All Hallows Eve Post

The best thing about living in France is that if you look hard enough, somewhere there is always a little wine festival or celebration that involves drinking.  Harvest is all done by October (sans late harvest wines) everywhere so clearly the festivals are in celebration of a successful vintage or to put their 2010 wines on display.  Last weekend some friends and I took a trip north about an hour and fifteen minutes from Dijon to the small town of Chablis.  Chablis wines are all Chardonnay (even though some winemakers may make red wine from Cote de Nuits and sell it in Chablis) and use little to no oak when aging.  This puts the main focus on the acidity and the minerality in the wines as well as interesting tropical and passion fruit notes.  There are seven Grand Cru vineyards in Chablis (sometimes eight when La Moutonne is included (it's a vineyard that lies in between all of the grand crus so when it has a good vintage it can classify itself as a grand cru (yes I just put parenthesis within parenthesis within parenthisis because I'm f*cking crazy))).

The purpose of the trip was to visit Albert Bichot's Chateau (decanter's white wine maker of the year this year) and taste the good stuff and then hit up the Chablis wine festival across the street.  His wines we had in the tasting room and at his table at the festival were the best wines in the region in my opinion.  From 11am to 6pm we drank wonderful Chablis premier and grand cru and let me tell you, at the end my mouth was cashed out after tasting all of those acidic youngsters. I had probably around 40 wines total (probably around 15 grand cru).  My mouth felt the way my hands used to look after a long day at Arbor Heights swimming pool; The pruniest.  It was a great experience that many would classify as a "hella drastic" day.  The weather was sunny and cool without a cloud in the sky. I had an oyster platter paired with a Les Clos grand cru (favorite vineyard) from 2008 and I ate my first snail (bomb).

I have been having trouble sleeping the past few days because I am extremely excited for the first weekend in December.  That weekend will host the Grand Tasting in Paris, and I just bought tickets to it.  I can't figure out why this won't turn into a hyperlink but www.grandtasting.com is the homepage.

Over 150 producers from mainly France with some Alsace and Italian wines on display, as well as tasting classes and food pairing classes.  If anyone wants to help broaden my mind and palate, feel free to sign me up for any of the master tastings and I will take in depth notes and call you after to tell you how awesome it was...They range from 40 to 200 euros which isn't a bad deal if you look at the wines they are presenting (Champagne and Bordeaux).  Anywho, I am really looking forward to being in Paris again and tasting all of these wines.

But until then I will pass the time by studying and watching youtube videos of ex wrestlers being interviewed and discussing their various addictions and their best matches ...Does that make me a loser? Probably. Do I give a shit? Kind of. Am I addicted to Nutella? Absolutely. Did that make any sense? No.

Happy Halloween, be sure to check for razors in your apples and egg anyone's house who gives you an Albertson's good for one cookie coupon.