Vendanges Beaujolais 2019–Pinot Noir

Saturday morning was bright and clear and Ghislaine had all her lists made

The 31 of us split into kitchen crew and pickers, General Ghislaine assigning tasks in the kitchen and Major Michel directing his field crew with a glance. In the kitchen we peeled potatoes for the Gratin Dauphinois and Ghislaine chose 30 year old wines to cook the sausages in, wines from the same vineyard made by Michel’s father. We prepared a snack for the field hands, bits of streaky bacon, cheese bread and cool water. The vendage was going well this sunny, breezy morning and the grapes were plump and glistening.

Friday before Harvest

After breakfast

We went to the Villefranche market for our ingredients for Sunday’s paella that Denise M. proposed to the delight of our French friends. Something different! We tracked down the rabbit and a small chicken at the butcher’s stand and got all the veggies we needed at the stalls. And we dreamed of cheese.

We followed ghislaine in her little electric car to the other gite near the Roman spring and then on to a restaurant that she wanted to try out that had a soon to be famous woman chef, Cristina, was happy to show us her garden. The lunch was delicious and elegant in spite of a waiter who tried to tell Ghislaine about Beaujolais wine but then recanted his story once he came back from the kitchen. We liked him in the end...

We walked through the village of Oingt on the way home and climbed up to the church of St. Matthew and almost skipped dinner but did have cheese and bread after all.

Tete de Veau

Denise Longefay surprised us with a family favorite I had never encountered, a local delicacy served with Sauce Gribiche, mustard sauce and homemade mayonnaise. Aleks and Roberto joined us for dinner and she was happy to carve the tete, one of her favorite dishes. Not for the faint of heart! We had a champagne toast to start served with mini goat cheese bites, and welcomed Al and Denise to an authentic French table. Nathalie’s mom even made another gateau de foie for John, his favorite!