The weather continues to improve. Today’s forecast was for 80 F. Our sunny and beautiful morning began with breakfast, a visit to the town market and a water fill for the boat. Since this is a lay day( no travel) we were doing a group outing to a winery. I never turn down a chance to drink nice wine!
About half our group took the trip. We boarded a bus for a 45 minute drive to the winery. We have been passing endless fields of grape vines and olive trees. Now finally we get to taste a range of local wines.
This place, seigneurie de Peyrat, has been in the hands of the family for over 400 years. What was obvious as we turned down the road into the property was that there was grass growing between all the wine rows.
We began to suspect that the wine was being grown biodynamically(without pesticides or fertilizer). The buildings that make up the square courtyard housing the reception, the cellar and some 17th century areas, are all plain and well kept. We visited an old family chapel where several ancestors are buried. We then walked out into a small area of the vineyards. The entire place grows 13 different types of grapes and cover about 170 hectares ( not sure that’s correct
The woman who led us on our tour is the owner and winemaker. She told us that for the past 5 years they have been totally pesticide free.
We tested 5 of their wines. 2white, 1rose,two reds and a bubbly. We began with small bowls of Picholine olives, some of my favorites. Next we had 2delicious goat cheeses served with 3 fruit jams. One goat cheese was one day old and the other 11days old. They were tasty with fig, quince or mixed fruit jam. Then we had a little lesson in assembly of flavors.
We had seen baskets of beautiful local tomatoes, large baguettes, fleur de sel, and olive oil set out in the central area of the winery shaded by plane trees. Apparently the health of plane trees can predict issues with the grape vines while providing shade in the courtyard.
started by cutting 1/3 piece off the baguette then cutting down the long axis of the bread. We cut an unpeeled garlic clove in half and rubbed the cut surface on the crust side of each bread piece. We turned the cut side of bread up to drizzle olive oil. We then sliced the tomatoes placing them on the bread followed by a sprinkle of fleur de sel. This became our main course.
It was delicious.
As we moved from white wines to reds, we were served sliced salami that was tasty and not too spicy. The reds were smooth and delicious. One was a Grenache and the final one was Grenache Syrah. We finished our tasting with a cremant de Limoux which is a sparkling wine. Legend says that Dom Perignon, the father of champagne making, actually began his sparkling wine making in Limoux before he moved to Rheims, the capital of champagne. We toasted Helen’s birthday and ate little cookies rolled like cigars and coated with sugar.
The bus back to our boat basin was very quiet with lots of napping after all the wine and food.
We had planned to leave for our next town once we returned to the boat so we jumped on board and were off quickly.
We got through a tunnel that is a very unusual experience on the water. It’s not a typical experience. We made sure no one was coming in the opposite direction. We honked our horn and kept going.
We ended up taking a dock space in Colombiers which is 4 km from our final big series of locks.
We ended our day having wine with the neighbors on the dock. What a fun day.
Off at 6:30 a tomorrow
The Adventures of Anne 
This day sounds like a tiny bit of heaven. Thank you for sharing. It is so so hot here. be glad you are there.
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