7:00 AM - No hot water in the shower
7:15 AM - No hot water in the sink
8:00 AM - Minimal breakfast, surly waitress
8:15 AM - Walked outside raining, cold, not light yet
Now - Just checked Paris weather and rain/snow mix through Friday
And the day doesn't start for 30 minutes, so let me harken back to a kinder, gentler day when the sun warmed my sweater, I could look out onto Med, and breathe in the garrigue in the air...
OK, I'm back in reality...I finished in the wilds of the Languedoc yesterday and drove across the Masif Central to the rain in Bordeaux. I tasted two outstanding producers outside the village of Faugeres, Maxime Magnon and Leon Barral. Each is a disciple of biodynamic farming, but rather than burying cow horns under the full moon, they take a simpler and tastier approach that is a full circle of life. Pigs, piglets, and goats wander the vineyards fertilizing and weeding. The grapes love it and grow strong and healthy, and then the animals arrive monthly on the table. Full circle, as only Didier Barral can describe it.
As for the wines, Magnon's Corbiere's is cheap, but it is by far the most fresh and exciting expression of the appellation I've had the good fortune to taste. You can tell Maxime apprenticed under Marcel Lapierre, because the Beaujolais "joie de vivre" jumps from each glass. Didier's wines are a touch wilder and more exotic, but cut from a similar cloth, with just enough difference to make things interesting. These wines put sunshine in my glass on an overcast day.
Cheers for Now
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