{"id":2306,"date":"2023-02-27T16:12:34","date_gmt":"2023-02-27T16:12:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=2306"},"modified":"2023-02-27T16:12:34","modified_gmt":"2023-02-27T16:12:34","slug":"minerve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=2306","title":{"rendered":"Minerve"},"content":{"rendered":"

Did you ever have a Minervoix wine?\u00a0 If you did but it was long ago, you probably haven\u2019t tried them again because what you had was rough and acidic.\u00a0 We urge you to give another try to these wines from the southwest of France; they have been remarkably improved since that time.<\/p>\n

And should you ever find yourself in the French southwest, you would value a trip to the tiny village of Minerve.\u00a0 To appreciate it you need to know a little history.<\/p>\n

The village is named after the Roman goddess Minerva, whose cult rivaled Christianity in Imperial Rome.\u00a0 In the Middle Ages, there arose in the southwest a new religion, Catharism, that was opposed to the Catholic Church.\u00a0 This led to war with the Pope and the King of France, which resulted in the extermination of the Cathars.\u00a0 140 of them in Minerve were burnt at the stake rather than repent their religion.\u00a0 Today, the principal street in Minerve is the Rue des Martyrs.<\/p>\n

The gruesome events of the year 1210 left Minerve frozen in time. While we have no reason to doubt that the people of the village practice Catholicism today, a great deal of their livelihoods come from tourists who are aware of their association with the Cathars.\u00a0 In the gift shops, of which there are many, they sell books and ornaments associated with their long-dead Cathar ancestors.<\/p>\n

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Minerve was carved out of a rock face of a hill overlooking a small river, the Briant.\u00a0 The houses and buildings are made from local stone, with Spanish-style roof tiles.\u00a0 (The entire area was considered a part of Spain until the end of the Thirty Years War in 1649.\u00a0 Spanish cultural influence is still felt strongly throughout the region.)\u00a0 Everything has been cleaned up for the benefit of the tourists.\u00a0 But it is not hard to imagine the medieval lifestyle that must have prevailed there for a very long time.<\/p>\n

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It is a bit difficult to reach Minerve, but the views as you approach the village are worth the drive.\u00a0 You enter Minerve over a high stone bridge that was built in the early 20th<\/sup> century.\u00a0 How the world got to Minerve, or how the villagers got out, before the bridge was built is hard to imagine.\u00a0 Once across, you have to park just outside Minerve and walk into it.\u00a0 One of the first sights you\u2019ll see is the remains of a tower that was built for defense in the religious war.\u00a0 The little church dates back to the 11th<\/sup> century.\u00a0 Might it have been taken over by the Cathars for their use?\u00a0 Probably.\u00a0 At the bottom of the Rue des Martyrs, you can see the grounds where the brave Cathars lost their lives.<\/p>\n

Make sure to leave time for a meal when you visit Minerve.\u00a0 You\u2019ll find genuine French country cooking in the restaurants and cafes there.\u00a0 Most of them are situated with incredible views from the rocky promontory where Minerve sits.\u00a0 We only know what it\u2019s like there in warm weather, so we can say that the local white wines go a long way towards managing the heat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Did you ever have a Minervoix wine?\u00a0 If you did but it was long ago, you probably haven\u2019t tried them again because what you had was rough and acidic.\u00a0 We urge you to give another try to these wines from the southwest of France; they have been remarkably improved since that time. And should you … Continue reading Minerve<\/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\/2306"}],"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=2306"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2306\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2309,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2306\/revisions\/2309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}