The Wineries of Chateuneuf-du-Pape

As mentioned in the last post, we sailed toward the Chateauneuf-du-Pape wine region in the early afternoon, passing the picturesque town of Les Angles.

During the cruise, we were supposed to pass through about 11 locks, but with - spoiler alert - having to miss the days of cruising on the Saone River due to high water levels, I'm not sure if we missed any. The Avignon Lock may not have been the first one we saw, or the highest, but take a look at the volume of water rushing through the overflows on the other side of the wall!

Once past the Avignon Lock, the current seemed to settle down a bit, and our mid-day sail was quite nice - except that we couldn't sit on the outer deck because it was either a) wet, or b) going to get wet. I took this photo the one and only time I was able to open the French balcony in our stateroom, and even then I think it was spitting rain.

But look, it seemed that we might get a little break from the rain as we drove to the winery, La Prieure des Papes, or the Priory of the Popes.

The vines are just coming up at the end of April, but
they get some nice colour from the red poppies growing
all over.

Looking out over some of the vineyards when we had
a break in the rain. Those in front are artichoke plants in the
kitchen garden.

We've been to any number of wineries all over the world, and have had lots of tours. Here in Chateauneuf-du-Pape they specialize in red wines, but the Prieure also grows some white varietals. Most of the initial fermentation is done in concrete tanks, not stainless steel.

At the same time, the owners of the Prieure are experimenting with other fermentation vats. This group includes terracotta amphorae and very interestingly, the small round one in front is made of glass. The concrete and terracotta let some air into the fermenting wine just because they are porous materials, but the glass doesn't do this. It will be interesting to see what the result may be.

Some of the regular barrels

After the tour we had a wine tasting of about 6 different products from the winery. Of course, they were offering to ship a selection to you anywhere in the world --- except for us in Ontario. But I checked the LCBO website, and one of the wines we tasted is even available in our local store!

One of the vines putting up with the rain.
Everyone is waiting for a little sunshine and
heat to stress the vines a bit.

The red poppies were blooming everywhere!

A small town on the river

I haven't talked too much about the food on the cruise. It was always excellent, with lots of local style dishes every evening. 

Larry had a seafood soup that came with a langoustine

I had quite a bit of local fish which was always excellent.

Overnight we sailed up to Tain l'Hermitage to learn about the wines of the Hermitage appellation.