Wine in a can? And I thought wine in a box was bad.

Jeff Sypeck was amused by my last post where I showed consternation to find wine in boxes for sale in France. So he shared with me an article from the Economist which suggests that wine in a box is eco-friendlier than traditional bottles with corks.

Then it went a step further and mentioned something I had heretofore been blissfully ignorant about.

Wine in a can.

Specifically champagne in a can.

:massages temples at the thought of such sacrilege:

Champagne is a wonderful thing. It is a wine used for celebrations and whose heritage dates back to the 17th century monk by the name of Dom Perignon who discovered the art of secondary fermentation and its wonderful byproduct of sparkling wine.

The second fermentation by tradition is done in the bottle, and is referred to as methode champenoise. The best sparkling wines are all done by this method and then there is another process to rid the bottle of the dead yeast that would otherwise be present as sediment in the bottle.

This old fashioned method involved turning the bottles in a rack a quarter turn or so each day as the angle of the bottles was slowly increased until the sediment settled in the neck of the bottle. The person who turned these bottles was given the title of "the Riddler."

No kidding. (Think about that this summer during the Batman media craze.)

Then they froze the neck of the bottles to make a solid plug of the dregs to remove it without spilling too much wine. After that extraction was completed, a cork was put in the bottle after refilling the bottle of spilled wine.

Today with the wonders of automation there isn't the need for hand riddlers, (and good thing too since I am sure they were prone to repetitive stress injuries).

With our modern technology there is also the ability for the secondary fermentation to be done not in the bottle, but in a stainless steel vat.

That is the method of choice for cheap sparkling wines such as Tott's or Ballatore.

Read your label. If it does not say "fermented in this bottle" or methode champenoise then it was probably created by methode champen-vat. Be especially suspicious if the price tag is less than $5 a bottle.

And now, thanks to film director-turned-winemaker Francis Ford Coppola who has purchased wineries in Sonoma County I now have in my vocabulary: methode champen-can.

Ugh.

I have not seen that in the stores, but then again, I have not been on the lookout for champagne in bright red cans.

It not only comes in a can, it comes with its own straw.

Pop open a flip top, then slurp sparking wine through a straw in a can. How utterly sophisticated.

That is not how you should imbibe champagne. This noble wine should be properly chilled and the sound of the cork popping helps set off your celebration. Then it is to be poured into fluted glasses to discern the size of the bubbles (they should be small and with a rapid stream and not like frogs eyes) and the shape of the glass also helps concentrate the wine properly on your tongue.

That is how it should be done.

I do not buy this excuse that wine in a box or wine in a can is more eco-friendly. I am sorry, but good wine needs to be treated with care.

If all you want is to have something to quaff with spaghetti on a Tuesday night and you do not want to spend a lot of money, go ahead and buy wine in a box. You certainly do not want to store it. Only buy wine in polystyrene if you are going to age the wine on the car seat on your way home.

Wine is a living, breathing entity that changes with time and with its surroundings. No two bottles of wine will ever taste exactly the same.

Wine reacts to fluctuations in temperatures, and it can age prematurely and/or "cook" the wine, sometimes ruining it.

The best example I know of this comes from my favorite wine columnist, Dan Berger. One of his columns was about how tanins in Cabernet Sauvignon can make the wine unapproachable when it is young and that it needs to age for several years before drinking. He then did an experiment and bought two bottles of Cab. One he treated properly by promptly placing it in his wine cellar, the other he left in the back of his station wagon and let it roll around for a week or so in the summertime.

Later he did a blind tasting with some of his friends who were not wine connoisseurs. They preferred the wine that had been abused over the one that was stored properly. Why? Because the abuse had tamed the tanins in the wine and made it drinkable younger than it ordinarily would have been.

I love that story and it reinforces why I am not that big of a Cabernet Sauvignon fan. I am not that patient to wait years to drink wine. Give me a glass of hearty Zinfandel any day over Cab. (And for those unfamiliar with Zin, I do not mean White Zinfandel which is a blush wine, I am talking about the hearty red wine that is a California heritage wine.)

Moving on to corks.

Corks can rot over time if bottles are stored upright. Therefore, watch out when you buy bottles of wine at your grocery store that are standing on a shelf for too long. If there's a layer of dust, you might want to pass on buying it.

To store wine properly in your home you do not have to have a special wine cellar or anything like that. All you need is an area where the temperature is constant and there isn't much commotion. Preferably without contact to an outside wall. We use the closet under our stairs to store our wine. Store the bottles on their side or in a case, but with the bottles upside down to keep the cork wet.

The Economist article also mentions a movement to get away from traditional cork and using of new synthetic corks as well as screw caps.

It depends on the wine whether or not you can really get away with that.

My favorite winemaker is Fred Scherrer and we have had several long conversations about the differences in these types of corks. He has experimented with them and found that for certain wines that do not age well, such as his Vin Gris or Dry Rosé that it is fine to use them. However, when a synthetic cork is used on bottles of wine that have a longer shelf life, it starts out fine but they do not age well. That is because the synthetic nature of the cork does not allow for the slow exchange of gases that is one of the functions of a traditional cork.

So he feels you can use synthetic corks for those types of wine which are thought of as the "chill it and kill it" wines, but not for wines that have any staying power.

By the way, I feel as if I should mention that I did not have any appreciation of wine when I grew up in the Midwest. Wine drinking around my family's table was usually Gallo jug wine with 7-Up.

Later after college, my girlfriends and I drank Bartles and Jaymes while the guys drank fizzy yellow beer.

My knowledge and appreciation of wine comes from touring and tasting at wineries, secondly from learning from friends who love wine, and thirdly from my own independent research that comes from supporting my local economy. We moved to Sonoma County in part so that we would be closer to the source of fine wine. That translates to better selection and lower prices since you do not have to pay for the long distance transport of wine.

Dan Berger once placed wine into three categories:

1) Wine he would buy.
2) Wine he would drink if someone else was buying.
3) Wine he would not drink even if someone else bought it.

Wine in a box is for me, category 3.

So is wine in a can.

Life is too short to drink bad wine.

Until next time,

Cheers!


Edited to add:

The Economist article appeared in the editorial page of my local paper this morning. Since we are in "the Wine Country" anything that has to do with the wine industry is fair game for news coverage in our paper that other papers might ignore. I shall be interested to see if there are any letters to the editor in response, especially from winemakers.

St. Antonin-Noble-Val from Celts to Romans to the movies

I have not given up on trying to catalog the various sites we visited last year in France on my research trip for my novel.

It is simply finding time to blog amongst all the other things that vie for my attention.

As I left off, my husband and I had spent a busy week in Paris visiting what seems like endless churches, museums and historical sites. Then we picked up our lease vehicle and drove south to the Midi-Pyrenees region after first stopping off to visit Guédelon. So we were in need of a rest and I had promised my husband that we would have a "down day" and not have to go fact finding.

That was my intention. Then we started chatting with our hosts Michael and Sarah about when farmers markets were held in the different towns and villages nearby.

So we set off to see Saint-Antonin on Sunday because of their market. We wound up going to this beautiful little village three separate times during our stay, because we enjoyed it so much. Twice for their market and once for information gathering from their tourist office.

The tourists to Saint-Antonin (or to the Midi-Pyrenees region in general) are mostly Brits and Dutch and most are there to simply soak up the beauty, but few ask the pointed questions I did about their history and legends. And seldom are there American tourists in this region, which I think is a shame because this area of France is wonderful.

Saint Antonin is situated at the confluence of the Aveyron and Bonnett Rivers and was called Condat during the Celtic period. Later, the Romans thought this was a "noble valley" and so the area was called Noble Val.

Then comes the legend of Saint Antonin which unfortunately is not listed in the online list of Catholic saints. There are many Saint Anthonys, but I once went through and checked each one and none had a story like this one that was given to me by the Tourist Office.

According to legend, the first evangelist arriving in Rouergue was St. Antonin. (sic) He was rapidly successful in his task and in spite of pleas of the inhabitants of Noble Val, he wanted to move on and carry the gospel on to Pamiers, his homeland. (sic)

Due to my L.O.O.N.ish tendencies I must interject here that any missionary would not be called a saint during his or her lifetime, and the town of Pamiers was not named that at the time. Prior to the time of the Crusades, the town was Frédélas.

Antonin then went back to Frédélas in the hope of converting people to Christianity from whence he came. The people were not as receptive and he was beheaded and dismembered. Then comes the miracle, his remains were placed in a boat and two white eagles guided the boat which

"slid miraculously on the waters of the river and followed the Tarn and the Aveyron upstream. The boat stopped finally at the confluence of the Averyon and the Bonnett Rivers...

At that time, there was a rich and powerful count called Festus who ruled the 'Noble Val' of the Averyon valley. He recognised the hand of God in this wonderful voyage and laid the remains of the martyr in an impressive shrine where later an abbey was erected on the site."

The town credits the founding of the abbey to Pepin le Bref, better known as Charlemagne's father. Here is a picture of the historical marker which marks the spot of an abbey that was founded by a powerful Frankish king.





And this is what is left of that abbey.


Not much, eh? And no, it is not the steps, just the few pitiful stones left in a heap that the gardeners have to mow around.

One more historical marker just for good measure to show that at one time there was an abbey here that reportedly dates back to the time of Charlemagne which is the time period for my story.


The town furthermore states that this was one of "three great Benedictine abbeys in the region of Rouerge with Conques and Vabres."

I had chosen to set the climax of my story in Saint Antonin because I needed a town in close proximity to other settings. I also needed to have an abbey. To find out that Saint Antonin not only had an abbey, but having it date back to Pepin le Bref was wonderful news to me. It validated my choice.

And since no one can tell me what the town looked like when the abbey was around, I am free to make it bend to my plot necessities.

The tourist office provided a map of the town and one feature to note was this stone engraving that is over someone's doorway that was supposed to have been taken from the crumbling abbey. Recycling if you will.


I believe it is supposed to be Jonah being swallowed by a whale.

The village had been named Saint Antonin for many centuries, but according to our guide it was in the 1950s that it was decided to add the words Noble Val to pay homage to its historical roots.

Thus the full name of this village is Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val.

According to the Michelin Green Guide the population is less than 2,000. However in comparison to the surrounding area, it seems like it is a big town and the farmers market was quite popular.

There were several streets that were filled with merchant stalls. Here is a picture of spices that unfortunately there is not the accompanying heady smell.



One vendor had about fifty different kinds of olives. Or perhaps it merely seemed that way, but alas we did not take a picture of his wide variety that seemed to stretch farther than many salad bars I have seen.

This picture is taken from the beginning of the market which stretched down the length of this street and spilled out onto another street.


There were fruits, vegetables, breads, meats, fish, sausages, clothes, leather goods, books, baskets, jewelry, and even kittens.

We had to stop when we saw kittens. I said the universal "awwwwe" when I picked up one of the kitties. The young woman then asked if I would like one.

I had to reply, "Je desolée. Je habite en Californie." Her eyes grew wide and then seemed to understand.

She did allow us to take a picture of her.




Here I am with the cute little one. I just love the little pink tongue hanging out. Of course he had just been drinking some milk right before I picked him up.

Then there were vendors who sold wine. You could buy a bottle of wine or bring your own and have it filled.



Then :shudders: they also had boxed wine.

That is just. So. Wrong.

I hate it that there is boxed wine available for sale in Sonoma County and/or the thought that some of the grapes grown here might be used to make wine stored in polystyrene. It just seems sacrilegious that there should be such things in France.

As for the town itself, it has a marvelous medieval charm about it. The buildings are old and stone, the streets are narrow.


People live in the town itself and it is a bit scary when cars are traversing the narrow passageways. Here you can see what passes for a driveway before someone's home.


Here is a view of the center of the village on a non-market day.

If it looks somewhat familiar, perhaps you have seen the movie Charlotte Gray which was filmed in Saint Antonin. It is a World War II film and the filmmakers had Nazi tanks coming down this very street with that hall in the background. I am amazed that they were able to maneuver tanks down that street.

Charlotte Gray is a good film, and whether or not you like the story or the acting, you cannot fault the beauty of the landscape that is shown.

On another post I will show you the Aveyron gorges. I just tried to upload those pictures, but got an error code from Blogger. I think I shall stop now before it eats another post of mine.