{"id":1077,"date":"2018-10-31T13:52:34","date_gmt":"2018-10-31T13:52:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=1077"},"modified":"2018-11-07T21:15:02","modified_gmt":"2018-11-07T21:15:02","slug":"vinauberge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=1077","title":{"rendered":"Vinauberge"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is another entry in <\/em>Power Tasting\u2019s catalog of great wine bars around the world, places to visit whenever you are in the area.\u00a0 In previous issues, we have highlighted wine bars in Quebec City<\/a>, London<\/a>, Paris <\/a>and other cities.\u00a0 In this case, the destination is not in a city at all, but in a tiny village in the Languedoc.<\/em><\/p>\n

If you are in the southwest of France, whether in a boat on the Canal du Midi<\/a> or just wine tasting in the Languedoc, make a stop in the village of Poilhes.\u00a0 No matter how that\u2019s spelled, it\u2019s pronounced POOH-ya.\u00a0 The hamlet is surrounded on all sides by grape vines, as far as the eye\u00a0 can see.\u00a0 And in the middle of it is Vinauberge (http:\/\/www.vinauberge.com<\/a>).<\/p>\n

It is many things: a boutique hotel, a restaurant, a meeting hall and certainly not least a wine bar.\u00a0 It is situated in a long-defunct wine cooperative, the location in a French grape growing region where viticulturists (that\u2019s fancy Latin for grape farmers) take their crops to be pressed and made into wine.\u00a0 An international group of investors bought the disused building and renovated and repurposed it.<\/p>\n

For many American wine lovers, Languedoc\u2019s wines are a bit of a mystery.\u00a0 Maybe you\u2019ve heard of Languedoc-Rousillion, Corbi\u00e8res, Minervois, St, Chinian, Faug\u00e8res or Pic St. Loup.\u00a0 Maybe not, and if you have you probably don\u2019t know much about them.\u00a0 If you tasted any of them years ago, you probably found them rough and highly acidic.\u00a0 Today, there are many fine wines to be had in the Languedoc region, but trying them all requires time, travel and a resilient liver, plus some ability to speak French.\u00a0 That\u2019s where Vinauberge comes in.<\/p>\n

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Vinaubege on the banks for the Canal du Midi.<\/em><\/p>\n

You may have seen those dispensers that for a dollar or two pours you a taste of a specific wine.\u00a0 Your local wine shop may have one with half a dozen wines on offer.\u00a0 Vinauberge has them too, with forty wines to sample.\u00a0 Of course, facing forty unknown wines presents its own dilemma.\u00a0 You certainly don\u2019t want to try forty<\/em> wines at a sitting.<\/p>\n

Romuald (\u201cRomu\u201d) Barreau and his friendly colleagues are there to help you.\u00a0 He first asked us what we wanted to taste and we replied we\u2019d like to get to know the red wines.\u00a0 Then he asked what our tastes in reds are. Steve prefers bold wines and Lucie goes for more elegant ones, so that called for more than one glass.\u00a0 \u201cWell, if you like this Faug\u00e8res,\u201d Romu said, \u201ccompare it with this St. Chinian.\u00a0 Oh, and try this ros\u00e9\u201d.\u00a0 And, and, and.\u00a0 Before we knew it, we had six glasses in front of us and we\u2019d sipped who-knows-how-many different wines from around the Languedoc.<\/p>\n

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Romuald Barreau introducing us to Languedoc wines.<\/em><\/p>\n

Aside from his generosity, Romu told us tales of the wine makers, their families, the history of the winery and other lore that only a local son of the vineyards would know.\u00a0 We learned a great deal about Languedoc wines from Romu.\u00a0 Of course, we bought several bottles when we left and we returned often.<\/p>\n

One particular event is worth mentioning.\u00a0 We happened to be in Poilhes the night of the annual harvest celebration, held at Vinauberge.\u00a0 We shared dinner with more than a hundred vignerons<\/em> and their families.\u00a0 There\u2019s something very special about being among the good, honest folk who work so hard so that we might open bottles of what they produce and get the enjoyment of a full-bodied glass of wine.<\/p>\n

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The vignerons and their families gather at Vinauberge for the harvest festival.<\/em><\/p>\n

[Oh, by the way, it\u2019s pronounced VIN-oh-berzh.]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is another entry in Power Tasting\u2019s catalog of great wine bars around the world, places to visit whenever you are in the area.\u00a0 In previous issues, we have highlighted wine bars in Quebec City, London, Paris and other cities.\u00a0 In this case, the destination is not in a city at all, but in a … Continue reading Vinauberge<\/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":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1077"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1077"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1077\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1091,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1077\/revisions\/1091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}