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Everything you always wanted to know about France |
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Rentals-France Newsletter November 14 1999. Number 12 Contents.
1. Shipping Wine From France Many guests who stay with us would like to take wine back with them. We are frequently asked if we can ship a few cases to the United States and we have spent some time looking for answers. It is not so simple. There are many restrictions on the importation of wine and lots of cross state regulations. We understand that you can bring in two bottle for personal consumption. So what do you do on your second day back home?
So far our best information suggests a company in the USA which
imports many good French wines I also copy a recent letter sent to one of our friends who asked me about this subject : ===
>Kirsten wrote: How are things going there? Is it starting to get cold? We're into the wet,and cold here. (Seattle) I was wondering if there is anyway you can send me a case of your local wines? I have found a few here at very reasonable prices, but we really loved the wines we had your place. We also, loved the Montpeyroux wines. We have two bottles, but we're afraid to drink them because then they would be gone. The two that I found here so far are Henri Marc and Rivefort De France. These are ok, but the Montpeyroux is better. On the US labels they say Merlot, or Cabernet S. but I see that they don't specify that way on the labels from France. I can't remember, Is that just an American thing or does Montpeyroux have different grapes. Hope all is well, and the bread man is still delivering that great bread stuff!! Still the fondest memory. Kirsten< Hi Kirsten Sorry for the delay in replying, I have been a bit submerged with work . I have also been asking a lot of people for information on sending wine to the USA, it is not very simple and basically we cannot do it as individuals or as a small company. There are two main problems, the wine importation and the differing state laws plus inter-state regulations. What I have been doing is getting web sites which sell wine and trying to find ones which have solved these problems. The following sites may be able to help : They offer a selection of good French wines, some are from our region and they even offer a Montpeyroux. Try their pages at : http://www.superceller.com/wine/france/SOUTHWESTRED.htm http://superceller.com/france/southwwwt.htm Other sites and pages : http://www.french-wine-web.com/ http://www.wine.com/text_search_results.jsp?searchText=france&x=2&y=5 Hope this helps You asked about the labels, this is a very different thing. Here the wines are classified by a appellation such as AOC Coteaux de Languedoc or AOC Cotes du Rhone etc. This has a very strict control on the type of grapes used and the methods of vinification. This AOC here uses a combination of Grenache, Cinsault, Carignan and Syrah. Not always all and not always in the same proportions, this is left to the skill of the wine maker to mix and blend a good balanced wine with the complexity color brilliance, tastes and all the magic of a fully developed wine. A single cepage (grape variety) wine such as Merlot, Sauvignan etc is just that, one grape type and is usually a vin du table or vin du pays. Beaujolias is a single grape (Gamay) and is also an AOC, but the general rule is that these are simple drinking wines, not complex or very interesting (the coca cola wines). Last night was the celebration of the wine in Nizas, all the village was at the Salles des Fetes drinking the new wines, eating chestnuts and huge sausages (some 25 feet long) all free. The wine promises to be very good this year in spite of the ghastly weather just before the harvest The bread man cometh every day (except Tuesday). The weather is getting a bit chilly in the evening, we have had a couple of log fires this week, but the days are sunny and bright and have been very hot. Best wishes Tony
======================== My regular readers will know my feelings about the exorbitant and unfair charges made by France Telecom. Every day I get junk e-mail from people trying to get me to sign up for International calls for 16c a minute. I have not done anything about them and they have all gone straight to the trash. Until last week. I received a professional and personalized mail from a company called Americom. I looked at the site and it seemed to be all above board and straightforward. I am tempted to go further with them as I need to make calls to the USA regularly and for the cost involved here it would be cheaper to buy my own telephone company. Do any of you know anything about this company? I have put my toe in the water and have listed with them, so if you are tempted to find out more you can do this from my personal page with them at. http://telecom.nothing-but-net.net/4173/ If I find that the company has a good reputation for service and security then I can offer their phone services to visitors to France and you can save your money for extra champagne and oysters. Please let me know what you think.
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Film is much more expensive in France than in the USA or the UK,
it also costs twice as much to develop and print in most places
here. If you are only going through the airport X-ray machines
once, then it would make sense to bring the film in with you and
to take it back home for development and printing. But if you
are making several flights and connections, the film will be
affected by the scanners so be careful.
This is an article supplied by a neighbor, well about 50 miles away. Veronica Yuill is a talented Internet marketing and web specialist. I am saving my centimes so I can afford her services, she also seems to have a keen interest in some local specialities; here is her contribution. === If you spend any time in the South of France, particularly in summer, one habit you rapidly acquire is that of the aperitif. A table on a shady terrace with a view over the vines, dew-misted glasses, dishes of local olives and salami to nibble, and a tasty meal to look forward to. It's all part of the Midi way of life. France has been the home of all sorts of weird and wonderful potions designed to be drunk at this magical hour of the day -- Byrrh, Suze, Dubonnet, quinquina, guignolet, ratafia, and others even more unpronounceable. Most of these have come and gone, but France's favourite aperitif is still that quintessential Midi flavour -- pastis. The best-known brand of this cloudy aniseed-flavoured potion, Ricard, sells at the rate of 60 million litres a year, 80% of which is sold in France. There is a certain mystique to Ricard since it is Paul Ricard who is alleged to have 'invented' pastis. In reality every family had its own particular recipe in the days of home brewing, and he just refined and commercialised his own, very successfully. It is now made in five factories throughout France, but all of the flavouring for all of this pastis is made in a small, unassuming factory just outside B ziers, according to Paul Ricard's jealously guarded secret recipe. In fact this factory was itself kept quiet until a few years ago, presumably for fear of industrial espionage. The process starts out with huge crates of liquorice root which is pounded into fragments and then cooked in giant pressure cookers to extract the flavour. The resulting dark and evil-looking liquid is stored in large stainless steel vats. The second main ingredient is star anise extract which is imported from China and Vietnam, distilled to 100% purity, and then added in minute quantities (2 grams to every litre of pastis). Incidentally the residue from this distillation is resold to pharmaceutical companies for use in medicines so there are some social benefits to pastis besides the general feeling of well being it imparts to its drinkers. The remaining ingredients are a deliberately mysterious collection of 'herbes de Provence'. The resulting extract is then blended with pure alcohol, caramel (for colour) and a little water and sent off for bottling. Pastis is never drunk neat -- it's always diluted with roughly 5 times the amount of water. So, why does pastis turn cloudy when you add the water? Apparently it's the aniseed essence which reacts with the water. If pastis gets too cold, the aniseed essence crystallizes and forms little sparkly fragments, so it shouldn't be stored in the fridge. I am also advised that if you must have ice (cool spring water alone is preferred), you should add it after the water. The Ricard factory is not generally open to the public. However, another classic French aperitif, Noilly Prat, is made in a factory in the nearby fishing village of Marseillan, and here showing visitors around the plant in summer employs more people than the factory itself. The French are clearly too busy drinking pastis to bother with it, as in stark contrast to Ricard, 85% of Noilly is exported. It's a vermouth (i.e. white wine mixed with fruit alcohol and herbs, traditionally including wormwood, hence the name) which has the peculiarity of being aged in barrels outdoors -- there's a picture of the barrels roasting in the sun on the bottles. It was invented in 1813 by Monsieur Noilly, of course, who subsequently teamed up with his son-in-law, Monsieur Prat. The first stage is to age local white wines for 6 months in gigantic casks, each holding about 50,000 litres. After this, the wine is transferred to the famous outdoor casks -- over 2,000 of them. Some of these barrels are 80 years old, cracked and weathered to a silvery grey; this is rather startling when you are used to seeing wine aged in new (or relatively new) oak. In this case they don't actually want the flavour of the wood to impregnate the wine, which is why they don't use new ones. But when you see the state of the barrels, with the bung holes roughly plugged with wads of sacking, you do wonder about what gets into the wine, especially as it stays there for a year, baking in the sun, getting rained on very occasionally, but probably never suffering from frost. After this the wine is filtered (thank goodness) and blended; some fruit alcohols are also added. Following which it is transferred to yet another lot of barrels. It's at this point that the herbs (a secret recipe of course, but including 50% camomile) are added. A man dutifully goes around stirring these barrels every day, and after three weeks the finished product is pressed, filtered again, and sent off for bottling. The tour ends in a large, well-appointed shop, where you are of course invited to taste the product, without any overt pressure to buy (other than the presence of shelf upon shelf of bottles of course!). The word aperitif is derived from "opening up the appetite". So, after the visit you can take a stroll along the quay at Marseillan before settling down to the serious business of the day -- lunch! --------------------------------------------------------------- Veronica Yuill is a writer and programmer, and Webmaster of Corbieres Web http://www.corbieresweb.com/ a site dedicated to this beautiful wine-growing region in the South of France. You can contact her at mailto:veronicay@archetype-it.com
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