Part Five: The One Armed Bandit

It was the summer of 1993 and time to head back to France.  Our trips were usually five weeks long, two weeks traveling around France and three weeks visiting Annie's family in Poitiers.

We had now become very good friends with Jean-Marie and Catherine and this year they very graciously invited us to stay at their place in La Miguoa.  So we were very excited and happy as we flew into Marseille and got in our rented bright red Peugeot.  We were to head straight to the Domaine to have a glass of rose with Lulu and Lucien and to meet up with Jean Marie who was there working.  But first we had to find our way through some detours through Marseille, as the auto route was closed for repairs.

When you first rent a new car, you really don't pay attention to some details, like locking the trunk or doors (in those days, locking trunks and doors weren't automatic).  So here we were, driving down some back road in Marseille, happy as all get out as we were just starting our vacation, and totally oblivious to the fact that all our doors were unlocked.  Some suitcases were in the trunk and the rest were in the backseat.

I was driving and Annie was in the passenger seat.  We came to a stop sign and all of a sudden the right back door opened and I saw a hand reach in and grab a suitcase! With what I must say were very quick reflexes, I reached back and grabbed the same suitcase.  It was only then that I saw that our assailant had only one arm!  His other one was in a sling, broken or some such thing.  Well, we had a bit of tug of war with the suitcase, back and forth we went.  Suddenly, he let go and shut the door.  "Whew!", I thought momentarily.  A second later, he opened Annie's door and started grabbing around her chest area, looking for some kind of neck purse or something.  So poor Annie is screaming, I'm yelling and hitting the guy in the arm, when all of a sudden he just leaves!

The car was now stalled (we were still at the stoplight), so I started it up again and, shaking like a leaf, drove on.  Soon we were at another stoplight and a guy in a truck drove up beside us.  He told us he'd seen the whole thing and to pull over for a second.  We got out of the car and talked to the man, who turned out to be our savior.  He was on the street that was crossing ours and saw the one armed bandit trying to take our stuff.  When the bandit tried to come in the front seat, he suddenly saw another guy, the bandit's buddy, running up to our car.  He honked at the guy and drove up to him and it was then that both bandits ran off.  The second bandit had both of his arms and would probably have taken everything if the guy in the truck hadn't been there to help us.

By this time, Annie and I were a real mess.  I have never needed a drink more in my entire life.  We somehow made it to the Domaine and were greeted by Lulu.  One look at us and she knew something had gone wrong.  But just being with good friends, with a cool glass of Tempier rosé in hand, made all the troubles go away.  After all, no harm was done, mostly thanks to our truck driver and the fact that the bandit only had one working appendage.

Travel note...when getting in a new rental car, take a minute and learn how to lock the damn doors!


We were staying here a few days and were invited to the Domaine for another lunch cooked by Lulu and Catherine.  But before lunch, Jean-Marie invited me to a tasting in the cellar with Kermit Lynch (their American importer) and a couple of other winemakers.  It was interesting just watching how professional wine merchants and winemakers go through many different wines.  Kermit brought along some bottles from other domains from various parts of Provence to try.  There were long discussions about various qualities of the wines, but I mostly just observed.  It’s amazing how professionals can pick out the littlest detail in the wine that I could never figure out.  Oh, this wine has a soupcon of peach skin, or this one has just a hint of cherry pits, or whatever.

Kermit Lynch (on the left) during our tasting....

A barrel of their wonderful 'marc', an eau de vie that is simply ambrosia...

When we were finished, Kermit and his pals went on their way and Jean-Marie and I went back up to the house.  Annie had been helping Lulu, Catherine and also Florence, Jean-Marie and Catherine’s daughter, who had arrived to join us.  We started by giving them a few gifts that we brought from the US.  One thing I remember was a coffee cup that we had imprinted with the Domaine Tempier logo.  Lucien got a big kick out of that.

Lucien likes his cup...

Discussing wine with Lulu and Lucien...

In the kitchen where the magic happens...

The main course was a beautiful rack of lamb, roasted with lots of garlic.  This was served with a dish of tomatoes and eggplant, roasted in the oven.  Oh boy, were these ever delicious!  Jean-Marie brought up from the cellar all sorts of vintages of Tempier, old and new.  I can’t remember all that we had (although some were the newly bottled 1991s), but the one I remember the most was a magnum (double bottle) of the extraordinary 1971 that I mentioned on a previous blog.   Being in a magnum, the wine was even more alive then the previous bottles I had a couple of years before.  There was still a lot of fruit in the wine, but it had that wonderful earthy-ness that is so characteristic of old Tempiers.  Annie and I brought from the US a bottle of wine from a friend of ours, Larry Braren of Braren-Pauli winery, in Petaluma.  It was a Zinfandel, a grape  not used in France.  All the Peyrauds loved this wine, as it was not only very unusual, but very good.

Lulu serves a wonderful eggplant and tomato dish...

Me, Lulu, Florence, Annie, Lucien and Catherine...

Here we're joined by Francois (holding the Braren Pauli wine) and Jerome...

At one point we had an unexpected wine experiment. Lucien accidentally knocked over his glass of Braren-Pauli Zinfandel.  There was a bright purple stain on the table cloth.  Somehow, Jean-Marie got the idea of comparing wine stains.  So he poured a little bit of wine from each remaining bottle right on the tablecloth!  I’m not sure Lulu was all that pleased with this, but she let us have our fun.  You could see how the new wines made bright purple stains, whereas the old wine, the 1971, left a stain that had a tint of brown. 

The amazing apricot tart...

The wine stain experiment...

A serious discussion is going on about wine stains...

By this time Francois and his son, Jerome, had joined us for dessert (an amazing apricot tart) and a game of pétanque.  Even Lulu joined in.  We spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying tossing our boules and listening to the cigales sing away.

Lulu playing pétanque...

The pétanque players...

Lucien and Lulu...

In Sanary sur Mer, a lovely little fishing village near Domaine Tempier, there is a fantastic market on Wednesdays and Saturdays. One morning, Catherine, Annie and I went there.  The market is almost a full kilometer long and consists of fishermens' wives selling their husbands' fresh catch of the day (right on the port!), stall after stall of the freshest produce you can imagine; the reddest tomatoes, the most purple eggplants, the greenest zucchinis.  Stalls just selling olives, maybe 20 different varieties!  Charcuteries selling the tastiest patés, salamis and hams.  Cheese vendors selling cheeses, like Fontagne, Banon (a marvelous cheese wrapped in a grape leaf) and Picodon. 

Annie and Catherine at the Sanary market...

So many olives, so little time...

Annie and I bought some beautiful Provençal table cloths and a big mortar and pestle.  The mortar is made out of pure marble and is something no Provençal kitchen would ever be without.  After 20 years, the tablecloths and mortar and pestle are still in use.

The rest of our stay was very enjoyable, as we were at Jean-Marie and Catherine’s place at La Migoua.  They made us great meals and we even were invited to Catherine’s parents’ house up on a hill above the Mediterranean.

One day we were invited to the house of Catherine's mother and father.  Catherine's parents knew a good property when they saw one.  In 1965, they drove up to the top of a hill, hearing that a farm was being sold by the owner.  When they arrived for the first time, Catherine's grandmother, who was with them, took one look around at the views, and  said, "Cancabeu!". In Provençal, this means "how beautiful it is".  The name stuck, as they bought the property.  By 1993, they had planted several pine trees, built some terraces, planted a few olive trees and built a small house and lived there part of the year.

The view from here is stupendous.  You have a 360 degree view of the coast and the interior hills.  The slope falls steeply away on all sides of the hill so you feel you are floating above everything.   The other towns and houses are so far away,  and the sea glistens in the distance in small bays on three sides.  On a clear day you can see the over 50 miles of French coastline.


The Mistral, the very strong wind that blows from the Alpes through this part of Provence can be very strong (one storm in 1999, Jean-Marie told me, had winds of over 100mph), but on a clear, windless day the place is heaven on earth.

And yet another bottle of Tempier...

We were all gathered there for lunch, Annie, me, Jean-Marie, Catherine, Valerie, Florence, and Catherine's mother and father.  The cigales were singing, more rose was being poured, and I felt I had died and gone to heaven.  Soon, Catherine brought out a big bowl of Salade Nicoise, a wonderful bowl full of lettuce, tuna, olives, eggs, peppers and much more.  With this, Jean-Marie served the 1992 rose and a bottle of 1991 Cuvée Speciale.  Both went very well with the salad.  A young Tempier can go well with an oily fish, such as tuna or salmon.  The plateau de fromage came next and Jean-Marie brought out a 1985 La Tourtine.  Tourtine has always been a tougher character then Miguoa.  To me, the Tourtine is a bit more masculine and sometimes a little more "funky", what with notes of barnyard and earth.  But I love it and it went great with the cheese.

Catherine with her Salade Nicoise...

La famille Peyraud-Mathavet...

Valerie told us that the next day she wanted to show us Marseille, where she was living and going to school.  Needless to say, Annie and I were a little trepidatious, but when you fall off the horse you have to get back on, right?  We picked her up in town and drove down to the Old Port.  The old part of Marseille is quite beautiful, with nice restaurants surrounding the port.  On a hill, about 600 feet above the port, is a beautiful old church, Notre Dame de la Garde.  This churched is dedicated to the fishermen of Marseille and is where people still come to pray for their safety.  Small wooden fishing boats hang from the rafters.  We hiked up there for the fantastic view.  It was great hanging out with Valerie in Marseille and we were able to get over our fear of the place.

Annie and Valerie...

That evening, we were invited to Jean-Marie's brother, Francois', house for dinner.  Francois and his wife, Paule, live in a beautiful old farmhouse in the middle of the La Tourtine vineyard, which is on a much steeper slope then La Miguoa.  There are terraces everywhere and you can easily see that there is no machine picking here, all the grapes are harvested by hand. 


The La Tourtine vineyards...

We were joined by their son, Jerome, who was a medical student.  We had a great meal, with more wonderful bottles of wine.  The thing I remember most was the most delicious soup I've ever tasted.  It was a soupe au pistou, which is a vegetable soup with a pesto sauce.  Oh my!

Francois Peyraud...

Jerome, Paule, Annie and Francois...

So here ends my story of my time with the Peyrauds in the early 1990s.  I was to go back one other time, in 1995, by myself (Annie’s mother had passed away and she needed to spend more time with her father).  But after that, it was another 14 years until I saw them again.  Both of our families had terrible losses, great happiness and huge changes in our lives.  But when Amy and I went back to see Jean-Marie and Catherine in October of 2009, it was like no time had passed and we picked up right where we left off.  Good friendships are like that, aren’t they?


Jean-Marie, Catherine, Amy and me, May 2012...

Part Four...A Brief Historical Interlude

 

Note...the information in this post is personal conversations with Jean Marie and Catherine Peyraud and from two books, "Lulu's Provencal Kitchen", by Richard Olney, and "Adventures on the Wine Route", by Kermit Lynch.  Many of the photographs are from "Lulu's Provencal Kitchen".  Others I personally took or I simply found them on Google Images.



As I mentioned in a previous blog, Lulu and Lucien were given Domaine Tempier as a wedding present when they were married in 1936.   Along with the Domaine came some old pre-phylloxera bottles of wine.
 
Phylloxera was the great killer bug of French vines in the 1860s.  It wiped out practically all of the vines in the whole country.  The remedy, as it turned out, was to bring American vines over to France to use as root stock.  The phylloxera bug left these alone for some reason.  So in all the vineyards of France, the vines were taken out and the American vines (grafted with French vines in most cases) replaced them.  At Domaine Tempier, most of the old Mourvédre vines were replaced with Granache.  Granache was a much easier grape to deal with, as it ripened easily and didn’t take as much care and know how to make wine from it.   But the resulting wine lacked character and didn’t live as long.   The Mourvédre grape, on the other hand, is a much more difficult grape to work with.  You have to pick it at just the right time, at the exact point it is at its ripest.  Plus, it has a much lower yield then the Granache.
 
When Lucien tasted the old bottles from Domaine Tempier, he was stunned.  Although the wine was quite old, it tasted wonderful, like nothing he had tasted before.  So he started researching the history of Bandol wines and found that these old wines were made from the Mourvédre grape.  Bandol wines were quite famous at one time and were exported all over France and to many parts of the world.  He started thinking, would it be possible to bring Bandol wines back to their former glory?

Lucien showing in that smile what is the essence of a good bottle of wine...

 
So in a tireless pursuit to resurrect Bandol wines, during the next several years he brought bottles of the old wines to the committee which decided what French wines should be put in the AOC.  This stands for appellation d'origine contrôlée, which literally stands for ‘controlled designation of origin’.  It is based on the concept of terroir, which is the idea that foods like wine and cheese develop a certain taste and character from where they are grown.  There are many factors to terroir; the terrain, the soil, the plants that grow there, the very air itself.  So for wine,  when you have an AOC designation, you can only grow certain grapes that have been determined to grow the best in that particular terroir.  In Burgandy, for example, the AOC law says you must grow Pinot Noir.  In certain parts of Bordeaux, you must grow Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot.  Lucien was trying to convince the committee that oversaw the AOC laws to make Bandol an AOC and to make it so wineries must have Mourvédre in the wine.

Lucien in his oufit as "Grand Cellerier of L'Ordre Illustre des Chevaliers de Meduse, 1992...

 
Here was the history of Bandol, right there in those old bottles of wine.  The committee, which consisted of winemakers from all over France, agreed that Bandol should be an AOC.  After a study of the region, they drew a map indicated which areas would be included in the AOC.  It was then decided that any Bandol AOC wine had to have at least 50% Mourvédre.  But there was no Mourvédre left at Bandol, so a timetable was set up for the wine makers to plant the Mourvédre grapes and over the ensuing decades more and more Mourvédre was added to the wines.  By 1980, the current 50% minimum was reached.  Some Tempier wines have the minimum 50%, others are as much as 95% (that would be the Cabassaou vineyard which is a small part of La Tourtine).

Lucien, Lulu and Louis (Lucien's twin), circa 1936...

 
When Lucien and Lulu inherited Domaine Tempier, the land they owned was mostly around the house, on flat land.  Then in 1951, Lucien bought a terraced piece of land that the prior owner had planted with Mourvédre in 1941.  So now he had some 10 year old Mourvédre vines to work with on a wonderful plot of land.  In 1951, he bought the La Miguoa vineyard, with even more Mourvédre vines.  In the ensuing years, he experimented constantly with different cuvees, some with more, some with less Mourvédre.  Eventually he decided to make two cuvees, the regular and the Cuvee Speciale, which consisted of the Tourtine and Miguoa vineyards.  It wasn't until the late 1960s that La Tourtine and La Miguoa were put in their separate cuvees.

Lucien (without shirt) working hard in the vineyards...

 
Lucien was originally from St. Etienne, an industrial city north of Lyon.  Lucien always wanted to work in agriculture and spent his youth studying viticulture in Aix en Provence and working in various vineyards and fruit orchards around Provence.  In 1935, his parents rented a house in Sanary and it was there that he saw for the first time, on a diving board, 17 year old Lucie Tempier.  They were married a little over a year later, on October 17, 1936.

Lucien and Lulu, circa 1936...

 
It is said that behind every winemaker is a winemaker's wife and the personality of the wine can reflect the character of the wife as much as the winemaker himself. This is certainly true with Domaine Tempier.  Lulu Peyraud is energetic and earthy, but with a lot of finesse and a sparkle in her eye...just like their wine.  She has been well known in wine circles in France since the 1950s and 1960s, when she gave parties that have since become legend.  She even entertained the President of the Republic one time.  She is known in the US as one of the inspirations for Alice Waters, the owner of Chez Panisse in Berkeley. In 1994, Richard Olney, the famous American cookbook author who lived in France sine 1951 and knew the Peyrauds very well, wrote a cookbook, called Lulu's Provençal Table (available on Amazon).  I have been using this cookbook for almost 20 years now.

Lulu with traditional cork fish paniers, circa 1968...

 
Lulu and Lucien have seven children, five daughters and two sons.  Some of the daughters have worked at the Domaine from time to time, but the two sons have worked their almost their entire lives.


Lucien and Lulu with their first four children...from left, Francois, Jean-Marie, Fleurine and Marion, 1943...

Me, Lulu and Amy, October 2009...

 
Lulu and me enjoying a carafe of 2005 Miguoa, October 2009...

Marcel Pagnol himself couldn't have invented the two Peyraud brothers.  Jean-Marie, as we have seen, has worked in the cellars most of his career.  When Lucien was getting older and  slowing down a bit, it was natural that this is where Jean-Marie would end up, the winemaker for Domaine Tempier.  He alway enjoyed the job of creating this magnificent wine from the grapes his brother brought to him.  His brother, Francois, on the other hand, tended more naturally to the outdoors, working with the vines and making sure the grapes that arrived for Jean-Marie were perfect and ready to be made into wine.  Physically, this is a very demanding job and Francois has the muscles to prove it.

In America, it is usually the winemaker, the person actually making the wine, to get all the acolades.  But in France, it is recognised that the person handling the vines in the field has just as important a job.  Without Francois' great work with the vines, Jean Marie would never have the raw material to make such great wine.

Lunch in the vineyards, circa 1963. Jean-Marie is on the right...

 
The brothers Peyraud followed their father's winemaking techniques as much as possible.  They added a few modern things, like stainless steel fermentation tanks, replacing the old wooden vats.  But almost everything is done in the old way.  They work the steep, terraced hillsides by hand.  They don't use any chemical fertilizers or weed killers.  Their is no irrigation.  The only thing that waters the grapes is rain.  They add no sulphur dioxide to the wine, as most wineries do.  The absence of sulphur dioxide sometimes causes a tiny second fermentation in the bottle, which results in a slight "fiz", barely noticeable.  I think this can be charming and it often reminded Annie of the 'country' wines she had in her youth.

Francois and Jean-Marie in a recent photo...

Francois making marc...

Jean-Marie, Lucien, Francois and Richard Olney tasting wine (date unknown)...  

Jean-Marie and Lucien tasting...

And the wines just kept getting better and better.  My personal experience is with wines made after the brothers took over (except for the amazing 1971 and the rosé from 1967) and I have never had a wine that was tired, never.  I've drunk every vintage since 1980 and they have been consistently delicious.  I recently had a magnum of 1982 Tourtine, 30 years old, and I could have waited another 10 years, it was that good.

Jean-Marie pouring a 40 year old bottle of rosé...

 
Jean-Marie and Francois had the perfect partnership and it went on for decades until their retirement in 2000.  It was then that they hired Daniel Ravier as the winemaker, the first time since the 1930s that a person who is not a Peyraud was making the wine.  But they found the right person, as Daniel understands what Domaine Tempier is all about and has continued to make the wine in essentially the same way.  Jean-Marie and Francois continue as consultants. Last time we were there in May 2012, Jean-Marie and Francois had a tasting with Daniel and others at the Domaine to pick out what was to go into the Cuvée Classique 2010. 

Daniel Ravier and Jean-Marie, May 2012...

 
So Domaine Tempier is in good hands and there is no reason not to believe that great wine will be made here for years and years to come.  That is great news for someone like me, as otherwise I would be hording my ever dwindling supply of my favorite wine.


Jean-Marie and me in the Domaine Tempier vineyards, May 2012...

Part Three...Quelle Suprise!

We still had a few days to spend around Domaine Tempier.  During the day, Annie and I would visit the sights…the beautiful fishing villages of Cassis, Bandol and Sanary sur Mer, the hill town of Le Castellet and the surrounding countryside, which is oh so beautiful.


Cassis is my favorite little fishing village in France and is where we were staying.  There is a beautiful little port, with nice restaurants and bars lining the quai.  In the water are small, colorful fishing boats and in the morning the fishermen sell the fish they caught that day.  There is a nice cafe, called the Bar de la Marine, where we would go in the mornings for breakfast.  The restaurants all serve the freshest of fish and the best thing to order is bouillabaisse, the amazing huge plate of fish boiled in a soup of tomatoes and saffron and served with aioli. In the town square, old men play petanque.  They will tell you here that it was Cassis where petanque was first played many years ago.  Not sure about that, but it makes for a good story for the town.

The fishing village of Cassis...

One evening, Jean Marie, Catherine, Annie and I went to a very nice restaurant in Le Castellet, which is the hill village right above the Domaine (and was the place where they filmed Marcel Pagnol’s masterpiece, La Femme du Boulanger, in the 1930s).  Now it’s a nice tourist town, the typical ‘village perché’ that are all over the South of France.  It has narrow, winding streets, old homes (most with their windows shuttered) and stores selling lavender, herbs de Provence and postcards.  There are beautiful views from all sides of the village of the Provençal countryside.  At the time, there was a Michelin 1 star restaurant that Jean Marie and Catherine recommended, so we went there for dinner.  Annie and I usually didn’t go in for starred restaurants, country bistros were more our thing.  But I must say it’s nice to be pampered once in awhile…waiters at your beck and call, nice table settings, a beautiful view out the window.  And the food!  I can’t remember all we had, but I do remember the amazing plateau de fromage.  Well, it was more like a cart of fromage, where the waiter came by pushing a cart on wheels and it had a huge assortment of cheeses.  Also, this restaurant was a client of Jean Marie’s so they had Tempier on the menu.  I’m pretty sure, however, that Jean Marie brought his own bottles to the restaurant.

Some fine dining in Le Castellet...

The next evening, Jean Marie and Catherine invited us to their place at La Migoua.  They lived in an old house (18th Century, I’m thinking) right in the middle of their La Migoua vineyards.  It was a beautiful old house with huge wooden beams in the ceiling.  On the patio, Jean Marie cooked some lamb chops in a barbeque he had constructed years before. With this, Catherine served some roasted potatoes that I have been trying to duplicate ever since, without success.

Annie and Catherine at La Miguoa...

Jean Marie with his hand made barbeque...

The next day was the Big Surprise.  It so happened that at the same time we were travelling in Provence, Annie’s younger sister from Poitiers, Marinette, and our nice and nephew from the USA, Veronique and Drew (Veronique is the daughter of Annie’s oldest sister, Mauricette and Drew was her husband at the time) were also there.  They wanted to meet us at Domaine Tempier, but we told them that we would already be gone by the time they got there.  Well of course we were still there and just wanted to surprise them.  We had to tell Drew what was going on so he would get everyone to the Domaine by 11am, as they were going to have a tasting with Jean Marie.



We arrived at the Domaine a little early and were ushered into the living room by Lulu.  Out came a bottle of rosé and we had a nice talk waiting for Marinette, Veronique and Drew.  The plan was that Lulu would bring them into the living room and there we’d be.  The plan went perfectly.  Lulu brought them into the room, Jean Marie was up front to shake their hands and out we popped!  Luckily, I was able to snap a photograph at the exact moment they saw us.  The look of surprise on Veronique and Marinette’s faces was priceless! 

Marinette and Veronique look a bit suprised...

We all sat around and talked for awhile and Drew handed out a couple of presents he had made; hand drawn Domaine Tempier logos on a couple of baseball hats for Jean Marie and Lucien.  They looked great!  And they were happy to know that, as far as we knew, these were the only Domaine Tempier baseball hats in the entire world.

Lucien and his new hat...

The very dapper Jean-Marie... 

From left; Catherine, Drew, Jean-Marie, Lucien, Lulu, Annie, Marinette and Veronique...

Drew, Jean-Marie, Annie, Veronique and Marinette pose in the vineyards...

But now it was time for business…a trip down to the cellars for a tasting!  Jean Marie showed us the big steel vats where they put the grape juice in and where it magically turns to wine and then down to the cellar with the big foudres. 

We tasted the blanc and the rosé, the five 1990 reds which were still in barrel and the ’89 Cabassaou, which was also still in barrel.  Ah, magnificent, as always.  I'm sure this was quite the eye opener for Drew, Vero and Marinette, as it had been for me everytime I'd entered this hallowed ground.  Tasting young wines out of the barrel is a lot of fun, delicious and quite educational.  Well, fun and delicious anyway.

I think Annie and Drew are indicated the number of bottles so far...

Le pére et le fils...

About this time, Lucien came down to join us with some small appetizers Lulu had sent down with him.  He sat down in his chair and tasted the wines with us.  Again, he was quite poetic talking about the different vintages and comparing them to classical music composers.   I just loved listening to Lucien talk about his wines.  At one point, Veronique sat down with him and Lucien became fascinated and quite amused with some little frogs she had on her shoes.

Lucien always has something beautiful to say about his wine... 

But we weren’t anywhere near finished with the tasting.  Jean Marie went to the cellar and got out a 1985 La Miguoa and a 1988 La Louffe.  The La Louffe was a very special bottle.  It was made from a small parcel of the La Miguoa vineyard, mostly made with mourvedre.  They only made this particular cuveé in 1987, 1988 and 1989, as it was thought by Jean Marie to take too much away from the La Miguoa cuveé.  But what a bottle it was, one of the three best bottles of Tempier I have ever tasted (the other two being the 1988 Cabassaou and the 1971 Cuveé Speciale).  It was so full of flavor, incredible deep and just lingered in the mouth for minutes after drinking (alas, I drank my last bottle years ago).  Jean-Marie also brought out a bottle of the magical 1971 Cuvee Speciale and a rosé from 1967!  A rosé, almost 25 years old you say?  How could any rosé be alive after all of this time.  Robert Parker, probably the most influential wine critic in the world, once called Tempier's rosé the best in the world.  But he probably never tasted one this old.  The color was beautiful, not the bright pinkish red of a young rosé, but a darker, garnet like color.  And what flavor...llike no rosé I have ever tasted.  It was much deeper and had that aged quality that is hard for someone like me, who is not a wine writer, to explain.  Suffice it to say it was magnificent.

We were all having an amazing time.  Veronique, Drew and Marinette, who were ‘virgins’ with this Tempier experience and Annie and me, who had had a couple of tastings by Jean Marie before, but never one like this, where he kept going back in the private cellar to bring out yet another bottle from a past vintage.  I think Jean Marie, whose job, after all, was to bring clients down here for tastings, had a great time himself, as this wasn’t just a tasting for professionals or clients, but a full on party!

The most memorable picture I have of that day is of all of us (including Catherine who had come down to join us, but without Lucien who had gone back upstairs) behind the eight bottles of wine we had just enjoyed, all lined up by Jean Marie, by color and vintage. We all have big smiles on our faces and our cheeks and noses are maybe just a little more red then when we had entered the cellar.  Looking at this photograph, now over 20 years later, reminds me of something Ernest Hemingway once said;

“Wine offers a greater range of enjoyment and appreciation than possibly any other purely sensory thing which may be purchased.”