Wine o'clock

We felt a bit fragile this morning after yet another late night at the Tira-tap; every person we introduce it to wants to go back, so we were invited by some German friends this time, and as usual Maria plied us with excessive amounts of delicious food and slightly less excessive amounts of wine. We were due to go to the Université de la Vigne et du Vin today, but only S was feeling bright enough to get up in time. So I had an extra snoozle and he came back and fetched me in time for lunch with 150 other people in a huge and freezing cold wine cellar.

The presentations at the UVV are by professionals for professionals, so some of the acronyms and concepts go flying right over my head, but there are always provocative ideas and iconoclastic suggestions to be had -- at times, too many for me to take in. The presentation by Patrick Algrain of the OIV (third from the left) was particularly challenging, as he took a very global view of the future, in every sense of the term. He kept saying things that were so striking that I missed the next five minutes of his talk because I was still thinking about them. For example with modern technology you can now make wine out of vinegar. And indeed water out of wine.

The talks were interspersed by episodes of an ongoing series of short videos where local figures in the wine world are interviewed -- in this case the presidents of several local appelations. They are very skilfully done, and always interesting.

The photo is of the panel Q&A session at the end of the day -- despite appearances they are not sitting around drinking wine. That came later, with a wine tasting, but we didn't stay as we felt we'd indulged enough yesterday.

A chilly day: the temperature outside has dropped to 4C, so we are back home snuggled around the fire ... supper will be some home-made soup with my beautiful bread.