This fall the WineInProvence team took a research trip to the Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Gigondas, and Vacqueyras regions of France. We set off to have a marathon wine tasting day and experience some of the places that we had not yet been to in these areas. Our mission; to expand our winery contact list and find some new places to take our clients. Our first stop was “Ogier” in Chateauneuf-du-Pape where we had a fun tour and tasting with our host, Guy. While sipping on Ogier’s Estate wine, we learned that Robert Parker was doing the same thing right across the street from us! If you don’t know who this man is, Robert Parker is kind of like the Oprah of the wine industry, even deemed as having the same “effect” as followers of his wine reviews will trust his word without question.

Instead of Robert Parker traveling from tasting room to tasting room in each region (like we were doing on this day), naturally, the wines are brought to him at “La Maison du Vin”. This is an event/conference room named “The House of Wine”- they have one in each village. And, of course, each winery presents him with their best bottles. Of the three wine regions we visited that day, each person who received us mentioned in hushed tones that Robert Parker had just been in their area doing blind tastings. They had just dropped off their highest end wines to the local event room for him to try. We had no idea when we got into the car that morning that we’d literally be chasing Robert Parker all over the Southern Rhone!

Mr. Parker travels all over and gets served a portion of some of the world’s most amazing wines. Just imagine a man in a room full of bottles…he alone will decide for the rest of us which are the best, all depending on which bottles his palette approves of the most. You can understand why some people disregard his notes-after all, he is just a human with a little more refined palette and a very well known name. But the people of Chateauneauf-du-Pape, Gigondas, and Vacqueyras all seem to respect and admire him, and they have reason to as he is HUGELY responsible for bringing about the hype to these tiny villages in Southern France. For example, we sometimes visit places that can barely be called “tasting rooms”- they’re more like garages; no tree lined driveways, no candlelit caves. Just a garage attached to the winemaker’s house with cars parked next to the barrels. These hard to find tasting rooms belong to families that have been producing wines for generations and Hilary and Brian would never have found these places without the high ratings from Robert Parker. In fact, he gave one bottle of red wine from “Domaine du Pegau” a high rating a couple years back and now it’s selling for 150 euros a bottle!

Our favorite restaurant in Châteauneuf-du-Pape has just opened it’s new wine cave. They serve the wines of the most prestigious French estates, such as Château Beaucastel, Clos des Papes, and Vieux Telegraphe. These three wineries only allow some of the big studs of the wine industry into their tasting rooms (i.e. Kermit Lynch and Robert Parker), so it’s great that this new wine cave allows us to taste some of these bottles with our clients. The place oozes with old world charm, cobwebs and dust on the bottles nestled into the mold ridden rock walls. This tasting room stays open later than the actual wineries, and another reason to visit Cave du Verger des Papes is if you are in town and don’t want to deal with the hassle of driving out to the vineyards. This cave is an ideal place to taste some of the best wines in the region!

Cave du Verger des Pape’s views are some of the best in the Châteauneuf-du-Pape region. When pulling into the parking lot, you are greeted by a mass Roman ruin of the Pope’s strategically placed castle atop a scenic hillside. The restaurant and wine cave are nestled right next to the ruins where you can enjoy savory French dishes such as the Nicoise salads, hearty lamb dishes, and top it off with delightful lavender ice cream. The restaurant itself overlooks the Rhone river and you are able to see the rivalry pope’s castle ruins in the village of Avignon. Olive trees, large white parasols, and Spanish tiled tables fill the restaurant’s exterior seating area where a light breeze and glass of rosé are always welcomed.

If that’s not enough, the pope’s very own ancient wine cave is located just below the restaurant with a tasting room facility for you and your friends to enjoy sipping some of the most well-known wines in the Châteauneuf-du-Pape region. The cave is dimly lit with tall candles dripping with wax that look as though they must have been there as long as the ruins themselves. Old wine corks and original vineyard clipping sheers from the 14^th century line the walls that lead you to the dugout of the Pope’s wine fermentation facility. The crushed grape juice was kept in the lower holes of the dugout that hundreds of years earlier was gravity driven to the taller levels of the dugout to be bottled after the fermentation process had taken place. Once you’ve finished being taken back in time, you can enjoy tasting some of the exceptional wines of the region amidst hundred year old cave rocks.

If you are around the area of Châteauneuf-du-Pape, I would definitely recommend taking a trip to Cave du Verger des Papes. You will not regret the charm, beautiful views, and amazing wines you will taste at this location!

I have just recently come to Provence to work as an intern for WineInProvence - boy what a treat it has been! The wineries I have visited in just one week of living here have been exceptional. A perfect example is the brand new tasting room of Château de la Galiniere located on the ascending slopes at the base of Mount Saint Victoire. Being only a mere two weeks old, Galiniere’s tasting room is bound to be an eye catcher for those new and old to the wineries in the Provence region.

On my second day of being a guide, we struck gold and visited their new tasting room. Aurelie, wife of the winemaker, Fabrice, greeted our group at the Oz-sized steel doors that led us into a room of sheer modern style. Due to Hilary’s perseverance as a businesswoman and natural personable nature, she is on friendly “bisous terms” with many of the winemakers and staff at the wineries we frequent. Aurelie greeted us warmly and then offered to let us have the place entirely to ourselves! We were left to respectfully “hold down the fort” while she locked the door behind us and slipped off to watch her son’s recital down the road. We were told to help ourselves to the wines in the fridge and leave the keys on their kitchen windowsill next door when we were finished. This would SO not happen in America. As opposed to wineries in the States, the tasting rooms in France do not tend to be crowded and in this case we were definitely not complaining - we had the entire winery to ourselves!

Galiniere was first opened as a winery in 1993 where their original tasting room was just up the road with a cypress tree lined driveway. Hilary and Brian had been taking clients to taste in their dusty cobwebbed tasting cave for the last few years, which was lovely, but their new modern facility is a nice contrast to the old world charm of the locations that we usually take our guests to visit. To have easy access to the vines, crushers, barrels, and vats, Fabrice lives to the left of the barrel room during harvest season speedy harvest picking and barreling is an extremely important aspect in this region’s wine harvests due to the small amount of acres and immaculate attention to each grape lot. If a winemaker says the grape is ready for picking, it’s time to harvest immediately even if it is at 3am!

Now as you walk into the perfectly constructed tasting room at Galiniere, your eyes are drawn to the hundreds of blended bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon, Grenache, Syrah, Carignan, or Viognier displayed as pieces of art handcrafted by the winemaker. The bottles opened for tasting rest beside you as you stand in front of a moat of water inside the concrete counter top that is used for washing your glass between tastings or simply for quenching your thirst. Your view to the left is of the spectacular sunflower fields and to the right, a perfect architectural attraction and home to the caretakers Auriele, Fabrice, and their three children.