for the first time and it was delicious.  It is made from a blend of creme fraiche, puréed potatoes, cheese (tomme d'Auvergne) and garlic.  It is traditionally served with Toulouse sausages (which is how we had it, together with a sort of ratatouille).

A no nonsense box of rose from Clos Siguier firmly settled in our fridge

Since then we have visited our nearest vineyard, la Domaine de La Garde (which happens to be rather good), and le Clos Siguier, which is also nearby.  We had come across this one in Montcuq market.  They do a rather good dark rose at 3.80 euros a bottle.  However, we have discovered that they do exactly the same thing in a five litre box.  As can be seen from the photograph above, they do not spend anything unnecessary on fancy packaging - but this does allow them to sell it at the equivalent of about £1.32 a bottle.  You just stick it in the fridge and it will keep for about three or four weeks (if you don't drink it before).  Boxes are better than buying "en vrac" (which is when you just take along your own container for them to fill up).  Boxes have a collapsible plastic bag inside, which allows the wine to come out without any air getting in.  We have bought en vrac, but you really have to drink the wine within three or four days, which can be a bit of a challenge if there are just two of you to get through five litres (or maybe not).