Chateauneuf du Pape

My last evening in southern France was spent in Chateauneuf du Pape. It's really a cliché town for French wine, but you know what? It really is good!

My experiences with wine tasting in France so far hadn't exactly been the best - but this is more of a touristy kind of wine place so I was hoping it would be different. It was and it wasn't. I started with a place Susan and I had been to in the past - Mont Radon. Again I was the only person there, and I had to ask if I was in the right place. I was, and I indeed had a taste or two. I bought a bottle of 2001 Chateauneuf du Pape from them to have in the hotel, and left. This time I decided not to be shy and stopped at several others - asking questions - and was not refused. Here's an important point: 2004 and older is the vintage for this, and most of the good reds from France (except Beaujolais).

Wine aside, I had often thought it would be cool to get a room in this tiny village and taste away without worrying about driving- I got a room there anyway not so much the tasting part. this village too is at the top of a mountain ( so to speak) with roads barely wide enough for my !

My hotel turned out to be about one mile outside of town: completely in the country! Nothing but vineyards and the shadows of abandoned castles. It was stunning! The restaurant at this place was too pricey (from whence cometh their clientele?!!) so I went back into the village for a wonderful meal - the only person in the whole place.

On the way back was the true gift of this place: a full moon. This Pope's village was at the top of a hill, from which you can see the Pope's palace in Avignon from the time of the split Papacy. The view is breathtaking. I drove up there to see the moon, and also saw perfecetly in every direction - mountains, lights from other villages, well lit ruins of other historic remains - - unbelievable. I drove to the hotel through the vineyards on a road that sometimes was barely wide enough for my car.

At the room, I had some of the wine I felt i needed to buy to be polite, and just stared out my window to this beautiful and entirely quiet, fully dark beauty.

Magic!