Our guest Jay Gallagher very kindly took us to a restaurant new to us yet only 15 minutes drive ..the Le Laurier at Faucon. The restaurant is unpretentious, serves authentic local dishes in a refreshingly unfussy style and the service strikes just the right balance between attentiveness and being over bearing. The terrace occupies a great position overlooking a square and old fountain. One of the features of the wine list is a wine produced in the same village - the Joly family’s range of Cotes du Rhone reds, whites and roses. This excellent range- Domaine La Roche Buissiere is produced according to bio regulations ; they are unfiltered, unfined and low in sulphates. If you dont drink too much, positively good for you! Our friend and wine merchant Ben Smith features their wines on his eclectic , rigorously selected and fascinating list of small independent producers ( do check it out on www.sipwines.co.uk). Bio is definately in the ascendancy here in the Vaucluse….this morning’s La Provence carried a story of Avignon’s first bio hairdresser for heavens sake!. Lily of course is unmoved by such matters…she spent the evening quizzing Jay on his favourite films, music, cartoon characters etc etc…Jay being a gentleman was patient with her beyond his duty!

Celebrated Jude’s birthday yesterday with a trip to L’Oustalet at Gigondas with our friend Brian Manders. Jolly outing which  got underway at 11:30am with a delicious bottle of Drappier’s top cuvee champagne Grand Sendree 1999. This was deep yellow, rich and brioche yeasty with a lively mousse and a long long finish. Made in the the unfashionable southern Aube , Drappier are well known for their Pinot Noir dominated champagnes, but Grand Sendree contains 45% chardonnay and is a rare example of a single vineyard champagne. Apparently one of General de Gaulle’s favourites. Worth seeking out - a great start to the day. Our aperitif was interrupted by the arrival of one of the Belle brothers who farm around La Madelene…he came baring a wooden box full of their just harvested table Muscat grapes…he wasnt aware of the birthday celebrations, I’m sure, just the usual almost embarassing level of neighbourly generosity.

Lily came back from her french tutor last week tasked with learning a poem by heart…”Page d’ecriture” by the great French poet and screenwriter Jacques Prevert. The poem has an instantly appealing rythm…”deux et deux quatre; quatre et quatre huit; huit et huit seize…repetez! dit le maitre”….etc. This coincides with our discovery of the classic animation film “Le Roi et l’Oiseaux”, a masterpiece started in 1952 by director Paul Grimaud but not finished until 1980….Prevert co-wrote the screenplay with Grimaud. The film tells the story of the cross-eyed King and how he is outwitted by the crafty Oiseaux. Based on an original Hans Anderson story the animation borrows from the charm of classic Disney but adds a harder, surreal edge( Prevert was loosly part of the Parisian surrealist group)  - it’s truly excellent and repays several viewings. Only available in original french but the plot unravels clearly enough for anyone who might otherwise struggle. 

Its nearly time to say goodbye to La Madelene’s swimming pool…we need to put it into hibernation for the winter. With morning temperatures falling to less than 10c. this morning it seems timely…though brave Lily would probably like to hang onto it till her October birthday. At the same time autumn brings new gourmet delights notably the arrival of some interesting funghi - gorgeous displays yesterday at Vaison market. We’ve already enjoyed a risotto with the yellow capped and very delicious Girolles (aka in UK as Chanterelle)- looking forward to trying the fresh Ceps soon…though at 28 euros per kg ( more than fillet steak) they  are very much a luxury supper!

Talk about a curates egg of a day…we set out en famille to find the mountain village of Montbrun, a trip recommended to us by our friend Sylvie. Montbrun is about an hours drive east into the Drome, lovely scenery with views up to Mt. Ventoux over the first 15 km or so. We took the open top old merc, Let it Bleed on the CD player. Lily spotted from the back a huge bird of prey circling above…we convinced ourselves we were looking at an Eagle, but we’re no experts. Montbrun was worth the effort…it nestles in a verdant valley surrounded by wheat fields, lavander and olive trees. It’s also noted for its thermal baths though we didnt get that far. The girls enjoyed magnificent ice creams before we returned via the deep gorges of the Tourelenc and the olive town of Nyons. Just about perfect autumn excursion…..however the English rugby performance put paid to all my good cheer….what a shower, they resembled nothing less than 15 beery old blokes who’d been dragged burping and farting out of the pub to play a team of lean, super fit athletes…not surprisingly we lost 33-0!

The vendange is hitting a frenetic pace at our next door winery Domaine Champ-Long , one of the leading producers of Cotes du Ventoux. On a visit yesterday lunchtime the ever charming and chatty owner Beatrice Gely welcomed me around…I saw the first container of grapes  ( Granache Gris ) destined for their white wine being dispatched into the de-stemmer, tasted the freshly crushed jus from this grape and was treated to a ramble across the vast concrete cuves to smell, feel and taste syrah and grenache ( both destined for roses) on the verge of their fermentation cycle. All quite a treat…and next week I can do it all again as the grapes for their red wine production are due in monday lunchtime. Christian Gely told me this year’s vendange was 6-8 days ahead of the norm due to exceptional weather in march and april.    Champ-Long produces a wide range of Cotes du Ventoux,  Rhone and Vin du Pays wines…my favourites are their concentrated Special Cuvee red ( 70% Grenache, matured in traditional foudre) ..and a first class Syrah based rose, again the Special cuvee version.  (more…)

The following is a piece I wrote for the West Hill Whistler a local community newspaper in Brighton for whom i have been writing  a wine column for a while now..  Yesterday I was looking up the schedules for the Rugby world cup and was taken aback to find Portugal amongst the runners and riders…since when did Portugal have a rugby playing tradition?…and what will become of them if and when they have to face the All Blacks? It put me in mind of the wine producing countries that evoke the reaction : ” surely they dont make decent wine there, do they?”It was’nt so long ago that western europeans would have looked askance at wines from the likes of New Zealand, Chile, South Africa though in just 20 years these countries have become producers of some of our most common wine brands. These days you will have to go a little further afield if you want to find true curiosity value in the world of wine. If you are feeling a bit jaded with your usual tipple or just fancy teasing a few friends in a blind tasting here would be my perfect “curiosity tasting” dinner party selection: (more…)

The opening night of the rugby world cup left the host nation with red faces last night…they lost 12-17 to Argentina. Who would have thought it…especially since “les bleus” looked like they were really getting into form with their efficient demolition jobs on England and Wales in the last few weeks. It has to be said Argentina have come a long way …the IRB now rates them as the 5th best team in the world. However my theory is the French were not so much outplayed as paralysed by embarrassment - we watched the pre-match opening ceremony as we sat in our favourite friday night brasserie in Vaison - the Festival Cafe, great Aioli by the way - and were horrified at the tacky spectacle…it reminded us of a particularly poor episode of “Its a Knockout” the very epitome of cringe making TV.Still the result I suppose is good news….obviously anything can happen…even for off form England? Maybe….