Wine tasting

On arrival at our gite there was a notice in a neighbouring vineyard about an annual weekend of vineyard walks. Alan was not so keen but we asked the proprietors of our gite about it and learned it was organised by the local growers association and involved winetasting stops along the way whereupon himself became noticeably more enthusiastic and we duly turned up at the local lycee just along the road to pay our 6E and collect a bag with map, apple, pencil and most essential glass with a handy gadget for hanging it upright around our necks even with liquid in it. We set off in batches, in our case led by two wine producer cousins with a very jolly lady to keep an eye on stragglers. The first stop was super modern with stainless steel vats where we had rose and red and saffron cakes and quiche, then a vineyard with two more reds, rillons and two super singers. Then a troglodyte cave and ancient oak barrels and two wonderful reds and rillettes, finally a hilltop vineyard with two more wonderful reds and goats cheese. Then we wound our way back stopping off at our gite to collect a shopping bag and we went to the start point to buy 6 bottles of the three last reds and collect our free vine plant. The cost was only six euros and if we had lunched at the lycee wine would have cost 1E a glass less than water but by then we'd had enough although the tasting amounts were relatively small. A great day and lovely walking weather, slightly fresh. 8km in all.