Thursday, November 10, 2016

Southern and Northern Rhone October 2016 trip

Jay and I met in Geneva airport and rented a car there for the trip. The trip was great and here are some highlights. I decided not to take any notes of the wines anymore except for some very short impressions, so please forgive the lack of detailed descriptions. 

Hotels
Le Bristol in Avignon. Needs a renovation quickly. Staff is very nice and friendly, but rooms are a bit musty. The showers are old, the towels are thin, the mattress is lumpy, no second roll of toilet paper is provided, had to ask for one twice. Could definitely use some extra electric outlets. Horrible wifi. Place is very popular with tour groups but I can't avoid thinking that better options in Avignon abound. Breakfast buffet is €13, valet parking is €13 a day. 

Hôtel de France, Valence. Renovated it seems recently but quite haphazardly. Staff is extremely nice. Lobby is modern and welcoming. Rooms are more or less modern except for bathrooms. In one room, the bathroom stall was separate from the shower. In the other it lacked a shower curtain (but there was a drain in the bathroom floor (!)). Toilet paper would be helpful instead of the oneatatime square paper tissues once prevalent in French bathrooms. Mattress is comfortable. Outlets plentiful and good wifi. Breakfast buffet was €16, parking €10 a day and there's free Nespresso coffee in the bar.

Nash hotel, Geneva airport. Good for what it is and a bargain considering the ridiculous hotel prices in Geneva. Pleasant staff, good wifi. Good shower, bathroom, mattress. Shuttle to airport is pleasant and prompt, breakfast is good. That along with the free transport card given to all hotel residents in Geneva make leaving hotel to tour the city a pleasure. 

Restaurants
Le 59 Aix les Bains. One waiter to take care of all the tables? Well, it worked, prompt service always with a smile, excellent food, reasonable prices. A pleasurable lunch. We had a delicious chestnut and pumpkin creamy soup with some foam on top, crunch powdered hazelnuts and vegetal coal(!) roasted and powdered were sprinkled on top. Incredible. A strip of sautéed cod on top of puréed potatoes and chives was very good. Dessert was excellent.

Le Caveau du Théâtre. Avignon. Recommended by the hotel and quite good. We had the following appetizers: salmon gravlax with goat yogurt and the brandade de morue which was a little bland. For mains, a hanger steak with foie gras butter and mashed potatoes was very good, a filet of cod on roasted fennel with saffron was a little sweet. We finished with a good cheese platter and the best panna cotta I've ever had. The wine was not memorable, otherwise I would remember it. Maybe some Cote du Rhone or other.

Le Forum, Orange. Found that it had good recommendations on Google, and needing a place to eat lunch I called on a Sunday at 1:10 and was told to please come no later than 1:30. After rushing there and arriving just as the church bells are ringing, we get the last table. 24 diners sitting in different table configurations, in the front of the room one waitress/hostess/buslady/probably owner, in the back, one prepboy/chef/cook/owner. The place functions beautifully, the food is fantastic, the presentation is gorgeous, the service pleasant. A wonderful surprise. We started with foie gras beautifully presented and an amazing squash and chestnut soup with prawns and truffle oil. I then had pesto risotto with delicious scallops and my friend had an incredibly tender veal roast. We finished with a tremendous trio of creme brulee. Everything was washed with a delicious bottle of 2013 Coteaux des Travers Rasteau La Mondone. Rustic and dark but with good structure and acidity. Very very nice. Probably my best non Michelin star dining experience ever in France. https://goo.gl/photos/69oWZKLWSEzH3egD6

Christian Etienne, Avignon. A one star Michelin, this was quite good but more in an intellectual than a gourmand experience. Good amuse bouches, especially the panna cotta bouillabaisse with cucumber coulis (say what???), excellent foie gras and butternut squash, very good scallops with a potato pancake and onion confit but the fish was just ok on a barley like risotto and the duck correct and nothing more. The cheese tray was incredible and the desserts excellent. Unfortunately, accompanying the meal was a mediocre wine I chose, a 2012 Chateau des Tours Reserve, Cotes du Rhone white. This was made by Emmanuel Reynaud of Chateau Rayas and it is fat and flabby like a lot of Rhone whites. Couldn't stand up to the meal at all and was a let down. https://goo.gl/photos/wvAd1vf5LKPdZ8NX8

Bistrot de Serine, Ampuis. Not great but not bad either, a good wine list, great salad appetizer but the rumsteak was very tough. Better places everywhere but pleasant enough.

Bistrot des Clercs, Valence. Looks wonderful from inside and out. An old fashioned bistro with a lovely hostess and friendly service but the meal is nothing to write home about. We did have a great bottle of 2014 Alain Graillot Crozes Hermitage but while we went to bigger places with more tables and one competent server, here we had four incompetent waiters and ten tables max. The food was ok, locals ordered the mussels and seemed happy and maybe we should have done that as well.

Le Milou, Valence. Tiny with good food, one competent and friendly waitress serving everyone, a good bottle of St Joseph. Tres sympa as the locals say. I had another delicious pumpkin and chestnut cream soup and an excellent steak au poivre. Probably my favorite joint in Valence. 

Anne Sophie Pic, Valence. Finally the culinary highlight of the trip. Three star Michelin and an incredible menu from all aspects. Poetic description of every menu choice, multiple waiters, all helpful and friendly, flavors that I 've never tasted before, no words can do this place justice, so I'll show the pictures. Btw, the prices were also wow! By far the most expensive place we ate at. https://goo.gl/photos/GE6Tv7AZHzsRt7mk6

Wineries: 
Fortia, Chateauneuf du Pape, a great visit with Pierre Pastre. we tasted three wines Cuvee Tradition, Cuvee du Baron and Cuvee Reservee. The wines contain a blend of Syrah, Grenache and a little Mourvedre. All different cepages come from the same vineyards, are aged the same, and blended before bottling in different proportion according to the Cuvee. I liked the wines a lot. The Cuvee Reservee with its highest Syrah proportion my favorite, the Cuvee Tradition with the lowest Syrah also delicious. Fortia uses no new oak at all and the wines are pure and vibrant. Pierre mentioned that the 2016 harvest looks fantastic and he's rarely seen such perfect fruit. We visited the cellar and had a great rapport with Pierre, maybe because all three of us were about the same age with the same curmudgeonly attitude, were all wearing a half zip dark sweater and jeans, and sported a similar hairdo. https://goo.gl/photos/rWLnRey3EiYGdMms9

Ogier, Chateauneuf du Pape. Not to be confused with Stephane Ogier from Cote Rotie, this is more of a corporate setting and they produce the Clos de l'Oratoire des Papes. A good visit but the only one that cost money, €12 a person in this case. I liked the wines and Vincent did a great job with the tour. https://goo.gl/photos/ut8oPq92nLjPPNts8

Domaine de la Janasse, Chateauneuf du Pape my least favorite visit. Even though we had an appointment, we couldn't see the cellar, the wines were harsh and insipid. Skip it.

Chateau La Nerthe, Chateauneuf du Pape, just drove by and decided to stop, a beautiful place and the visit was short but quite nice. The cellar was being renovated and we were only allowed to pop in to take a quick look. The wines we tasted were really good, too bad I didn't make an appointment as we could have had a more in depth visit. https://goo.gl/photos/RBQVRAGodxBLy3269

Domaine du Pegau, Chateauneuf du Pape. We visited this famous place and had a tour along with two hipster guys from the restaurant Purple in Seattle, a sommelier and a manager. The visit was nice and was conducted by Laurence Feraud who was very pleasant but was about to fly to Hong Kong in a few hours and seemed a bit frazzled. She explained that they make a regular Cuvee Reservee every year, a higher end Cuvee Laurence and in great years, a Cuvee da Capo (instead of the Laurence). Apparently they will make Cuvee da Capo in 2015 but not in 2016. The estate is growing due to great reviews by Parker, but I think their wines need a lot of time, only their Cotes du Rhone seemed anywhere near ready. https://goo.gl/photos/xDiMNFXxft4fhurQ6

Domaine du Pesquier, Gigondas. Just lovely wines and probably my favorite Gigondas. A quick nice visit with a tasting of their last two vintage, both quite tasty.

Domaine Patrick Jasmin, Ampuis. A private visit all in French and I had to translate the whole time. Patrick , a big burly man, was absolutely charming. We tasted his delightful wine, some barrel samples of 2015 and some of the 2016 still fermenting in stainless steel. Both obviously very young but the core of fruit is there and augurs two excellent vintages. I always liked Jasmin wines as I think they are approachable young and very pure and fragrant. They only make one Cuvee and lost their Kermit Lynch representation in the US so they are looking for a new rep. I hope they find one quickly. I love their wines. https://goo.gl/photos/6AGQ51zMBfuar7Km9

Domaine Garon, Ampuis. Visited with Kevin Garon and took a walk in his vineyard before touring his immaculate operation. They make three cuvees from three different parcels in Cote Rotie, we could only taste the Triottes which was very young but with good structure underneath. We tasted the 2015 barrel sample of the Cuvee des Rochins and that was delicious, excellent core of fruit and structure. It will be a great wine to buy. Kevin said they used to sell in the US through Chambers Street Wines exclusively but now are being represented by a new importer called Angel's Share. One to look for. https://goo.gl/photos/iJ4EfswWwoyLkKyk9

Domaine Guigal, Ampuis. If the other two visits in the Northern Rhone felt like family operations, this felt like a visit to a Pepsi bottling plant. Huge almost fully automated we were on a tour with a 19 people group bus from Iceland and after touring the operation we escaped before the tasting as that would have taken hours. Plus we saw they were not serving any LaLas (not that we expected any, but we would have stayed for a Mouline sip :D )https://goo.gl/photos/Ht21WbYMVsqn66PQ9

Vineum Maison Jaboulet, Tain l'Hermitage. So this is more like a store that stocks Jaboulet only wines (and la Lagune). We had a good tasting of whites and reds including some Petite Chapelle and the latest La Chapelle. I love the wines but the prices are stratospheric compared to what I could find in the US.

Cities and villages:
Avignon inside the walls is cool, with an old vibe and tons of people strolling around the lovely pedestrian area. We really enjoyed the markethttps://goo.gl/photos/CU8x918dLa4VznEj8, the bridge and the Palais des Papes. 
Vaison la Romaine has two parts, and ancient town, with narrow hilly streets leading to the fortress and a stunning view and a more modern area with shops and markets. https://goo.gl/photos/GQNm6xZanvWmKca38
Orange has one of the best preserved Roman amphitheaters I've seen, not to be missed. https://goo.gl/photos/qroJJnAW3WtZTaSz9
Gigondas with the dentelles all around, nice views and yet another medieval town sprawling up is quaint and inviting at the same time. We visited a chocolate factory with a good selection of truffles and a lovely young lady who showed us around.
Châteauneuf du Pape felt like a tourist trap with all the wine stores, their tastings, and their overpriced wines. I especially disliked the Beaucastel store.
Valence has some great restaurants, we ate at Anne Sophie Pic a three star Michelin which is quite an institution in the town.I liked the park and its views but after two day in the place I was ready to split.
Ampuis, the best thing about Ampuis are the hills surrounding it. Mouline and Landonne are quite beautiful but so are the others.https://goo.gl/photos/rh7s26XXyw9s4oeA6
We missed Grignan but heard great things about it. Next time.

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