Pezenas Wine Tour

The highlight of our holiday was definitely the wine tour that we did on Friday; we booked through a website www.pezenas-languedoc.com  and when we spoke with the lady responsible she was very helpful and spoke excellent English. We booked in for a VIP wine tour (95 Euros) which was set to include a tour of two domaines in the morning then a gourmet lunch cooked by our tour guide and then a third domaine in the afternoon; we were very excited.


Our tour guide Bruno collected us at a very sociable hour of 10am and he drove us in his car to the first domaine where we went right into the vines of the Stella Nova vineyard. The vineyard was surrounded by beautiful meadows full of wild flowers and we were very lucky with the weather so the landscape of Pezenas looked like something from a postcard. While we were at Stella Nova, Bruno explained in detail about the soil types, the use of organic farming and the different grapes grown in the area. We got up close to the vines which was great; you really felt like you were getting an understanding of the wine making process from the very beginning. We then went into the Stella Nova cellar which was fairly small with a mixture of wooden barrels and stainless steel tanks; we tasted some Viognier straight from the barrel which Bruno had helped make; which although he said it wasn’t quite ready, it tasted really great. We tasted through a selection of their wines which were all fantastic; we liked one of them so much we had to buy one.

Meadows surrounding Stella Nova vineyard

Stella Nova vineyard

Stella Nova vines

The second domaine we went to was called Saint Jean de Bebian and was much larger than the first and the estate was set up to be open for the public. The property was stunning and we enjoyed a tour of the traditional cellar and storage areas before doing a tasting. The wines were stunning and far more modern than we expected; we particularly liked the unusual Cabernet Merlot blend which is a rare mix for the Languedoc area. After the tasting, Bruno disappeared to prepare our lunch while we strolled through the beautiful grounds of the Bebian estate. The lunch was amazing; we started with fried courgette flowers served with saffron, apple and quince chutney, a beautiful risotto with black olives which was finished with white wine to maintain its crisp acidity. We had a huge fresh beef tomato and broad beans which Bruno had got from a local farmer and then organic pork sausage and rare rib eye of beef which Bruno had cooked the evening before on a BBQ fired with old vines; the smokey flavour imparted into the meat was unusual and amazingly moreish. We then had a selection of cheeses, including a cow’s milk brie style cheese, two different goats’ cheeses, an “Old Cheese” from Holland and a blue cheese similar to Roquefort. We drank a beautiful Bebian red with the cheese which accompanied them all perfectly. We finished the meal with one of the most amazing desserts I’ve ever had; it was such an unusual combination of flavours but it worked so well that Amy and I couldn’t help but exclaim. Black olives marinated in bitter honey and served with fresh local strawberries and rosemary infused cream. The contrast of the salty olives and the sweet local strawberries with the richness of the cream was stunning, so good in fact that since returning home we have begun the process of marinating the olives so we can re create it.

Bebian Estate

Bebian cellar

Bebian cellar

Bebian tasting room

Our lunch location

View from our lunch table

Lunch

Mmmmmm!

Black olive and white wine risotto balls

Courgette flowers with quince, apple and saffron chutney

Cheeses

Broad beans, beef tomato and heirloom cherry tomatoes

Organic pork sausage and vine barbequed beef

Olives marinated in honey with strawberries and rosemary cream

Chapel at Bebian

We went to a third domaine in the afternoon, but the temperature had risen to above 30 degrees and after a big lunch and a few glasses of wine we were really struggling with doing more tasting so we made a plan to meet up with the vineyard owner at their bar in town later that evening. Bruno then drove us around the beautiful countryside and returned us to our hotel to have a swim and a break from the heat. We went to Bar a Vin in the evening and tasted many wines from Chartreuse de Mougeres and then drank a beautiful bottle of Chateau Neuf Du Pape which Bruno had selected for us. It was a great evening with some great wines and wonderful company.



Chartreuse de Mougeres vines

Bruno’s tour was a wonderful experience; he is an endless fountain of knowledge and was able to answer all the questions we threw at him. The lunch he prepared for us was exceptional and some of the most exciting food we have eaten for a long time. His hospitality and generosity was humbling; if you want to do a wine tour in the Pezenas region, Bruno is your man.

L'Amphitryon Pezenas June 2012

We came to L’Amphitryon after a recommendation by our dear friend Bruno who was our wine tour guide. He told us that there was a new chef who seemed to be creating some interesting food so we were intrigued to try it. We booked a table for the Saturday night of our stay in Pezenas.

We started with a Kir Royal each, one with crème de cassis and one with crème de peche. The waitress brought us an appetiser of cured salmon with crème fraiche. Although neither of us are big fans of salmon, it was delicious and well balanced.

Our starters arrived promptly which we shared. We had courgette flowers stuffed with spring vegetables with a white wine emulsion and warm goats cheese stack with tomato and chorizo with a magic gazpacho.

The courgette flowers were beautifully delicate but packed full of flavour. Each flower was filled with a mix of finely cubed courgette and carrot gently fried and then topped with the emulsion which complemented the other subtle flavours. The dish was creatively presented with a small savoury ice cream cone filled with dressed leaves and edible flowers were scattered all over the plate.

The goats cheese stick was a balance of rich creamy cheese, salty peppery chorizo and oven roasted tomato slices, these were stacked on top of a flavoursome doughy base. The magic gazpacho was sensational, and just like the title suggests it was magical. The soup had a rich red pepper flavour but the addition of tomato meant it was clean on the palate, this was then followed by the delight of pop rocks sparkling around your mouth. A really exciting and creative starter which urges you to try it just from the description and doesn’t disappoint.

For the main course we picked a sharing dish which was simply described as rib of beef. It’s safe to say it was so much more than that! It came to the table on a wooden chopping board with a pile of rock salt and gooey roast onions and garlic cloves. The smell was sensational and we couldn’t wait to dig in. However the waitress then disappeared to bring us our plates, which featured a stack of potato dauphinoise pierced with a sprig of rosemary which was on fire as it came to the table. There was also a little pot of rosemary jus which when we opened it, it took over the senses and made us even more eager to tuck in. The waitress then carved the rib excellently into two equal steaks and put them on our plate.

The steak was cooked rare to our liking and was succulent and caramelised on the surface, which complemented the sweet sticky onions and garlic. The potato dauphinoise stack was incredible; soft potatoes layered with smoky bacon and topped with cheese, we thought that it may have been smoked as this was a consistent flavour throughout all the layers and really brought a different element to the dish. The rosemary jus packed a punch and tied all the flavours together.  A truly inspiring and beautiful way to cook and present a traditional dish.

Although we were very full from the starters and main course the standard of the food had been exceptional so we didn't want to miss out on any hidden gems from the desert menu. We were very tempted by Le Barry White which translated as “chestnut and chocolate sweetness” but instead decided to share the strawberry macaroon. It came out as a large macaroon, which considering the size, the texture was spot on. It was filled with delicious strawberries from southern France, strawberry sorbet and more pop rocks. In the top on the macaroon was a pipette with strawberry juice which we think we were meant to squeeze inside but due to the language barrier we weren't sure. It was served with a naturally sweet strawberry juice in a shot glass and strawberry coulis that shimmered gold in lines along the plate. The flavours were fairly one dimensional but the creativity and interactivity was an exciting feature that made up for this.

L'Amphitryon is a great restaurant with new and exciting ideas, it would have been nice to talk to the wait staff about the food and produce but due to our lack of conversational French this was not easy, but this was in no way the fault of the restaurant. L'Amphitryon is increasing in positive reviews on Trip Advisor and rightly so; it was one of the best nights of our stay and I only wish we had found it earlier in the week so we could have eaten there more!