le Vin

Sooo many wines, so little time!!  Actually, it is really interesting to learn about the restrictions placed on wine makers here.  It makes California seem like it is filled with radical vintners running around doing whatever flies into their heads when it comes to harvest times, and barrels, and little things like, oh, irrigation. I'll try not to make this sound like a lesson.
We have been lucky enough to meet two wine makers who speak English.  Jacques Bartlet, the first, spent 4- count 'em 4- hours with us, taking us into his caveau and showing us around, then breaking out the bottles for tasting.  By the way, tastings here are free, the amount they pour is about twice the amount in CA because, they say that there needs to be enough in the glass to really taste the wine's true essence, or flavor (I'm no expert, as you can see), or whatever. 
There are regions, and wine makers have to grow the type of grape for that region.  They are not allowed to  irrigate!  So the way around that little regulation is to seed the clouds.  Yes, to make rain.  One will hear big booms when it looks like a storm is coming.  It's the wine makers (they take turns) shooting fireworks full of some chemical (Luis would know but he's asleep right now) into the clouds so it will rain.  They are told when they can harvest, down to the day.  Wines, as you have heard I'm sure, are cheap here.  The average bottle is 4 - 5 euros.  That's about 6 bucks, folks.  Most wines in this region are whites, champagnes, and lighter reds such as gamays and pinot noirs.  Then the vintners are told how much wine they can sell!  They should charge more, but their regular patrons will complain, so they are caught between a rock and a hard place, so to speak.

Here we are at the Caveau Quinard, a 10 minute stroll from the house.  We walk past their chardonnay vines on the way down!  Let's see, we can bring back 6 bottles each, that's times 3 now that Andy's 21, so figuring the weight of the bottles in our bags, I could toss out......