Right, I'm sure you'll all be relieved to know that Nahthern has returned after an extended leave of absence - my little trip to France was followed by a house move and temporary loss of internet - but nowt to fear - now to more interesting matters and my splendid weekend in the Jura and the Percee du Vin Jaune where, dear reader you will be pleased to note I consumed mightily.
After having had to stay up all night to catch the first flight in to Geneva we train it to the border outpost of La Cure a one horse mountain town where we did manage to find a dodgy little cafe open and waiting for our pick-up, watching the snow coming down hard we settled in with a breakfast of strong espresso, orange juice and Pontalier-Anis - a splendid local Pastis mixed with a sugar cube and a little water - full of flavour herbaciously aromatic and more akin to a fine Absinthe - it was to prove a mainstay of the weekend. By 11.30am we were in good company with some firm Pont drinking on both sides of the bar, I was in the presence of good solid mountain folk.
After getting picked up and driven to our base for the weekend, the charming and suprisingly friendly little town of Champagnole, I promptly passed out for most of the afternoon thus ensuring we missed the first day of the Percee.
No matter it was to prove a most culturally eventful evening as I was introduced to the good people of Champagnole. First off was dinner at Restaurant Pirate with my dining companions Vincent trip organiser extraordinaire, Sebastien our irrepressibly positive Qubecois and Anthony 'Monsieur Rolex' - a restaurant which as the name suggests was liberally decorated with all mannor of parrot related paraphernalia and with service that matched the ambience I did not hold my hopes high - but I was to be pleasantly suprised with a very satisfactory meal, entree was a plate of Grand cru Jambon Fume, local smoke cured ham which was excellent not quite the depth of flavour as an Iberico Jamon but very similar silky texture most impressed - this was followed by a splendid Chateau Briand et Morilles (they use Morilles on everything round here even saw it on a desert - felt this was a step too far) it was cooked perfectly, seared hard on the outside blue in the centre (note to Americans this is how to spell center) a simple thing but hard to find done this well. This was washed down with a couple of bottles of very satisfactory Bordeaux - Ch. Toutes des Graves 05 - not overly complex but at 30euros was a well deserving drop. The only let down was my assiette de fromage which was so crap I cant be bothered to write about it. Then it was on to the Big Ben bar across the road the last stop for local under 30s, a most individual drinking den every square inch floor to ceiling covered in every conceivable piece of pop art kitsch from the US and UK - we quickly settled into the communal tables and hit the Irish coffees - a house speciality which with the amount of whiskey involved proved suprisingly good, and more of the obligatory Pont, again I was most taken with everybodys hospitality and acceptance of the l'Anglais dumb-arse in the corner with the bad french. After kick out it was back to Monsieur Rolexs place for Poker - which he ended up winning and more drinking - the last thing we hit was his Grandmothers home made Mirabelle Eau d Vie - at the time I remember it as being one of the best Eau d Vie I've ever had - it also proved to be my undoing - the last thing I remember is eating the best ham and cheese croissant IN THE WORLD back in my hotel room at 7am - a most splendid evening and many thanks to Mon. Rolex's consistently excellent hospitality.
Tomorrow will post actually making it finally to the Percee du Vin Jaune - this is the annual local festival held in a different town each year to celebrate the release of the Vin Jaune - this year held in the Town of Poligny - 'Yellow wine' this is a very distinctive oxidative style of wine made from the Savagnin grape wich must be aged for a minimum of 7 years - so this was the realease of the 02 vintage - a most splendid day.
Correction - aged for a minimum 6 years and 3 months after harvest
Posted by: Nahthern | Monday, 22 February 2010 at 19:29