{"id":2063,"date":"2022-03-29T15:50:46","date_gmt":"2022-03-29T15:50:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=2063"},"modified":"2022-03-29T15:50:46","modified_gmt":"2022-03-29T15:50:46","slug":"la-maison-des-vins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=2063","title":{"rendered":"La Maison des Vins"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article is the latest in Power Tasting\u2019s irregular series on great wine bars of the world, although the Maison des Vins isn\u2019t exactly a wine bar.<\/em><\/p>\n

Just off the main square of the village of Saint-Chinian sits a handsome stone building with a big sign announcing that it is the Maison des Vins du Saint-Chinian<\/em>, the \u201cHouse of Wine of Saint-Chinian\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0 At first glance, it seems to be a wine shop but it\u2019s not, even though you can buy wine there.\u00a0 Then you might think it\u2019s the local cooperative<\/em>, where the local vignerons<\/em> bring their grapes to be crushed and sold as generic wine from the region.\u00a0 It\u2019s not that either, but it is the headquarters for the association of growers and vintners of the Saint-Chinian AOC.<\/p>\n

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Go inside and you will find that it is the place for you to learn about and taste the unique characteristics of the region\u2019s wines, of which more later.\u00a0 You will be greeted by a staff member whose first task, in our experience, is to size you up.\u00a0 Are you looking to buy a few bottles or are you there to try their wines?\u00a0 It\u2019s pretty easy to discern the tourists (they\u2019re not speaking French, for one thing).\u00a0 And if you aren\u2019t a buyer, are you really there to learn or just to drink some free wine and then leave.<\/p>\n

If you, like us, want to learn, the personnel at the Maison des Vins are eager to teach.\u00a0 What are you interested in, red, white or ros\u00e9?\u00a0 How much do you already know?\u00a0 What kind of wine do you like?\u00a0 The servers are all fluent in English, so you don\u2019t have to worry about that.<\/p>\n

Before you even get to taste any wine, you\u2019re likely to get a geography lesson.\u00a0 Your server will explain that the north and east of the Saint-Chinian region is an area of rocky hillsides, while the south and west are level plains.\u00a0 The soils are schist in the hills and calcareous limestone and clay in the plains, and the qualities of the wines from those two areas differ accordingly.<\/p>\n

With some idea of your tastes and level of interest, your server will pour a taste from their extensive rows of wine dispensers.\u00a0 If you like it, he or she will offer you others like it.\u00a0 And if not, you\u2019ll get a chance to sample other styles until you\u2019re satisfied.\u00a0 As you\u2019re tasting, and if you show that you\u2019re interested, the server can tell you all about the vineyard where the wine comes from and the people who made it.\u00a0 In all likelihood, the farmers\/winemakers have been neighbors of the region for generations and all are members of the association and therefore part-owners of the Maison des Vins.<\/p>\n

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The association publishes a guide to all the member wineries which your server will be happy to give you.\u00a0 It includes a map, so after you visit the Maison des Vins, you can get in your car (or walk up the street) and go to some of your favorites.\u00a0 A word of warning: many of these producers are tiny, with their premises on little country roads.\u00a0 Even with a map, an address, a phone number and a web site, they\u2019re not always easy to find.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article is the latest in Power Tasting\u2019s irregular series on great wine bars of the world, although the Maison des Vins isn\u2019t exactly a wine bar. Just off the main square of the village of Saint-Chinian sits a handsome stone building with a big sign announcing that it is the Maison des Vins du … Continue reading La Maison des Vins<\/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":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2063"}],"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=2063"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2063\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2066,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2063\/revisions\/2066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}