Touring France one wine at a time

Whilst up visiting my husband's family in Vienne, we decided to pay a visit to the 21st edition of the salon Inter Vin organised by la C.A.V.E (Compagnie des Amateurs de Vin et des Echansons). I'm not one to turn down a glass of fine wine but I don't think I've ever attended a degustation quite so early in the day (10 in the morning)....the heady selection of wine included all the wines of Champagne, Chablis, Vins du Jura, du Languedoc-Roussillon, du Bordelais, de l'Alsace, du Beaujolais, not to forget the Côtes-du-Rhône, la Bourgogne and of course many lesser known appellations such as the wines of  Diois..  

In addition to more than sixty viticulteurs there was also a select few fine producers of 'Produits gastronomique' including the magnificent artisanal cheese created by Monsieur Laborie Sylvain in the Pyrenees and incredible fruit vinegars from Popol which contain at least 41% of fruit pulp. We bought two large bottles of raspberry and Passion fruit vinegar, the raspberry vinegar is divine used as a salad dressing.

I can't recommend the wines from Bernard Chambeyronmore highly, we bought our wines for our wedding from this vineyard, not only were they fab wines but as they came from my husbands region it was a nice local touch, we served a 2005 Cote de Rhone and a 2006 Viognier.  We couldn't walk away from their stand without buying a few bottles for our cave so we splashed out on some breathtaking Condrieu and Cote Rotie for future celebrations.

Here my father in law shows me how it is done....he swirls the inky wine in his glass and allows the wonderful smoky aromas to filter up before he tastes the wine itself, I was very impressed! He informed this first timer that the correct way to attend such a degustation is to start by tasting the white and then the red and then champagne or cremant.