April 17, 2019: Vanquishing Vacqueyras!

The day is gorgeous. Warm, sunny, no wind. Perfect for outdoor adventures. We wanted to stay near home as Judy will arrive on the 5 pm TGV (fast train) in Avignon, about a half hour's drive from here.

So the perfect solution is a walking tour of the Vacqueyras vineyards, using a brochure Dave got from the Sarrians tourist office yesterday. I, of course, will not be walking and our lovely sommelier, Clark, who doubles as a chauffeur, offered to drive me on the parts of the tour that have roads. We were in the center of Vacqueyras at the first posted sign shortly after 10 am.

A beautifully painted building that is also a wine producer on the main road in Vacqueyras.

The 3 hour walk will take our hikers through the countryside surrounding Vacqueyras, stopping from time to time for a sign posted that explains a feature of the vineyards, such as soil, types of pruning, harvesting, planting, stages of growth, etc. They'll follow the grape cluster signs.

the grape clusters showed the path

Dave and Janis headed out on the walking path, while Clark and I unloaded my chariot and toured the old town center of Vacqueyras. We began by walking the road along the old ramparts. You can see from its map that it was a circular walled city on the highest point of ground in the area (which isn't very high, really).

map of the old town (in purple) of Vacqueyras

Lo and behold, the first building we saw was called Vins de Vacqueyras - It was the maison de vin for Vacqueyras.

A maison de vin provides tasting for various winemakers of the area and sells their wines for the price you would pay at the individual domaine. It's not a coop, as each winemaker makes and bottles his/her own wine. The maison de vin merely represents these wine makers as a service.

27 domains, 70 vintages, same price as at the cave

As we continued on, we passed what was once the only entrance portal to the city - la porte Basse (lower gate).

la porte Basse

Across the street is a public fountain, and a sign (all in French) about how the moats outside the city walls were later filled in and the street lined with plane trees to beautify the city.

Clark reading a sign about the porte and the fountain (his French is impeccable, naturellement)

It certainly captures our interest and Clark and I think one of the café's along the street would be a good place to wait for the hikers later.

the "ring" road outside the castle walls where the moat used to be, now lined with plane trees 

Also on the outside of the city is another set of fountains and a lavoir. At one time, this was the only water source for the city. (and it was outside the city walls. What were they thinking?)

lavoir and fountain - this is where Janis and Dave left the city to venture into the vineyards

Of course, like every good medieval town, Vacqueyras ascends too steeply for my chariot to climb without help from Clark. So my chauffeur becomes my wheelchair pusher.

Lynn putt-putting up the hill to the upper gate where the church tower can be seen

We circled and ascended to an upper gate which opened onto the square with the "Église paroissiale de St. Barthélemy" (parish church of St. Bartholemew, 1650) and the château that belonged to the lord of the town (Vassadel family, 1348-1600).

St Barthélemy church

Vacqueras' most famous citizen is a 12th century troubadour named Raimbaut 

Then wandered back down on the narrow streets, where once again, despite having no garden space, houses managed to find some way to display flowering plants. This particular house, had, besides unique flower pots built into the wall, a screen door. Now that's a new twist I've never seen before.

I've never seen an old house with a screen door before and I loved the pots that were spaced every few feet apart on the wall

We had arranged to meet Janis and Dave at sign number 8 of their tour, so we headed out of town finding ever smaller roads, until we met them at a clump of buildings in the middle of vineyards.

Janis, somewhere in the vineyards on a gravel road

Dave and Janis at our meeting point

We picked them up and drove a short distance to a small mas (farm) called Domaine la Garrigue which featured, surprise, a tasting room.

The domain we visited, in the middle of - you guessed it - the vineyards

11:30 am may seem a bit too early for tasting, but since they are closed from noon til 2, this is our best opportunity. We rang the bell and waited a minute for the proprietor to come over from another door of the house.

tasting room in the bottom of their house; woman who did the tasting was 6th generation on the property (since 1850)

These wines were delicious, so, of course, we bought a carton of 6 Vacqueyras reds. Our hostess gifted us two demi-bottles of their 2010 vintage. Can't wait to try these. This wine producer  has 80 hectares (quite a lot of land) across vineyards in Sarrians, Vacqueyras and Beaumes-de-Venise. All grapes are grown on a soil type called garrigue. This soil is found across southern France and features scrubby bushes and trees with open spaces growing in a limestone soil that features dry summer conditions. The soil where we are walking is ochre in color and full of fist-sized stones that make you wonder how grapevines can survive. But they not only survive, they thrive, making wonderfully rich red wines, generally syrah and grenache.

walking through the vineyards, spectacular scenery

some vines are getting lots of leaves

We ate our lunch on a stone bench outside the farm we had just visited. The kind proprietor came out to offer us table and chairs and a glass of wine for our lunch. We thanked her for her thoughtfulness, but refused as we were nearly ready to start our afternoon. In the meantime, we enjoyed the expansive view of vineyards provide by our lunch location.

our view at lunch

Off again, Clark and I by road, Janis and Dave on foot.

these are the panels Dave and Janis saw, explaining things about raising grapes for wine

Clark and I traveled farm paths, just wide enough for one car.

our "roads" - at least most were paved

Luckily we only met one tractor coming at us as we traveled to a "town" - a hamlet really - of a few houses called Fontbonne.

Fontbonne 

There should have been a sign in this town, but we couldn't find it, in spite of traveling the entire town (of one street). The old buildings and farms in this town were made by cementing the stones of the garrigue into walls. And we found one new estate that must have been the 21st century equivalent of the lord of the manor.

Fontbonne

We drove to a "table d'orientation" - a sign that labeled what we were seeing as we looked toward Vacqueyras, Mont Ventoux, and the Dentelles across the vineyards of the garrigue.

Vacqueyras (with a telephoto lens)

Clark and I headed back to town to sit at one of the outdoor cafés while we waited for Janis and Dave to finish. Of course, we had a glass of wine - at less than 2 Euros each - table wine, but very drinkable.

At the café - Lynn

Clark at café

When Janis and Dave arrived, we finished our afternoon at the Caveau du Vacqueyras, which boasted 70 wines from 27 domains of the region.

The wines available to buy at the Cave

Clark and Dave deciding what to buy

We tasted a lovely rosé and a couple of reds and left with another carton of 6 bottles. Clark will be busy tonight entering our new purchases into his wine-taster's spreadsheet. It is a work of love.

Home again by 3 pm, naps are in order for the hikers. Sitting on our patio in the sun is on my agenda. Dave returned from Avignon with Judy by 6 pm and we celebrated with aperos and an easy dinner of sausages, left-over ratatouille and salad. Bed was early for all of us.

Judy has arrived!

Since this is the first day of our third week, a wine update has been provided by Clark. Our 2 week total of bottles is 39 (remember we had help!) and we've accumulated quite a few bottles yet to be sampled.

red wines waiting to be drunk

our collection of empty bottles