{"id":1046,"date":"2018-09-28T08:14:57","date_gmt":"2018-09-28T08:14:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=1046"},"modified":"2018-10-27T18:59:58","modified_gmt":"2018-10-27T18:59:58","slug":"chateau-grezan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=1046","title":{"rendered":"Ch\u00e2teau Gr\u00e9zan"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are so many French wines called Ch\u00e2teau This and Ch\u00e2teau That that it\u2019s a surprise to find out, when you visit, that the chateau is little more than a farm house, if that.\u00a0 Ch\u00e2teau<\/em>\u00a0is the French word for a castle and you would expect that the building on the premises of the vineyard would be at least a great house, if not a palace.<\/p>\n

In California, the desire for such grandeur is reflected in some of the wineries\u2019 names, such as Chateau Saint Jean and Chateau Montelena.\u00a0 (To be fair, the winery at Chateau Montelena is quite grand.)\u00a0 You can visit Castello Amoroso in Calistoga and see a recreated Tuscan castle, but remember this is the Disney version and all of it is fake.<\/p>\n

Or you could go to the Languedoc, in Faug\u00e8res region, and visit Ch\u00e2teau Gr\u00e9zan.\u00a0 From the main road you will see a sign pointing towards the winery and if you look quickly, you\u2019ll see the tops of a few towers.\u00a0 You\u2019ll drive up a long lane and then, suddenly, King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table are just before you.\u00a0 This is the real deal, a castle<\/em>.\u00a0 You\u2019ll drive through the large stone gate and park and someone will come to welcome you to taste the wines of Ch\u00e2teau Gr\u00e9zan (http:\/\/chateaugrezan-famillecrospujol.com\/<\/a>).<\/p>\n

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You\u2019ll have a chance for what the French call a degustation<\/em> and we call a wine tasting, of which more later.\u00a0 But first a few words about the chateau.\u00a0 There has been an edifice here since the 14th<\/sup> century.\u00a0 In fact, the Cros-Pujol family, owners of the chateau and the vineyards, say that this has been a crossroads since Roman times.\u00a0 It was a stopping place for pilgrims going to Compostela and it was an important regional base for the Knights Templar during the Crusades.\u00a0 However, the castle fell into disrepair.\u00a0 What you see now was reconstructed in 1824, inspired by the romantic vision of the Middle Ages that was rampant at the time.\u00a0 Okay, Ch\u00e2teau Gr\u00e9zan is not an 800 year old chateau, but nearly 200 years is good enough for us.<\/p>\n

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You can sip Ch\u00e2teau Gr\u00e9zan\u2019s wines in a stone-walled tasting room that is somewhat reminiscent of those in Napa Valley or Sonoma County.\u00a0 There\u2019s a bar and a table featuring giftware and there\u2019s a rack of t-shirts.\u00a0 The wines you can taste are red, white and ros\u00e9 and they come in four categories: Les Icones (icons), La Collection, Les Appellations and Les Secrets de Famille.<\/p>\n

The soil of Faug\u00e8res is rather poor and stony, with schist being the predominant factor.\u00a0 It gives the wines a spicy finish and they tend to be big round wines in this region.\u00a0 Ch\u00e2teau Gr\u00e9zan\u2019s top wine in the Faug\u00e8res appellation (at least in price) is Les Schistes Dor\u00e9s.\u00a0 Oddly enough, we preferred their least expensive wine, the Grezan Rouge, which is a bit softer and more approachable.<\/p>\n

There is one wine in the Family Secrets category, called Seculaire, that is 100% Carignan.\u00a0 It is an unquestionable power hitter and should be aged for eight to ten years before drinking.\u00a0 It cannot be marketed as a Faug\u00e8res, since the appellation requires all wines to be blends.<\/p>\n

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The prices are a shock to Americans.\u00a0 The Les Schistes Dor\u00e9s is 25 euros ($29.50) and our favorite, the Grezan Rouge, is only nine euros ($10.60).\u00a0 All that and a castle too!\u00a0 How can you pass it by?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are so many French wines called Ch\u00e2teau This and Ch\u00e2teau That that it\u2019s a surprise to find out, when you visit, that the chateau is little more than a farm house, if that.\u00a0 Ch\u00e2teau\u00a0is the French word for a castle and you would expect that the building on the premises of the vineyard would … Continue reading Ch\u00e2teau Gr\u00e9zan<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1046"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1046"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1046\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1067,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1046\/revisions\/1067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}