A Week's Worth

It has been a few days since the last post. We were blessed with one beautiful sunny day last Saturday, and headed into Strasbourg again. This time Chablis and the fly kept our minds focussed, and managed to get lunch and coffee times correct.  Lunch at a little place that serves the best soup and ‘tartines’.  Fly had cauliflower soup.  Who would ever have thought that could be divine? Fly also bought new shoes – they are lace-ups like the ones the nuns used to wear, only more saucy, which are very fashionable now.  (Things are accumulating here - already consulting the rules re overweight baggage at QANTAS).  

The Grands Crus tasting at Kientzheim Chateau on Sunday did not disappoint.  The setting was magnificent – three huge rooms, all thick timber beams and pink stone, in the Chateau,   which is now the premises of the Association of Alsatian wine-growers.  The walls of the stairwells were hung with large portraits of the various presidents, decked out in  religious-looking regalia with a huge gold chain of office – like our own Lord Mayor wears when dressing up. 

For an entrance fee of 10€ we each received a tasting glass  inscribed with Vins d’Alsace and a book listing all the growers and the wines and the type of soil in the field in which the varieties were grown etc.  There was a full page for writing comments for each wine.  Chablis was ecstatic.  She tasted everything and made copious notes.  Fly wrote “too sweet” against a Gewurtztraminer, upset a wine-grower by using the word “sharp” with reference to the wine,  and then became absorbed in observing the somewhat ungraceful art of using the spittoon.  It soon became apparent that there is a degree of one-up-man-ship going on – who can hit the spot from furthest away.  Spittoons here are in themselves art pieces.  I would love to bring one home, but too heavy. 

There was a very hail-fellow-well-met atmosphere amongst these grands crus wine-makes.  Our friend Deiss was there and Chablis had a long talk with his son. (Son has spent time in South Australia working the vintage with one of the big names there .)  He really does have huge status in the industry here – when we moved from the Deiss stand to another, the woman was embarrassed about our tasting her wines directly after the Deiss.  Even though her vineyard itself has grand cru status. (It is the vineyard that has the grand cru appellation). 

No cheese was provided, too much competition for the taste buds I suppose.  But there were baskets of thinly sliced bread to nibble for clearing the palate.

There was one notable chap, very tall, stalking around in a driza-bone and outback hat (only person in the place who did not remove his hat).  I could not determine if he was Australian – he was speaking perfectly fluent French. 

The Peugeot took to the German autobahns again on Monday, driving Chablis up to Heidelberg.  She will leave for home from Frankfurt later in the week. Heidelberg is just a beautiful city, situated on the Neckar River, with its Schloss keeping watch from the hillside above the town.  It has been in a state of disrepair, but there is restoration work going on.  I watched one poor workman trying to lay stones to rebuild a round tower, in the -2 degree temperatures.  There were students on bicycles in all the cobbled streets.  It must be an idyllic place to study. 

On Wednesday, the fly and the Peugeot tackled Switzerland.  It was a quick trip, to check out the airport at Zurich.  Flyspring No 2 arrives there next week, and it seemed a good idea to find out how things work there.  Zurich is only a couple of hours from here on the autoroutes.  A surprise at the border however – a fee of €40 was required to “drive on the autobahns”.  Toll-roads have been encountered before, but usually about €4-8.  Some surprise, but then some relief, when the woman stuck a little electronic tag inside the windscreen and said that would last until January.  One feels an obligation to drive around Swiss autobahns a bit to get the money’s worth. 

The chocolate box imagery of Switzerland has evaporated. The country appeared to consist of autobahns and tunnels.  It seemed that as much time was spent underground as above.  Massive system, all very efficient and well signed.  Found the airport and located the arrivals area etc and got out again very smoothly.  A slight misunderstanding  involving  fly, the Swiss signage, and the Voice resulted in the peugot travelling through Basel instead of past it. Then into St Louis, which is really the other half of Basel, but in France, and then eventually back onto the French autoroute, which felt like coming home! 

Another trip to Strasbourg on Friday.  Messages day.  Tickets to London for a week in December, when fly and Flyspring No2 will meet up there.  Post Office to send home some packages.  Again, surprise to find that it costs much more to send goods to Australia from Strasbourg than it did from Amboise.  The postal service looks as though it is national – same livery etc here as in Amboise.  But a parcel of the same weight cost €40 from Amboise and €70 from Strasbourg.  Odd.  

The soup shop again.  Broccoli soup, but made with coconut milk.  Too sweet.  

They are still decorating the Christmas Tree in Kleber Square - week 3 now. And in the Cathedral Square a huge covered stage has appeared, where a Christmas Show was being reheared.  Visitors wanting to get a good shot of the front facade of the Cathedral in the next two months will be frustrated. 

And finally, the University Library.  To find it is closed, undergoing a major facelift.  No doubt the collection and staff are distributed across various other university locations.  It is a wonderful building and will be magnificent when finished.

The Place de la Republique, onto which the Library faces, is the site of four of the most stunning trees in autumn foliage that I have seen.  Beyond magnificent.  Quite transcendent.

11-11-11

Armistice Day.  France is closed for the day.

Food and wine

A day of gastronomic excellence. The focus of the day, on setting out at about 11.30, was to visit the winery of Marcel Deiss, in Bestheim, about  which, apparently,  people speak and write only in superlatives.  We stopped by the craft shop in Itterswiller that fly has previously visited, and were distracted by the cost warmth of the adjacent restaurant, and encouraged by the carloads of people pulling up to go in.  It was the best lunch ever. Pumpkin soup to rival my previous best (enjoyed on the west coast of Tasmania), and then the ultimate Onion Tart.  Chablis had the onion tart as starter, and then steak, perfectly seared, with a potato gratin.  Not being the driver, she was able to have a pinot gris with the tart, and a pinot noir with the steak.  Fly, being the driver, had to be content with inhaling the aromas.  

Perhaps the aromas were too much, or maybe it was just overconfidence, but we did get a little lost on the way to Bestheim, and although the detour was a pleasant drive, it was nearly three when we arrived at Marcel Deiss. 

It lived up to Chablis’ expectations.  Even fly enjoyed the ritual of tasting, which was conducted by Florian, and facilitated by  pictures and videos on a plasma TV on the wall to show which particular vineyards the fruit came from for which wines. (Engelgarten (Angel garden), Altenberg, etc - they all have names, which is then the name of the wine.)  And also, with a bit of practice, fly is appreciating the aromas and tastes.  My favourite, of which I bought a bottle for Christmas lunch, as it is said to be perfect with poulet, was the Schoffweg (see below).  Note description of the terroir on which the grape is grown - very important in this winery.

The last three wines we tasted were blends of several varieties. Chablis asked Florian how they decide which varieties to include in a blend, and was surprised by his response – the variety is not critical, what matters is where they are grown. So a number of varieties, but all grown in the same terroir, are included in a blend.  The blend is the expression of the terroir. Chablis bought a bottle of the Schoenenb0urg to take home, about which the current Deiss (don’t know how many generations there have been), wrote: The production of this wine is a milestone in my life as a wine-grower and marks a break with the variety-over-terroir dominance under which the Alsace region has suffered so greatly for the past 100 years.  Jean-Michel Deiss  (Pic) 

This is a somewhat iconoclastic viewpoint apparently.  Chablis took quite a while to mull it over, here education and training so far having emphasised the importance of variety, but is beginning to think that maybe there is a thesis topic here.  

Then Florian gave us the good news that on Sunday there is an event at the Chateau of Kientzheim where of all the grands crus of Alsace bring their wines for tasting. Chablis was absolutely ecstatic, such a golden opportunity.  So she has changed her plans to go back to Germany before flying out from Frankfurt next week, and we are off to the grands crus tasting on Sunday.  Even fly is excited.

It was pitch-dark and still foggy when we left Deiss, though only 5.15pm.  Something was happening around that part of Alsace, as we saw several flashing blue lights of the gendarmerie; and in one village we were stopped at a road-block.  Very handsome gendarme checked my licences (Australian and international) and my car papers (ownership and insurance),  but I think it was the French delivered in an Australian accent that convinced him we were not the do-bads they were after.  We were dismissed.

Shopping with Chablis

It was another misty grey day, but for those shopping in Strasbourg, this was of no account.  We did shoes and hats and cashmere cardigans.  There were some perplexities.  When we tried to have coffee at 12.15 we were told no, we had to eat a meal, it was lunch time.  Later, at another place, when we did want to eat, we were told no, it is too late to eat now, you can have a coffee.

But the shoes and hats and cashmere compensated for these hiccups.  First picture shows fly wearing a new hat (beret really) , standing near the Cathedral.  Second picture shows fly and Chablis, both in hats. 

Tasting on Tuesday

A day of heavy mist, which did not clear at all.  No sky, no sun.  But the place is still compelling.  Naked vineyards climb up the hillsides from the road, gradually disappearing into the damp grey cloud.  Lights take on a particular luminescence.  It would be good to record that drivers slow down in these conditions, but alas.  

Chablis was keen to go tasting  - faire les degustations – at several Alsatian wine houses that she has heard much of.  As it was 11.30 before we got moving, we went first to Colmar for a wander around and a bit of lunch.  Colmar is being dressed for Christmas.  It must be that as soon as daylight saving ends (which was last weekend), and the immediate effect is of the nights closing in so much earlier, (5.15 at the moment) they start setting up Christmas lights and decorations to light up the streets and lift the spirits again. Council workers are up in cherry pickers suspending lighting throughout the centre-ville.  Small pine trees in tubs along the street have been sprayed with snow-look-alike.  Along the pavements, between the shops, larger trees have been set up, hard against the walls, cut in half vertically so that they have a flat surface to the wall.  They are lit with cascades of fairy-lights.  When, as I am assured is always the case in Alsace, the whole effect is enhanced by real snow, it will be wondrous. 

The diversion to Colmar was to allow for the fact that everything closes between 12 and 2 for lunch.  Once past 2pm, we set off to do the list of wineries that Chablis had drawn up.  This was something of an eye-opener for fly. There is a procedure for tasting – you start with the brut cremant (dry bubbly) and then progress through the dry stills, the demi-sec, (off-dry)  into the less-dry-getting- sweet to sweet – les vintages tardives (the late pickings).  But so many variants along the way, and so many bouquets etc etc.  Chablis could tell if a wine had been matured in oak barrels or stainless steel vats.  Amazing.  Another thing is the art of using the spittoon in a reasonably genteel manner.  Chablis has mastered it of course.  Of fly, less said the better.  However, it is appropriate to comment on the beautiful Alsatian pottery spittoons.  I would love to bring one back as a vase, but too heavy for travelling.  

At one winery, the tasting was conducted by a lovely young woman who had spent half a year in Brisbane learning English.  She could not have been more helpful or interesting.  At the next, which is one of the big names, and which advertised that it was open for tasting on its web-site, we were advised by a Harradine in the office that the wine-master was not in, and she could give us an appointment in two weeks time.  She really was unpleasant.  Interesting. Later, in Riquewihr, another woman was wonderful, talking not only about the characteristics of the wines, but also which foods they best complemented.  This with the fish course, this with foie gras, this is especially good with asparagus etc.  She was a delight.  Of course, part of the etiquette of tasting is that one buys some wine, so between us we ended up with quite a stock.  Chablis will take some home next week, I am stocking up for Christmas.

Cooking up a storm

Fly has a visitor.  A friend made in Kitzbuhel at the German language school.  ‘Chablis’ (a pseudonym of course) , a Sydney student of winemaking, nearing the end of the degree,  was headed for the Mosel in Germany to work in the vintage, and doing a quick German top-up before hand.  Now, with the vintage over in the Mosel, although not yet finished here, she is having a few days to see the Alsace wine region before heading back home. 

It is very educational for fly to be in the presence of one who really does know what they are talking about when referring to the blackcurrent bouquet or the sweaty saddle leather undertone.  She brought a very nice off-dry spatlese Riesling from the Bernkastle vintage.  (Does that sound as though I have learned something already?)  It was very good, and the bottle disappeared with the evening yesterday.

Today we have been to some villages, but most are very quiet on a Monday, having exhausted themselves over a weekend of hosting tour buses etc.  So we headed in to Selestat, with ideas of visiting the superlative Bread Museum and sampling the wares in its restaurant.  It also was experiencing Monday-itis, so we ended up having lunch at an excellent little place that served wonderful tartes flambees ( above - of which I managed to eat the lot this time).  This was accompanied by an Alsace pinot gris, very soft. (As I write, I am sipping a pinot blanc, also from Alsace, which is an early press, and so somewhat acidic.)  After a nap to cope with lunch, we have enjoyed a late-afternoon gluhwein based on a Cotes du Rhone Grenache. 

The wine-talk reminds me of a wonderful recent read.  A gadflights reading friend mentioned Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, which I had not read, so I did so, and then followed it up with two more of Paul Torday’s novels, The irresistible inheritance of Wilberforce, and The girl on the landing.  Wilberforce is a wine story, the title’s eponymous character having inherited a cellar of 100,000 bottles of wine.  His life thereafter belies the in vino veritas saying.  But one learns something of the language of oenology, and such interesting facts as that a bottle of Petrus 1982 can command £3,000.  (Wilberforce manages to drink two full bottles, alone, in a restaurant in the hilarious opening scene of the novel. Wonderfully managed by Torday). 

Peggy and Phillipe, the owners of the establishment here, took us for a tour of their set-up, wanting to show a very interested Australian wine-maker-to-be how it is done in Alsace.  Their 17 hectares in four different locations around the village produced 90,000 bottles of Sylvaner, pinot blanc, Muscat, Riesling, pinot gris,  gewurtztraminer, and pinot noir this vintage.  They grow and harvest the grapes, make the wine, bottle it and ship it out, all in the family. (With some additional help in the harvesting and pruning stages).  The wine-making ‘caves’ are under the gite I am in and the adjoining home they live in themselves.  Today, the big truck was being loaded with cases which Phillip’s father will drive to Normandy tomorrow to a distribution warehouse there.  Last week he did a similar trip into the South of France.  

‘Chablis’ is excited about being somewhere where she can cook, so has a chicken in the oven, with lots of fresh vegetables.  Sure to go well with the pinot blanc. 

Time out

A quiet few days.  I must have caught a bug somewhere, as I have been in the grip of ‘La Grippe’ for several days. It has been very good to be able to curl up and rest and do nothing.  Feeling perkier now.

This time out has facilitated some TV viewing, including day-time (as well as much Kindle reading. I will have to hide the Kindle when I get home and get back to the Library.  It is too easy to just buy a book on the Kindle, and while they are not nearly as expensive as buying paper, it still mounts up.)  Anyway …The news channels of course are full of the Greek crisis, there being no shortage of talking heads with opinions.  Most of the time fly has very little idea what they are actually saying, but just as at home, you can turn off the sound and still get the general gist of it. They behave, or misbehave, just as badly as some of our commentators do. 

But in general, the TV is pretty much like what we are served up regularly too. There are the same sorts of shows.  There is a Neighbours look-alike – ‘Plus belle la vie’.  It is on for a half hour every evening, and has similar settings and story lines.  Some characters work in a hospital, some work in a café, there is a gay story line, they all live in the same apartment block etc.  There are also the home makeover shows and the personal makeover shows, the gardening and the mothering etc.  The 24  hour news channel.  And a 24 hour advertisements channel.  Who would watch that?

There are a lot of American shows which have been dubbed with French. ‘Two and a half men’ -  Who would bother?  But there it is.  And ‘The Mentalist’.  And during the day, one can watch among other things  ‘La petite maison dans la prairie’, or ‘Hogan’s Heroes’.  There are some French made soapy things too, cops and lawyers and doctors, the usual menu. 

There is a good channel based in Strasbourg which broadcasts in French and German and does a lot of interesting art shows and documentaries.  On it, there have been two documentaries about Australia. The first visited all the stereotypes – cassowaries in Cape York, a female pilot delivering the mail to outback stations, nippers on the beach at Bondi, the Opera House, the Three Sisters in the Blue Mountains.  It was still nice to watch!  The second one followed three jillaroos working on a property near Longreach, and was really a balanced presentation. Not glamourised, and not under-stated.  They camped out under the stars while mustering, all very good horse-women, and they branded cattle back at the homestead.  They were genuine and sensible in the interviews.  The owner manager was an interesting character, probably more so than was allowed to come through.  At one point the French dubbing did not come in quick enough to cover some very colourful language he directed at his cattle.