By Niel Muller
30/08/2022
You might have noticed that Wesmè uses a song title (or a lyric from a song) for her daily blog. You might also have picked up that she has missed two days. I guess driving now (I was the driver for 2 days with the first rental car) does tire her, together with all the other stress of looking after me! So I got the request/instruction to cover the last two days of August 2022.
Being in the northern Rhone Valley, of course calls for wine tasting, an obligation which is right up my alley. On Tuesday we spent our second day in Tain-l’Hermitage, a town whose name, by the way, has nothing to do with the Hermitage grape variety (the French talk about varieties, not cultivars). The French actually do a lot of wine things very differently to what we do in South Africa.
Wesmè has done a great job at researching some things about wine. Being a teetotaler, she is usually only in the background while I have the pleasure to share some time with attractive young French mademoiselles conducting tastings or enthusiastic male wine-makers. Wesmè had some work commitments, so I set off firstly to locate a supermarket to obtain breakfast rations and then picked up a few brochures at the local tourist bureau. After preparing and enjoying breakfast, I set off to do some wine tasting – there were a few cellars within short walking distance. Such a “Le Caveau” would typically be on a site of maybe 75x75m or at most the size of a street block. Wesmè was somewhat uncomfortable staying behind with an unlocked door so insisted that I lock the apartments door on leaving. She also asked me if I had my wallet and cell phone, and I confirmed by doing a little Haka : wallet, car keys, etc 😊😊
The first establishment, Delas Freres, belonging to the huge wine company E. Guigal, offered me a tasting of 5 wines at 30 Euros, so being a pensioner, I simply moved on. At another fine producer, M. Chapoutier, I was well received by two fine young ladies who offered me tastings of 5 of their best Syrahs, the variety in which the area specializes. I was actually on my way back to the apartment as early as 15h15, but first took some photographs of the old church of Saint Vincent near our apartment. I noticed the first few drops of a brooding thunder storm fell and decided to return to the apartment. Keys.. ? Keys…?!! ☹☹
I backtracked to the only two places where I had been, but could not find the keys. At M. Chapoutier I was able to get wi-fi and called Wesmè and eventually the rental agent who was able to get the cleaning company to bring me a spare key.
So at about 17h45 I was able to free Wesmè. I did not do another Haka….
After this mini-disaster the rest of the afternoon went off well. We went to buy some beuf = fresh beef steaks from the butcher at a huge supermarket. The till slip read “bovine bavette” which Google Translate later told me was beef flank steak. I prepared this for dinner which turned out quite nicely. Before dinner we went for a spectacular drive up the famous Hill of Tain-l’Hermitage – see the photographs that speak for themselves. The amazing thing is the planting of vineyards on such steep slopes – but that according to the French, produces the best vines.
Wow, thanks Niel for the update . . . And thanks Google for letting me know that I too am a teetotaler (and I didn’t even know the word existed). 🙂
P.S. Wondering if you really had to write the article because Wesmè was tired or if it was punishment for locking her in the room and then throwing away the keys 😀