Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
If any such UFOs were caught damaging or
interfering with the vines, they were to be
immediately apprehended by the village
policeman and the aircraft confiscated by
the municipal authorities. This law remains
in force to this day. So far such astute civil
defense has worked—the only aliens wan-
dering this hot and dusty area just north of
the Mediterranean come in rented cars,
armed with wine maps and tasting notes.
Châteauneuf-du-Pape is a tiny medieval
village dominated by the ruins of a fortress-
like castle—the “Pope's New Castle” of the
title. It was the summer house of Pope John
XXII when the Holy Roman Empire was not
so Roman, after shifting its capital tempo-
rarily to Avignon, 10km (6 miles) to the
south. More accustomed to drinking wine
from Burgundy and Provence, the pope
thought he would try some local fare and
ordered several barrels from Châteauneuf-
du-Pape. He liked it so much, he built a
vacation home there.
The first thing that strikes you about the
soil here is that it is not soil—it is rock (and
not in the slightest way suitable for landing
spacecraft). Vines here grow in bush form
on a bed of smooth, fat pebbles, which
apparently is good for retaining heat and
moisture, highly beneficial to the 13 grape
varieties that are allowed to grow here.
The most dominant are Grenache Noir and
Syrah, but one winery uses all 13 grapes in
its blends: Château de Beaucastel. As you
visit, you'll find a simple French farmhouse
with white walls and blue shuttered win-
dows, leading to a beautiful inner garden
with a round spring well in the middle.
Wooden doors braced with wrought-iron
hinges hide a beautiful vaulted cellar,
packed with bottles and barrels. Tastings
are held in the garden, where you can sit
in the shade and try a range of wines lined
up on a wine barrel. Château de Beaucas-
tel is an earnest champion of organic
winemaking, meaning that you'll find very
few foreign bodies in the wine—never
mind aliens in the vineyards.
Château de Beaucastel,
Chemin de
Beaucastel, Courthezon (
&
33/4/90-70-
41-00;
www.beaucastel.com).
(
Avignon (18km/11 miles).
L
$$
Bristol Hotel,
44 Cours Jean
Jaurès, Avignon (
&
33/4/90-16-48-48;
www.bristol-avignon.com). $
La Garbure,
3 rue Joseph Ducos, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
(
&
33/4/90-83-75-08;
www-la-garbure.
com).
France
322
Domaine Tempier
Everything's Coming Up Rosé
Provence, France
Officially France's sunniest province, the
hilly wine region of Provence—famous for
its rolling fields of lavender—is the gate-
way to the glamorous resorts of the Côte
d'Azur, the French Riviera, and indeed
Monaco and Italy if you are going that far.
But on the way, be sure to stop off in Ban-
dol, a tiny coastal wine region tucked
between Marseille and Toulon. This rustic
paradise of hilltop villages, down-to-earth
wineries, and glorious beaches has been
producing wine for 2 millennia, although
until very recently, it didn't register on the
wine-lover's radar. That's not to say it
never went unappreciated—King Louis XV
was once asked what was the secret of his
youth and the son of the Sun King replied:
“The wines of Bandol.”
The main grape here is an obscure,
dark, smoky varietal called Mourvedre.
