Sablet vignerons
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This blog has moved
(08/09/2011
)
I set up this blog to cover my trip on an old Solex motorbike from Chablis to Sablet in Provence in 2009. Over 40 days I visited 80 winemakers (some world-famous and others still unknown) as I ... -
-
This blog has moved
(08/09/2011
)
I set up this blog to cover my trip on an old Solex motorbike from Chablis to Sablet in Provence in 2009. Over 40 days I visited 80 winemakers (some world-famous and others still unknown) as I ... -
Millesime Bio - organic wine goes from strength to strength
(29/01/2011
posted in: The wider world of wine
)
Jacques Beaufort and Karen Turner & Emmanuel Pageot at Millesime Bio Ipads, smartphones, digital photos, the daily release of new software and tools, off-peak travel bargains. It's a rich moment ... -
Millesime Bio - getting on the inside at the Outsiders
(25/01/2011
)
Ah! The south of France. Who wouldn't want to live down here? The sun, old stones, cicadas... the wine. So why not make some of the stuff? Last night at Boris restaurant in the heart of ... -
Millesime Bio - cold and clear for the organic wine fair
(24/01/2011
)
Before dawn this morning I drove down the freeway to Montpellier, with the half moon on one side of the clear sky and a sliver of gold on the opposite horizon. I realised why wine shows are held ... -
Domaine Piaugier, Sablet
(21/12/2010
posted in: Sablet's wines
)
When Alphonse Vautour planted six hectares of vines around his little winery up in Les Briguières in 1905, he might have been amused to know that he was working on a geological anomaly. The ... -
Draft of new post for reference check only
(27/10/2010
)
It was my neighbour's grand-daughter Carla Giovanelli and her friend Julie Gallet -
Domaine Long Horse, Sablet
(20/10/2010
posted in: Sablet's wines
)
Marie and Patrick Foglia have just bottled their third vintage. They run a large company from Avignon that trains teachers all over France. Patrick, who has been intrigued for many years by the ... -
Big changes at VinoSolex
(12/10/2010
posted in: Latest news from the South of France
)
This blog started during my Solex trip last year from Chablis to Sablet. Late last year I "migrated" it to terredevins, with the encouragement of Vitisphere's urbane Olivier Lebaron. It's time to ... -
Sablet still snowed in, but the sun is out at last
(11/01/2010
posted in: Latest news from the South of France
)
Over a foot (30 cms) of snow fell on Sablet on Friday. No-one here has seen snow like it since 1971. That winter the mistral swept it all away quickly. This time the weather has stayed calm and ... -
Sablet under a blanket of snow
(08/01/2010
posted in: Latest news from the South of France
)
Solex is warm and dry under its tarpaulin in the barn. It would want to be. After snow storms created havoc on the roads of northern France yesterday, it's the South's turn today. It's snowed all ... -
Back from the desert - time to sip again
(04/01/2010
)
The short gap in posts is due to a walk we have just finished along the cliff of Bandiagara in Mali over Christmas. It was hot, unseasonally hot: 35 degrees as we visited the Dogon people. Mali is ... -
Francois de Ligneris - the peasant Count of Bordeaux and Corbieres
(11/12/2009
posted in: The wider world of wine
)
To round of my reports of yesterday's round of slurping in Paris... Count Francois de Ligneris is aristrocratic enough not to give a damn. He sold his marvelous Chateau Soutard (St Emilion grand ... -
Slurping through the centre of the world
(11/12/2009
)
Who needs proof that even though Paris is in the north of France, it is truly its beating heart? You could think of France as a spider, with Paris at the thorax and the freeways and rail lines ... -
What has this got to do with wine ?
(03/12/2009
)
It’s the usual hassle. Culture lovers are used to putting up with queues and crowds. Last Saturday, the From Byzantium to Istanbul exhibition at the Grand Palais on the “world’s most beautiful ... -
And what it looks like in winter
(02/12/2009
)
That previous post was the last one for autumn, as at the change in the month... ...it has turned COLD! Perfect for going out in the early morning to see the vines in the winter mist. Sablet is in ... -
Just in case you wondered what Sablet looks like in Autumn
(23/11/2009
)
The long hot 2009 summer is over, but it's still warm for this late in the year. The vines have turned golden. On the river stones at the top of a ridge between Sablet and Rasteau called the ... -
Up in Paris for the other world of wine
(23/11/2009
)
As if the French wine world weren’t lively enough, many of France’s beautiful wine people met up in Paris last Thursday for the inaugural Autrement Vin expo. I caught the metro, as Solex was down ... -
Solex on the backburner. Blame Hong Kong
(18/11/2009
)
After some intense writing in October, the Solex terroir book has slowed down a bit as I have been over in Hong Kong to see what is happening in the wine world over there. Since the government of ... -
The story continues - a delightful chat with the Dugat-Pys
(07/10/2009
posted in: Travels on the Solex
)
As I put together the final version of Le Bonheur est dans le Nez (this French title is a pun on the film Le Bonheur est dans le Pres - Happiness is in the country field) I'm posting snippets from ... -
The fight about wine... and oil
(01/10/2009
)
I justified my trip from Chablis to Sablet in May and June by saying that I wasn't doing it to taste some of the world's best wine. I was just studying the global battle between wines that come ... -
The spoit children of the vine world
(30/09/2009
posted in: Travels on the Solex
)
Continuing my fun in Chablis... I wheeled Solex through the gates at Domaine Long-Depaquit and waited for a few minutes on the wide gravel in front of the sparklingly renovated late 18th century ... -
Postmodernism at la Chablisienne
(24/09/2009
posted in: Travels on the Solex
)
With his small wire-rimmed glasses and rather intense Left Bank look, Hervé Tucki struck me as a professor of literary criticism rather than a wine man. This impression was immediately confirmed ... -
A snatch of the second day
(23/09/2009
posted in: Travels on the Solex
)
Snippets from the second day. I visit Chitry and make an important decision. Chitry is marketed in the tourist pamphlets for its fortified church although, since “Ch” is pronounced softly in ... -
Les follies Colinot - exploring the best of Irancy
(22/09/2009
posted in: Travels on the Solex
)
Over the next few weeks I am going to post snippets of the final version of "Bonheur est dans le Nez" which I am writing (in English) at the moment. So, you can keep up to date with Solex's trip ... -
The full version of the book - how it starts
(21/09/2009
posted in: Travels on the Solex
)
Arriving by car from the wide Rhone valley to the west, you take the long bend (on two wheels if you live down here) and cross the bridge over the Ouveze. Sablet is right in front of you, on its ... -
It's hot down here - and I've made a marvellous discovery!
(24/08/2009
)
Dear Friends, Solex is parked in the cool of our barn. I wouldn't want it to melt. We're having a torrid summer this year. I've forgotten what rain looks like. I’ve seen less than a week of bad ... -
Competition! A super new book about to hit the shops
(23/07/2009
)
At Vinexpo I bumped into Harry Karis, a Chateauneuf-du-Pape fanatic. He is preparing a superb book on that appellation. To check out his web site, go to http://www.cdpwinebook.com/ The photo ... -
Official announcement of the tourism prize
(21/07/2009
)
To see the story in winetourisminfrance, follow this link: http://www.winetourisminfrance.com/fr/magazine/835_lincoln_siliakus_oenotouriste_de_l_annee.htm -
Solex Terroir book launched at Sablet book fair
(20/07/2009
posted in: Travels on the Solex
)
The Solex rolled into Sablet on 20 June after 6 weeks on the road, and less than a month later my first book about the trip, published by éditions du Banc d'Arguin, has hit the streets. That’s the ... -
Solex to be launched at Sablet book fair!
(18/07/2009
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It's midsummer. A cold front is moving through France, and most of the country is under a thick layer of cloud today. Down here in Provence, though, the sky is blue, the mistral is blowing (which ... -
What has this got to do with Solex?
(06/07/2009
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Back at Sablet for a couple of weeks, writing up the book of my journey... But I have just heard something I just have to share. I've been listening to the radio at lunchtime. It's talkback time. ... -
Fin de siecle in Bordeaux
(28/06/2009
posted in: The wider world of wine
)
Thursday. The end of the last day of Vinexpo, the world's largest wine show. It’s supposed to finish at 4pm, but everyone starts winding down at lunchtime. Business is slow, and people are tired ... -
And now leaving Bordeaux - or why that post took so long coming
(25/06/2009
)
Eagle-eyed readers may have noticed the gap between my arrival in Sablet and the last post. In our instantaneous lives, such a gap is unforgivable. But please do forgive me. I've been at Vinexpo. ... -
Spectacular arrival in Sablet
(25/06/2009
posted in: Travels on the Solex
)
Solex rolled into Sablet last Saturday. But it was not alone for the last day of the trip. The little central square in the village of Cairanne was buzzing at 9am, with eight other Solex fans from ... -
Solex now in the deep south
(14/06/2009
posted in: Travels on the Solex
)
Solex is finally in the deep south. The sky is lighter, the roofs have round Roman tiles, the traffic is just that little more eratic, people hang around.... I start my last week tomorrow in ... -
Pierre comes down to control
(10/06/2009
posted in: Travels on the Solex
)
The word “control” means a lot more in France than it does in the English-speaking world. A control is something that happens to you if the authorities think you have been, might be, or at a time ... -
Leaving Beaujolais for the South
(09/06/2009
)
The south is getting closer, I can feel it. Many of the houses are roofed with Roman tiles, curved and brittle, not flat industrial ones. It is windy and stormy. The weather here can be chaotic, ... -
New blood - jeunesse dans les vignes
(08/06/2009
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Dear friends/Chers amis.. Voici quelques images pour montrer que c'est pas necessaire de porter un beret pour etre vigneron. Here's proof that you don't need to be an old fogey in a beret and blue ... -
From Burgundy to Beaujolais
(04/06/2009
)
The weather is great, Solex is happy (although he went on strike on a steep slope the other day, and I had to push him up the hill), the wines are wonderful and the vignerons inspiring. But I ...
What's this blog, then?
This is my new experimental blog. My full blog is still at terredevins. This independent blog will cover all of my Solex travels in the vineyards and will showcase the vignerons and wines of northern provence around Sablet.
I moved to France ten years ago and started this blog as I rode my 1966-model Solex motorbike from Chablis to Sablet in May and June 2009. As a journalist with L’Amateur de Bordeaux, I have a professional obligation to taste as much as I can, and this blog covers all of my wine-based travel, whether through the heartland of South France or Hong Kong and Australia. I am planning, as the French would say, to “recidive” soon with a trip along the Loire.
Last articles
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This blog has moved
I set up this blog to cover my trip on an old Solex motorbike from Chablis to...
-
This blog has moved
I set up this blog to cover my trip on an old Solex motorbike from Chablis to...
-
Millesime Bio - organic wine goes from strength to strength
Jacques Beaufort and Karen Turner & Emmanuel Pageot at Millesime...
-
Millesime Bio - getting on the inside at the Outsiders
Ah! The south of France. Who wouldn't want to live down here? The sun, old stones,...
-
Millesime Bio - cold and clear for the organic wine fair
Before dawn this morning I drove down the freeway to Montpellier, with the...