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Everything you always wanted to know about France - from France |
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Our life this weekWe live in the middle of one of the biggest wine producing areas of the world. Until recently most of the wine in Languedoc was, to put it politely, rubbish. There were always a few little known exceptions, but the farmers here mostly grew rich from the advent of the railways on producing billions of gallons of plonk for the army and as dirt-cheap drinking sheep-dip for the cities up north. The French have never got the hang of making good beer and do strange things with distillations and infusions of fermented grape juice, which does everything completely naturally and takes no skill whatsoever, the whole booze industry got stuck somewhere in the mid 19th century. This intense farming created the wine-lakes of the Common Market, and even more important, the agricultural subsidies - now, here was something the French can understand, bureaucrats giving money to plant vines - then rip-up, then plant new, fashionable, varieties, then rip these up and plant something else "olives, sunflowers, housing-estates, supermarkets... whatever) each time getting a pleasant cheque from Brussels. I have met farmers in France who have not produced a singe commercial crop in over ten years, yet have been paid more than the value of their land, twice over, to plant then tear out crop after crop. I digress, what I am concerned about is not the local farmers, who will survive, but the fact that the wine I buy in the local shops in my village in Montblanc, is mostly rubbish. I just do not understand this. Languedoc has some of the most diverse soils in the world - (you want high Geiger counting uranium rich soil, on my doorstep. Rocks and shales of the oldest in the world, no problem. Sunshine, 300 days a year on average, you've got it.) Making wine for 2400 years, that's the Languedoc. So, why is most of it so bad? I can get better and cheaper wine in any Sainsburys, Waitrose or Tescos in the UK. Not too sure about the USA as I have not been there for over ten years, plus their obsession with the Zinfadel grape puzzles me - but, I have many happy memories, brinking on oblivion, with wines from the USofA - and the Oz wines .. Ripper - roll on Chile and all the South American "republics" (are there any minute little states like Luxembourg or Andorra in South America? Or are they all a squillion square miles of jungle, cocaine and kalashenkovs} Slowly our local shops are getting the message. Bottles are appearing on their shelves from other countries. But, the subsidies are back, local farmers are now getting again paid to rip out vines and do nothing for a few years - I know that buying a local bottle is likely to be a "challenging" experience. Why in our little village does the local shop have a big choice of Bordeaux wines and none from any local producer? But one of the biggest problems is still the cork. Why stop the wine from falling out of the bottle with a piece of dead tree? I am told that one bottle in five is "corked" (wine which is contaminated by infected corks). Not only does the traditional cork ruin a lot of wine, but getting the stupid thing out needs a corkscrew, which, if you find yourself with a bottle and no corkscrew to hand can be a challenging experience. I once was able to remove a cork with a wire coat hanger - it took half an hour and about a pint of blood - the wine was not worth the effort. Can someone tell my why in the 21st century a simple screw-top seal is not used for the best wines? === I am writing this on a balcony looking out to a clear blue sky and the dark Blue Mediterranean. I can also see the ubiquitous EDF architectural features of pylons and thick black cables everywhere. The French national power company (Electricite De France) must feed their designers ugly pills, the good news is that after so many years in France I don't see them - unless it is a beautiful sunny day and I am looking out over the Mediterranean - which is one of the reasons I am here in the first place. === Praise again for French Railways - even the name translates in a seductive way "The State company of the Iron Road" - clean, quick, inexpensive and on-time - definitely the best way to travel through France. This week I took the TGV along the Cote d'Azur with great views of the towns and beaches. Earlier this week I was by the Spanish border and saw the construction site for the new high speed tunnel under the Pyrenees (well actually the Alberes which are even older and harder rocks). Soon we will be able to get from our local station and be in Barcelona in under 2 hours - I wonder what the TGV would be called in Thomas the Tank Engine, any suggestions. There are over 2,000 features and articles on this site about French life and living in France. You can search from the search box above. Do browse through our website and please use the advertising links, they help pay for the site. I do try to reply to all mail - Contact Me - most is about property or living in France. I publish comments in this newsletter which I believe are of interest and may help find answers for people wanting to come to France. I hope readers will go to the adverts which help support our overheads. |
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