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@ennui1 wrote:I love any opportunity to post my favorite article about why we should drink cheap wine.
http://www.slate.com/articles/life/drink/2011/11/why_you_should_be_drinking_cheap_wine.html
ennui1, I just started reading this thread. Thanks so much for this great article. I tend not to purchase that much wine except when I am in France. In France, lol, my diet goes on holiday while I am there and I indulge in three of my all time favorite foods that go so very well together: cheese, bread and wine. 
I've always marveled at how much cheaper the wine is in France compared to the USA. The article makes it clear that expensive Sonoma Valley real estate and upselling are the culprits. I love inexpensive French coop wine from the south of France (Provence, Drome, and the department just to the west of them).
I love french dessert wines. Beaume de Venise, the syrupy and complex muscat grape, is wonderful (Provence department). And at one of the many summer weekend local wine festivals, I discovered Cadillac wine from Bordeaux. It's just next to the Sauterne and it tastes almost as good... but without the hefty price tag.
In a lot of the french countryside, the land is much more affordable and the farmers are making the best with their old equipment, so they aren't having to mark the wine up to pay for the latest technological inventions. Frequently, they each press their wine at the local coop facility which helps to keep prices down.
A friend of drank his way through Burgundy a few months ago, in a relatively affordable manner and responsible manner.
At the weekend summer wine festivals, for generally $10-15 you can buy a ticket that lets you taste all the local wines up for offer at the festival. There are usually 20-80 wines on offer and I like to try as many as possible!! I have to remember to eat a hardy meal before hand because, otherwise, the wine goes right to my head!
-- bebe
@HonnyBrown wrote:bebe, I actually did read through your post several times, but I got stuck on your friend.
I told my husband that for my 50th birthday, I want to go to France. He doesn't drink, so I will have a designated driver everyplace we go.
When I lived in LA, Trader Joe's had a very good French wine selection. I started learning about Pouilly-Fuisse wines but then I moved about 3 or 4 months into the journey.
80 wines in one weekend? I can do that! As a matter of fact, I would be in heaven!
@HonnyBrown@ , lol, I was lured over to the Kitchen forum by @VaBelle35 Le Crafty. She' knows that I have a weakness for all things cheese, so she left me a notification of her For my fellow cheese lovers, a moment of silence thread. -- She knew that resistance would be futile. 
I noticed that you had started a Wine thread and so I thought I'd check it out. I only have a very basic knowledge of wine: I know that it goes really well with cheese and bread.
HB, I hope you get to go to France for your 50th birthday. I think you'd love it. And that your husband is you designated driver is so great!!
I speak just barely passable french and the french people are wenderful to me. The thing to remember is that unlike the states, the french people feel that they are the custodians of a great civilization. Old school manners are de riguer. If you approach french people with respect, they melt and can be charming.
Americans are known being mystified that other cultures (in their own countries) don't speak english, and I think this presumption infuriates the french to no end. When friends are visiting France, I always suggest they approach a French person with the following phrase: Excusez moi, Monsieur/Madame, puis je parle en anglais? (which translates to: Excuse me, Mr./Madame, may I please speak in english?). Outside the very interior of France, most french people do speak eaglish. And if they are asked politely, then they are happy to oblige.
France is a great place to indulge because the the wine is good and the good wine is generally affordable.
lol, it was actually 80 wines in one afternoon between 1pm and around 6pm. I started at a small wine festival (maybe 15-20 different wines) at no charge. Then I graduated to a larger festival later at around 3pm in the afternoon. This was in Provence which is in the south of France just next to the Riviera. A lot of the old towns are hilltop towns. They were built on hilltops to that they would be easier to defend from outsiders.
I had quickly learned that, a lot of times, they keep the really good stuff at the top of the hill, so I started up there. It also makes it easier to walk downhill after a couple dozen tastings. I had had a good sized lunch earlier in the afternoon so that It would take me longer before I got tipsy. While I actually don't drink wine/spirits very often, for some strange reason I have a huge tolerance. lol, it's generally wasted on me. In any case, I tasted and tasted for 3-4 hours before getting back down to my car. I think they had 60-70 different wines. . And I do mean just a taste of each wine (for the most part) because otherwise I would have gotten drunk.
When I reached my car, I realized that I had had too much to drink and that the only responsible thing to go was to just go to sleep in my car and sleep it off. I don't drink and drive. At about 11pm that evening I woke up to giggles. A young couple was leaving and were giggling at me sleeping it off in the back seat of my car. At that point I realized I was fine and I drove back to where I was staying. lol, I must have looked quite a site.
I loev France and have been there a good number of times. Occasionally I have been able to spend a month in the summer driving around France. When I do, I'll spend a lot of time going through guide books and planning a very general route. -- It's the best. I've always been very independent and I really like to travel alone in France. As I'm sure you have figured out, I have a chatty personality and I'm only alone for as long as I choose to be alone. I'm never at a loss for friendly folks to chat with.
The French countryside is beautiful. It's even more exquisite than the paintings that the French impressionists have painted. No joke, I'll get in my car at 7-8am in the morning and drive from town to town until 8-10pm that evening. I stay at youth hostels (which I love, great atmosphere and very interesting people), or local pensions. I always bring a tent and sleeping bag in case everything's closed up when I settle down for the evening. In typical french fashion, they have luxe campgrounds which are open 24/7.
I love french cheese and I'm happy to go an hour or two out of my way to go to a great cheese shop or to try a particularly good cheese. It's all part of the fun and the journey.
HB, you've got to get to France... if only for the wine... and soooo much more!!!
-- bebe
@HonnyBrown wrote:wow bebe! I know who to consult before I go to France! You've already given me some great tips.
I doubt if I would drive after an full day of tasting either. That's awesome that you tasted 80. And you call yourself a lightweight?!
The most that I've tasted was 30 at the Temecula Balloon and Wine festival outside of Los Angeles. My girlfriend was driving, so she gave me her tickets and a guy who was there for the balloons gave me most of his. I have no memory past a certain point. The following week, I got a pair of boots by mail and had a serious sunburn.
Fraiche Restaurant in LA used to do pairings with their wine distributors and chefs with employees and select patrons as the guinea pigs. One of the pairings was champagne and parmesan cheese. Wow, did that put everything in perspective for me! That was my Wine AHA Moment!
I took a French language class for fun after I graduated. I remember very few key phrases, so I'm going to take another class the year before we go to France.
It's 4 years off, but I'm excited already!!!
HB, lol, I hope it was a rocking pair of boots!!
It really is wonderful to experience what a good wine/cheese pairing can create.
I know very little about wine, but one of my best friends is married to a serious oenophile. Once a month he attends a low key wine tasting with some top oenophiles in the area and the guy who runs the serious cheese store in the area. No pretension, just serious wine talk and crazy good cheese (I know because sometimes I get left overs!!).
What I love about him is that he just loves to share his knowledge about wine... no muss, no fuss, no fanfare...just a real passion for wine. Once he's got his wine cellar back in shape, he's promised that I can try one of his Chateau Yqueims!!!
If you have local french programming (news. etc.), then you might just want to turn it on occasionally and listen to it while you're cooking. It might help some of that french come back.
I'm also an armchair traveler and I really enjoy reading books about France. I also read books about local french culture from the the early 1900s. lol, all things french are a passion for me, though the Provence are (just left of the Riviera) is where my heart lives.
lol, if you haven't already, why don't you start checking out the travel section of your local bookstore now!!!
-- bebe
@HonnyBrown wrote:An actual Chateau d'Yqueim? I've heard so much about that wine, to the point where I thought it was a myth! That will be a good tasting. There's a lot of history in those grapes.
My husband and I will both be new to France. When he decides where we go, I'll start hunting the travel sections. I'm so excited. My first meal will be a Croque Monsier (my favorite sandwich)!
@HonnyBrown sorry for the late reply but I didn't see your post until just now. lol, yup! An actual Chateau d'Yqueim!! And he volunteered!! He just has to get his wine cellar back together first because he's been doing infectious disease research in Africa for the past few years and everything went into several areas of storage. He's till commuting back and forth but, when the time is right, I'll be sure to remind him.
I've been dreaming of the mythic Chateau d'Yqueim since I was in my early 20s even though I knew nothing about wine then... and don't know that much more now but I can appreciate good and great wines. Colette is my favorite writer (along with Jane Austin) and Chateau d'Yqueim comes up again and again in her books. She get's criticized because she has a deceptively simple writing style (as does Austin), while Hemingway's Nick Adams Stories get all the adulation.
It's probably going to be a while before I get to try the Chateau d'Yqueim, but I'm really looking forward to it!!
I think you should nudge your husband along a bit. I know that France sounds like it should be expensive, but it doesn't have to be that hard on the wallet. Of course, I travel alone and stay at youth hostels, camp grounds or inexpensive local places. -- I have a slew of guidebooks but Let's Go France (or Paris) and Rick Steves are the best for good quality at rock bottom prices.
Rick's are probably a somewhat better standard quality, while Let's Go can run the gamut. During the infamous trip with a friend of mine (I always travel alone on my France trips these days), We showed up in Avignon at 8pm. With Let's Go, I was able to find a hotel room in old town Avignon for a great rate and I was even able to find parking close by. It was a bit on the seedy side but seemed fine. The walls were paper thin and there seemed to be a lot of opening and closing of doors. lol, After about three hours of this, I realized that this was a hotel that also rented by the hour. Big surprise! But it was perfectly safe, centrally located with parking... so we stayed two more days!
I love a good Croque Monsieur too, as well as a great pain au chocolat, and a big bowl of cafe au lait. Great cheese, saucisson, local bread and wine are wonderful as well. Over the years, I've also eaten at a number of three star Michelin restaurants at relatively rock bottom prices. In France, Michelin only gives (I think it's) 21 different restaurants their 3-star rating each year (and they can be taken away... and sometimes are). Here's how I work the system...
When the new Michelin France comes out, I literally look through all of the restaurant listings in the regions I will be traveling. There are a number of two star and some three star restaurants that have a prix fixe menu at lunch. And frequently it much, much, much less expensive than their a la carte dinner menu. Occasionally, there will be a dinner prix fixe menu, but those are much harder to find. I assume they have these luncheon specials in order to fill up the restaurant at lunchtime (dinner seems to be the big money maker). -- So then I flag these potential bargain eats, and check them out as my travels allow.
There are more prix fixe bargains outside of Paris, but there are a few bargains in Paris sometimes.
-- bebe
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