In January, I traveled to the Languedoc, the large wine-producing region of France that stretches from the Rhone River near Nimes, to the outskirts of Perpignan, 50 miles from the Spanish border. 
This area produces more wine than all of California, with thousands of individual producers and hundreds of Co-Op’s.

Along the coast near Sete, is the region where one of my favorite white wines is produced, the crisp and refreshing, Picpoul de Pinet.  This wine can be enjoyed alone or with a variety of seafoods.  If you have lunch in Mèze, the small port on the Bassin de Thau, a major mussel and oyster producing area, the distinctive green Neptune bottle of Picpoul will be on each table.

Mèze

In January I travel to this area to barrel taste the new vintages and place my order for the coming year. That famous cold wind from the north, the Mistral was blowing at a constant 35 miles per hour for most of the week and it was good to sit in the living room of Jean-Louis Poudou, the owner of Domaine de la Tour Boisee, one of my favorite producers.  In a recent French wine magazine he was called “the happy king of the Minervois” for the exceptional Minervois wines he produces.  The Minervois is a blend of mostly Grenache, Syrah and Carignan. A fireplace warmed his living room and it was a perfect setting to taste his new wines and vintages.

Jean-Louis Poudou

The day before my visit I had seen an article in the French magazine Vin et Terrior that rated Poudou’s wine, Cuvee Jardin Secret, an 18 of 20 points. The wine is a blend of Grenache, Syrah, Carignan and Mourvedre.  I was very happy to see that this was one of the wines Jean-Louis had chosen for me to taste.  I did not mention that I had seen the article in the magazine.  It was the last wine I tasted and it was outstanding!  Most of the time you spit the wine because you have so many to taste.  With Jardin Secret you savor, enjoy and swallow.

  I asked Jean-Louis how much of this wine he made, he laughed and told me only 1000 bottles.  “ How much can I buy”, I asked without seeming to be too excited about the wine. “Monsieur Gaucher”, looking at me and smiling, “You can have 30 bottles.”  “Only 30”, I pleaded, “a case holds 12 bottles so I should be able to buy 36.”  “These cases hold 6 bottles,” Poudou said laughing, “You can have only 30.” We tasted 12 other wines that day and all of them are outstanding. The 2005 Merlot and his new Cabernet Sauvignon are exceptional.  I also enjoyed his Sauvignon Blanc.
That evening when I returned to my hotel in Carcassonne, I happened to find in the lobby a flyer announcing a Wine and Truffle Fair in the town of Moussoulens about 20 miles from the hotel.  I love truffles and was quite excited about being actually able to visit the fair instead of watching it on television.

The next morning it was cloudy, the Mistral was blowing and temperatures were in the 40’s when I set out for the fair.  The wine of this area is the Cabardès, which lies at the western most edge of the Languedoc.  Here the weather is influenced by both the nearby Mediterranean and further to the west the Atlantic Ocean.  Four varieties of grapes are blended to make this wine, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon the grapes associated with the Atlantic and Grenache and Syrah from the Mediterranean.

Moussoulens is a small village of only 1000 people.  The entire main street was set up with booths for wine tasting and buying different foods made with truffles.  You could buy truffle omelet served on a baguette, for 3.00 euro, chicken soup with truffles for 2.00 euro and duck breast and truffle sandwich for 5.00 euro. The wine was FREE!

Truffle Soup

Everything was delicious and I spent two hours taking in the local color eating and drinking Cabardes that I found to be surprisingly good.

The local band spent their time playing songs and drinking and keeping everyone in good spirits. Speaking of spirits, you could try the special prune alcohol made in the town square from the portable still, quite illegal in USA.

Prune Still

Inside the local Town Hall was something very interesting.  Each person who had found truffles had to have them inspected by the local truffle inspector.  This was to insure that the truffles were from the region and not, god forbid, Italy.  The inspection took hours, and after each person’s truffles passed inspection they were sealed in a special bag until it was time for the sale. At 2:30 the tables were arranged in the town square and the lucky truffle hunters began to arrive with their specially sealed bags of black gold.

Truffle Inspector

Within a few minutes thirty truffle hunters had arrived and set up their scales and took out the sealed bags.  The crowd of people, about 300 to 400 hundred pressed up against the make shift rope barrier to watch the truffle hunters get ready for their sale. With everyone in place the truffle inspector went to each table and cut the seal from the bag.  When he finished, a blast from a shotgun announced the start of the sale.

The crowd dropped the rope barrier and went to the tables to make their selection. Time was important since there were not enough truffles to take care of the demand.
The price for these wonderful fungi, which grow underground near oak trees and have to be sniffed out by either trained dogs or pigs: $250.00 a pound.
That day the truffle hunters had 80 pounds of truffles to sell.  Much better than the previous year when only 20 pounds were available.
So, because someone had left some flyers in my hotel I enjoyed my first truffle fair and found a delicious new wine to import, the full bodied, well balanced with hints of dark fruit, Cabardes.