Okay, what did we learn tonight, on top of tasting a chardonnay from the Pays du L'Aude, just south of Carcasonne, and a rose Cotes du Ventoux, a Provence style wine, light, subtle, red fruits, strawberry, light color, grenache, syrah, mourvedre...

A Jurancon dessert wine, what to look for, confit style fruits, i.e., jam, marmalade style, as well as peach and apricot (I think that's what Ed our pro observes) and on the end, after the earthy minerally stuff, as we're at higher elevation here outside the gracious city of Pau, the Pyrenees spread out before us, a finish with blood orange. As we age them, the color darkens, and mushroom emerges.

Also, a very interesting observation. About vintages. Bordeaux for example. Each vintage has a personality. Okay, yes, some years are riper than others, but as far as a market might be honestly set, it seems rather incredible that one vintage should swoop up in cost say 50 % or more. Maybe this is heresy to say. Yes, it probably is. But, there could be, like everywhere else now, overvalued things, mass hysteria, hording, foolish behavior, the trading that becomes derivative, not solidly based anymore in inherent value, but more the 'hey, every other asshole is buying all the '05, I must have some too," when really, why do we all have to do this. For wine that is good anyway, year in, year out. Again, every vintage has a personality. Just like we do, or used to, as human beings. Every vintage is worth tasting, worth studying, worth describing and making a lesson of.


From the previous week, lute raissonable. The reasonable struggle, to be organic, and sustainable, without going all the way to being certified as being completely organic.

See, wine is honest. It's a human endeavor, combined with nature. Things come and go. No one's perfect. You do what you can with the soil and the scale you're trying to achieve. Be reasonable, and you'll end up drinking good wine, as is the tradition.


Okay, vintages, an '06 Bordeaux ain't the same as an '05. The '03s had a lot of fruit, but haven't lasted.

Hecto liters. Per hectaire. That's what was confusing me, hearing this all, not reading it. Hecto is 100. Hectaire is a measure of land, similar to an acre. The yield of a Cotes du Rhone vineyard is 5 tons of juice per hectaire, a Cotes du Rhone Village is 4 tons, the latter being a better more concentrated wine. See, we all learn, bit by bit.