M. Chapoutier Petite Ruche Crozes Hermitage (2009)

Les Lyonnais

We had a lovely dinner in Lyon in a restaurant called Les Lyonnais. The watier (I believe he was the chief and the manager at the same time) was a friendly man with good sense of homour.

I took the card in the picture before I left the restaurant. There is a link on the card. When you click on the link, you will see several pictures. The only one that looks like the restaurant where we had our dinner is the picture on the right, in the middle vertically showing red walls and wooden chairs.

We had a reservation at 8.00pm, but we were free at 7.00pm, so we went to a bar for a drink. It was a bar with old looking furniture with red velvet sofas. I felt like in my grandmother's house. 

M. Chapoutier Petite Ruche Crozes Hermitage 

Eventually, we were starving when we went to the restaurant at 8.00. We couldn't order our meal for about 40 minutes, which, I understand, is normal for southern France. I think they see it impolite to serve quickly and therefore, they leave you enough time to enjoy your evening. Of course it doesn't feel very good if you are starving :) Anyway, I ordered some meat and told that I wanted to have it "well done". Altough I like to try new tastes, the French way of meat cooking - which is basically not cooking according to me- is a little too much for me. I respect their confidence in their style, but I prefer not to see any blood in my plate.

Then, it was the time to choose wine and we asked his advice. He told us that the wine in the picture is a nice wine from Rhone valley. It was a really nice, medium bodied, fruity wine with a little fume cheese aroma. We liked it very much and felt lucky to enjoy our last food and wine in France in this lovely place.

Chateau de Pibarnon 1998

Chateau de Pibarnon 1998

In our second night in Auberge de Cassagne, we had our second dinner in the hotel's Michelin star restaurant. I'd like to mention that, when I write "we", I mean my cousin and myself. My cousin is a person who likes food and wine, in fact, she might be loving food much more than me. So, I'am in expert hands :)

When she showed to the sommelier of the restaurant three wines from the huge menu, he immediately eliminated one of them saying that the others are much more better appelations. Then we chosed one of the wines of better appelations. 

I have just read a few things about French wine appaleation and I'm going to try to explain it to you. Appelation is a way of classification that creates certain rules for the wines that are subject to the appalation's control. The rules can limit the grapes to be grown in certain areas, can organize the way of planting vine, or can limit the yield in certain areas. It is constantly controlled whether or not these rules are obeyed in the vineries that are subject to the said appelation. If a wine is subject to an appelation, there is an expression like "... appelation controle" on the bottle and the wine is differentiated from the rest of the wines without any appelation. 

Chateau de Pibarnon 1998 is subject to Bandol appelation, of which I didn't hear before. The sommelier said that this was a better appelation compared to certain others that we showed to him. Besides, he also said that this wine would have certain flowery aromas (which I don't remember) including violet. 

I couldn't smell any flowery aromas and decided to stop taking antihistaminic pills for a while. I still think that this was the best wine among the few wines that I mentioned in my most recent posts. I can also say that it has a little thiner body and is easear to drink compared to the wine that was the subject of the previous post. It is also richer than the other wines that I mentioned in my most recent posts which I wrote while I have been travelling in France. 

Le Temple 2005 (Chateau de Bas)

I had the chance of staying at this hotel in Avignon, France. This hotel is not only said to have a traditional Provence style, but it also has a restaurant listed as a one star restaurant in Michelin list. When our guide told us that our hotel was unfortunately a little far from the city center, but luckily had a one star restaurant, I was sure that I would not try to go to city center ever during my stay there!

Roasted Tender Duck

Avignon has been the center of papacy for a few decades in 14. century. After the return of papacy to its home, it is mainly remembered for its theater festival in July. It is a small town with cute streets and many stores with beautiful displays. Our hotel was 7 km away from the city center and it was barely noticable in its surrounding.

I am not going to write about what I had for dinner in detail, because basically I don't have enough time for this and it is also not my style! I am sharing a few pictures with you and I also need to say that anything I tasted (even the bread) was really delicious. Please take a look at cheese choises that they offered when I said I would prefer cheese instead of desert.

While the menu was of normal size, the wine menu was as big as a calculus book! The wines were listed according to their region and the prices were written. There was a wide range of prices. We all ordered different meals including vegetable salad, duck, and veal. The sommelier suggested that we should order a not so strong, but still rich wine. He named a few, but we insisted on a wine from Aix en Provance and he politely said that one was ok too :)

Le Temple 2005 Chateau de Bas

Although I chose different things that I normally like, anything I tasted was delicious to me. The wine was actually a little stronger than we needed, but it was still a very nice wine with fruity and spicy aromas. I noticed later that Oz Clarke mentioned in his pocket book 2011 (subject of a upcoming post) Chateau de Bas as the first in the list of procucers in Coteaux d'Aix en Provence (I'm not sure that the list was sorted according to anything, but it was at least mentioned in the list).

Before and after our dishes, we were offered certain offerings of the chef, which all were also delicious. I had not ever taste a chocolate truf that was so light! I melted immediately in my mouth. I suggest deating in a restaurant from Michelin list if you have the chance. And do it in France if you could!

I would like to mention also that the prices were not extremely high compared to a regular restaurant in France. The starters and main dishes were around 30-40 Euros, but there were set menus costing 49 Euros including a starter, a main dish and a desert all of which you could choose amonf three alternatives. You may decide by your own judgement whether or not it is worth of it, taking into consideration that this is a one star restaurant according to Michelin list.

Chateau Brilette 2004

Chateau Brilette 2004

After an exhausting day in Aix en Provence (France), we decided to have our dinner in our hotel. I let my cousin choose the wine, and she choose a Bordeaux as usual. Chateau Brilette 2004 is a Cru Bourgeois Superieur, which basically means the second best quality in Bordeaux wines :) It has a strong and a little tannic taste, which is delicious, needless to say.

I don't know how they manage to do it, but all of their wines taste very good. There are also some other things that I like about French dining culture.

Firstly, each person's meal on the same table comes at the same time and each finished palate leaves the table at the same time. They don't remove the empty palates until everyone has finished. I find this very nice. No one feels like he/she is eating alone. Additionally, if someone on the table orders a starter, the others have to wait for the main course until this person has finished the starter. This can be annoying sometimes if you have to wait for someone else to have their starter while you are starving. We usually ask each other to know if a starter will preceded the main course so that we can at least also order a starter not to wait while we are already starving :)

Secondly, they experience their meals as a long lasting pleasure. I personally believe that one should only eat as much as necessary for healt, but I still admire their devotion to pleasure. If they are in a rush, they don't even sit on a table but they grab a sandwich, because they believe once you sit on a dinner table, you should sit there at least for two hours! May be the fast pace of the modern life has rasped this habit of them a little, but I admire that they save so much time for themselves to have a dinner, even if it is only once in a  while. That reminds me of one hour lasting lunch breaks in which we had our lunches and also managed to do a small shopping before we went back to our offices. I feel pity for ourselves.

Chateau Villemaurine (2006)

A French wine again. I am totally confused about French wine classification. Whenever I read about French wine classification, I learn something new that undermines my previous knowledge about it. 

On the other hand, I'm pretty sure that I can never age wine, as I can never wait until my meal on the palate becomes warm and I try to eat while it is still hot. If I buy wine, I want to drink it immediately. 

Whichever classification this wine belongs, it is a grand cru, so it is extremely prestigious. Contrary to what most reasonable people would do, I did not keep this wine for a special ocasion. Instead, I suddenly decided to open it in a regular night at home. 

I cooled it in a rush, prepared this small palate for myself and this itself was a special ocasion for me. I was ready to drink the wine. I was curious about the grapes of which the wine was made, but I could not see this information on the bottle. So, I asked google. Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot. 

The wine stayed in my glass for hours, but I still thought it needed airation. May be it was too early to open the bottle. Still, it has a beautiful taste, intense, fruity and full of strong tannins. I admired French winemakers once more, and I wished that I would admire Turkish winemakers as often as I admire French ones.