Part Two: A Meal to Remember

In our kitchen is a framed old parchment.  It’s from July 2,1991 and is a menu with the logo of Domaine Tempier on the top.  The menu is handwritten, by Lulu Peyraud herself, and lists the many courses we had for lunch that day.  On the side, handwritten by Jean Marie, are the various wines we had and the menu is signed by all the Peyraud family members who attended that day. This menu is one of my prized possessions, as it is a  memory of the single greatest meal I ever had.

It was a perfect Provencal summer day.  The sky was clear, the cigales were singing and all was well with the world.  Annie and I were invited by Madame Lulu Peyraud, the matriarch of Domaine Tempier, for lunch, with tout la famille. 

Lulu Peyraud was well known in the foodie world.  If you know of Chez Panisse, the famed restaurant in Berkeley, and its owner and founder, Alice Waters, then you probably know about Lulu.  Alice Waters met Lulu in the early1970s and taught Alice much about French cooking.  Lulu’s great feasts were legendary for decades and here we were about to partake in one.  Wow.

We met Jean Marie around 10am for a vineyard tour.  We hopped in his car and he took us around to the different vineyards.  Around the Domaine itself, which is on flat land, are the vines for their Cuvee Classique, their regular less expensivewine (in those days, this wine sold for around $10 at Kermit’s store.  Now it’s around $40).  But up in the higher elevations are their other vineyards, La Tourtine, La Migoua and Le Cabassaou.  These have older vines, some as old as 50years.  The soil is a bit different, some are terraced, and the resulting wines are better.  In the old days, all the wine from the better vineyards was bottled together into a Cuvee Speciale.  But starting in the 1970s, they decided to separate out the finer wine into these special bottlings.  Cabassaou, in particular, is on a very steep hillside and the whole vineyard is terraced, with what look like very old walls supporting the terraces.  Interspersed here and there in the vineyards were olive and juniper trees.  Jean Marie explained about all the different vineyards, their history and when the Domaine obtained them.

Jean Marie and me up in the vineyard of La Tourtine...

Soon we were back at the Domaine and he led us down to the cellars for a tasting, basket of small wine glasses in hand.  Again, we went around the great cellar, to many of the huge foudres, tasting the different cuvees from 1990.  The 1989s had recently been put in the bottle, as had the 1990 blanc and rose.  We tasted the various red wines, finishing off with the 1990 Cabassaou.  Because we had a meal and a lot of wine to go, we of course did the ‘professional’ thing and spit out the wine after tasting.  If you’re going to taste 10, 20 or 30 wines, this is a necessity, unless you want to be ‘under the table’ pretty fast. 

The wines were simply amazing.  The mourvedre grape is a very difficult grape to grow, as it has to be picked at exactly the right time for the wine to turn out right.   That's one reason most growers, in other parts of the South of France, use very little of it and blend it with other grapes.  But in Bandol, a wine must be made up of at least 50% mourvedre.  The wines we tasted were black as night, full of exotic flavors, very deep and alive.  There were even tar and smoke flavors, not necessarily a bad thing in wines.  I've read critics call it 'black smoke'.  That's not a bad description.  To me, Domaine Tempier's wines have always represented what Provence is all about.  Full of life, full of flavor, a wine to the max.  There is sometimes a bit of the barnyard thrown in.  Earthy, real flavors...and that's what I love about the wine.

Jean Marie, rose and glasses in hand, with the hill village of Le Castellet in the background...

Tasting wine in the cellars...

Jean Marie filled up a couple of empty bottles with some of the wine from the casks.  He led us around the house to the terrace, where there was a big table set up forus.  Here we met the Peyraud family whowere going to have lunch with us…Lulu, Lucien, Catherine (Jean Marie’s wife),Valerie (Jean Marie and Catherine’s daughter), Francois (Jean Marie’s brother), Paule (Francois’ wife) and Jerome (Francois and Paule’s son).  I must say I was a bit intimidated at first, but the friendliness of everyone very soon put Annie and me at ease.  Almost immediately, we were offered ‘amuse gueles’, or appetizers of tapenade and an amazing preserve of octopus. 

Jean Marie and I arrive avec les bouteilles...

Lulu offering a glass of rose...

We meet the family...

From the left: Jean Marie, Annie, Paule, Lulu, Jerome, Valerie, Catherine, Francois, and sitting is Lucien...

We sat down in our spots. On one side of the table it was Lulu, me, Catherine, Francois and Valerie. On the other, was Lucien, Annie, Jean Marie, Paule and Jerome. Annie and I brought some gifts to them, one that I specifically remember was a poster of a photo of Jean Marie that I took the previous trip. It is of him, in the middle of the vineyard, with the hill town of Le Castellet in the background. Jean Marie and Catherine still have this poster in their office at home.

Jean Marie with his poster...

Lulu serves Annie the rouget in grape leaves...

So here was thelunch, as listed on the menu…

Aperetif tapenade et confit de pulpe

  (olive paste on toast and a preserve of octopus on toast)
Rougets en feuilles de vignes
  (a small fish from the Mediterranean, wrapped in grape leaves and roasted)
Pintades roties en bohemienne
  (guinea fowl, roasted, served with a ratatouille type dish)
Fromages blancs aux figues fleurs
  (white cheese served with fresh figs)
Melon au vin cuit
  (melon served with vin cuit, a special ‘cooked wine’ they make at the Domaine)
Café
Marc du Domaine
  (Marc is a brandy like drink made from the pressings of the grapes)

I think all of us have had the experience of meeting people for the first time and you feel, after a few minutes, that you’ve known them for years.  This is how I immediately felt with the Peyrauds.  They were all so friendly and Annie and I felt so welcome in their home. Thanks to Annie, who of course spoke fluent French, we were all able to converse with no problems.  The only family members there who spoke English were Catherine, Valerie and Jerome.  But with Annie’s native French and my half assed, sort of okay especially if I have a few glasses of wine French, we talked non stop.  Lulu herself, very beautiful in a blue flowered dress, all made up and coiffed, looking so regal (and full of energy that I hope to have at least half of when I’m 73, which she was at the time), severed us one by one.  First out came the rougets, individually wrapped in grape leaves and roasted.  Oh my.  The fish was so perfectly done, sweet and juicy and went wonderfully with the white and rose wine that Jean Marie poured with it.


Enjoying a true feast...

Next up was the pintade.  This has always been my favorite fowl in France.  It’s guinea hen (kind of hard to find in the US) and has a gamey flavor much different then chicken. You've never really tasted a good fowl until you've had one of these fresh off the farm birds, which in France are much easier to fine then here in the US.  It was roasted and served with what Lulu calls a Bohemienne, which is similar to a ratatouille.  Different vegetables, cut up into small pieces and slow cooked. Jean Marie served several red wines with this.

Catherine and Lulu in the kitchen with the pintade...

Although we were under mostly shade, it was warm with dapples of sun coming through. I was wearing my ever present Panama hat (and because of this and my red hair and red beard, they kept saying I was a dead ringer for Vincent Van Gogh) and Lulu took me inside the house and in the entrance hallway the wall was covered with about 20 straw hats (which she collects)!  Soon, half the family had picked a straw hat and had joined me as hat wearers.


This is me...

This is not me...

Once the red wines came out, it was Lucien’s time to shine. Lucien was a poet at heart and the way he described each of the wines was amazing.  I wish I had had a recorder.  What I remember is, Lucien sitting next to Annie, he carefully explaining about each wine, showing how when you twirl the wine in your glass it should leave a sheen, which slowly drips down the inside of the glass.  This he called the ‘legs’, or les cuisses, and it indicated a good wine. Then he would go very poetic, comparing each wine to a classical music composer.  This ’89 Miguoa, he said, is like Mozart.  It’s lively, fresh, with many notes to it.  This ’88 Cabassaou,however, is more like Beethoven.  It’s deep, full and powerful.  I felt so lucky to be sitting here, next to two living legends, eating food like I’ve never eaten before and listening to a man describe wine in such a beautiful, poetic and unique way.

Lucien waxes poetic about his wonderful wines with Annie...

Next was half a melon with vin cuit in the middle hole. Vin cuit (literally, cooked wine) is a special concoction they make at the Domaine, only for their private use.  They usually make it at Christmas time and Lucien was the one who made it until he then taught Valerie how to do it.

Lulu and me...

When the cheese cameout, it was time for a bit of a surprise. I had read in Kermit’s book that the 1971 Cuvee Speciale (20 years oldat the time of the lunch) was one of the Peyrauds’ favorite wines from all they had made.  Well, here Jean Marie produced a bottle of this rare wine.  Wow, it was amazing.  I couldn’t believe that this wine was 20 years old (over the next many years, I drank bottles of Tempier that were 20 years old or older and these wines do indeed age well).  It went perfectly with the cheese and figs.

Last, but not least, was coffee and a glass of the Marc du Domaine. This is a brandy that they make from the pressed grapes.  It is very strong, has a beautiful amber color and goes best if you put just a little bit in your coffee cup when your coffee is almost drunk.

Jean Marie can also wax poetic when it comes to his wines (and life in general!)...

Soon, the menu was being passed around and everyone signed it. Then Jean Marie listed the various wines we had with the meal…

Blanc 90

Rose 90
Rouge 90 Cuvee Speciale
Rouge 90 Migoua
Rouge 90 Tourtine
Rouge 89 Classique
Rouge 89 Tourtine
Rouge 89 Cabassaou
Rouge 88 Cabassaou
Rouge 71 Cuvee Speciale

So what do you do once you’ve spent 2+ hours sitting around the table, eating, drinking, and talking?  You’re in the South of France, it’s hot, the cigales are singing (these are cicadas, which hang out in the trees and have this very loud creek-creek-creek sound that they make all during the summer months) and you maybe need to get up and move a bit?  You get out the balls and play Petanque,that’s what.  Petanque, or Boules, is the French game similar to Bacci.  You have metal balls, weighing about 700 grams, and you play in teams of two or three.  The object is to get your balls as close to the little wooden ball (called a couchounet) as possible.  You can toss it slowly, or toss it hard to try to get the other guy’s ball out of the way. Eventually, once your team makes it to 13 points, you win.  Everyone joined in, even Lulu (Lucien was resting, watching us).

The afternoon wore on…the cigales were still singing, the boules were still flying, but the sun was slowly setting and it was time to go. It was truly a day to remember.

But our time thatyear at Domaine Tempier wasn’t over yet. We had relatives in Provence at the same time and they were due to visit the Domaine in a couple of days.  That would turn out to be a big surprise for Annie’s sister, Marinette and our niece, Veronique.  That story will have to wait until Part 3.