After picking up our sporty rental car, we spent the afternoon touring the medieval town of Les Beaux and St-Remy-de-Provence, where we did an olive oil tasting. It was a super fun and delicious experience and we left knowing a little bit about olive oil production. Our purchases included a bottle of basilic olive oil (only ingredients are olive oil and fresh basil that is marinated for a year) and some fantastic mango vinegar. The mango vinegar is made by a local guy who had too much fruit pulp left over after making juices and decided to go into vinegar making - thank goodness because it is to die for!
For the tasting we got tacked onto a group of tourists on a biking trip through Provence. The leader was super friendly and invited us out for drinks with him and his co-leader and the chick working at the olive oil store. We declined as we were planning to walk around a bit and grab dinner. Over our dinner of crepes and rose wine, we regretted not going out for a drink with the French people we just met. Part of having time to travel is the adventure of the unexpected/unplanned and we want to be open to opportunities and meeting new people. We agreed that the next time people invited us to do something, we'd take them up. Fortunately we didn't have to wait long for the next opportunity!
We decided Wednesday was a good day to start conquering the Cotes du Rhone wine region - so we headed to the small town of Gigondas, about 100 km from Aix. We did our first tasting at a place with wines from all the local vineyards in the Gigondas appellation. They had self-imposed gag rule as to not favor any winery, so the lady wouldn't help us distinguish among any of the 100 wines on their list (we'd point to a wine - any wine - and say "we'll try this one."). After a few random tastes (which were pretty good!), a rowdy group stumbled in. One of them, Roseanne, introduced herself to us saying they were the "ugly Americans", and by doing so immediately lightened the atmosphere. We ended up chatting a bit, sampling the same wines; Roseanne works in the Napa wine industry, her husband works at the Culinary Institute (eeek!!), and another guy is a sommelier at a California winery. They were impressed with our vacation plans/duration and recommended a nearby vineyard they'd just been to - Domaine Longue Toque, where they got the royal treatment since her husband is pretty connected in culinary circles. They left before us (we did not continue drinking, just lingered outside a bit) and as were getting in our car, Roseanne saw us and said they were going back to the vineyard they'd been too if we'd like to follow them. Since we suddenly became unofficial members of their group, we got to meet sommelier at the vineyard, who was a super friendly guy. Long story short, they were all planning to go to the "Fete des Vin" (wine party) in the town of Vacqueyras on Bastille Day (July 14th, the french independence day). The deal is that you buy a wine glass and then sample wines from all the local wineries. They invited us to join them for the party, as well as at their table for a long lunch at a nearby bistro (apparently, this is a much better deal than the standard offering). This time we said yes! And now we have plans for Bastille Day plans and a stash of "vins"!
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