Dave de Simone writes about wine for Trib Total media out of Pennslyvania in USA.
He recently wrote about the wines of South West France. In the article he describes the wonderful food and wines of Gaillac and Fronton. Two areas we love.
Not to worry.
These wine grapes represent just a smattering of
more than 130 varieties scattered across the storied vineyards of South
West France. The region's viticulture blossomed during the Roman era. In
the Middle Ages, industrious monks produced wines to quench thirsty
pilgrims traversing the region on the way to St. Jacques de Compostela
in northwestern Spain.
Later, the tumultuous French Revolution, the
devastating 19th-century phylloxera infestation and economically
disruptive wars sorely challenged the region's wine culture. Through it
all, generations of undaunted South West wine growers persevered and,
somehow, preserved the region's unique traditions and wines. Today, a
new, well-travelled and outward-looking generation of vignerons — and female vigneronnes — has emerged poised to share their diverse wines with a wider audience.
Faubourg 73, a charming, hip bistro in the town of
Montauban, embodies the region's confident, vibrant spirit. With a
musical backdrop ranging from the Doors' “Soul Kitchen” to Frank
Sinatra's “Fly Me to the Moon,” engaging proprietor Pierre Cantagel
efficiently serves “bistronomie” cuisine. The fun, laid-back approach
incorporates fresh, local ingredients served in delicious small plates.
Thin slices of jambon noire de Bigorre — ham made from local black pigs — precede small cups of cream of pumpkin soup, mussels Basquaise
with fresh chorizo sausage, Vietnamese venison eggrolls and braised
duck pieces with caramelized shallot in a rich red wine sauce.
Winegrower Frédéric Ribes matches each successive dish with whites and reds from Fronton, a 5,000-acre appellation making terrific wines seldom
known in America.
Ribes, along with his brother Jean-Luc and the
polyglot jack-of-all-trades Pierre Salama, specializes in négrette, a
grape also known as folle noire (“crazy black”). The vines grow in Boulbènes, soils of silt and clay mixed with quartz and oxidized red stones called rougets .
Nearby Gaillac (pronounced guy-ack
) producers offer a glittering galaxy of dry sparklers, crisp, exotic
whites, fruity rosés, earthy reds and luscious, sweet dessert wines. The
Romans planted vineyards here as part of their Mediterranean Narbonne
province. Monks at Abbey-Saint Michel solidified Gaillac's winemaking
traditions and prosperity for centuries. English kings long preferred
the wines.
Today, vibrant producers such as Domaine Plageoles, Domaine Causse Marines, and L'Enclos des Braves have embraced Gaillac's traditional varieties to export hand-crafted, attractively priced, terroir- driven wines.
Read more:
http://triblive.com/lifestyles/davedesimone/7279732-74/wine-wines-black#ixzz3LbIsnlxf
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