Salon des Vignerons Independents - Lyon

Every year we go to the Salon des Vignerons Independents when it comes through town, and every year we attack it from a different angle. With over 500 wineries offering their up their wines for tastes, you have to have some kind of method. The question about whether to drink our tastes or spit them out is really a question about the reasons for being there. Do you want to just enjoy the camraderie and drink some wine, or are you hoping to take this opportunity for a good comparison between wines and invest in something really good for the cave?

Six years ago we didn't approach this question from a particularly sage point of view, being our first time and all, and we ended up drinking a few tastes, and then getting all romantic and gushy and buying whatever wine we happened to come across, which was not very smart. The second year, we were a bit more structured in our approach, breaking up our tasting to give a comparative vision to what we were doing, only tasting one or two kinds of wine in a day, and doing our best to spit. The fourth year, I got serious and made a database and read up about what the experts had to say in their tasting notes of the wines we'd chosen to seek out, and we completely gave up on all swallowing.

From then on out, we have prepared each year's fair itinerary in advance. It gives us latitude to invest all remaining grey matter into considerations of age, and soil, nose and body, sucking bubbles through the wine through our puckered lips and letting it settle near our jaws as we reflect carefully about the past and future. Most of all, we compare. We listen about the weather and the land, and also take the opportunity to see how some of the wines we've already got tucked away are developing without actually opening them at home. We always reluctantly spit out every single mouthful. In these past few years we've been able to get some really nice wines for the cave. Some of the ones that have just come to open out this year have really exceeded our expectations, and they'll only be getting better. I am only now beginning to understand a little about what makes people so excited about keeping wine.

Last year I was laid up with some kind of illness and could not go, and found that Loic did quite well without me. This year, since I am engaged on a big translation project that I find fulfilling and beautiful, I was able to send Loic off to do some tasting without much thought to what I was missing. I waited until last night's last open hour or two to go, just for a very short time, with a couple of friends, after a long day of slogging through culinary translation.

Loic had made the rounds on the previous three days, and I tasted a few of his favorites before we made a decision about some of our final purchases. The 1976 Muscat being poured above went straight down - forget the bucket! I would never have had a chance to try had it not been for the fair. We now have hundreds of bottles of wine in the cellar. Loic of course remains our house sommelier. My trust in his judgement is implicit, although I do appreciate that he asks me to taste and involves me in the decisions.

One thing I have learned is that you can get lucky with French wine by chance here and there, but with a little effort into research and some simple patience, that cool dirt floored vaulted underground stone room can transform into a veritable gold mine. It is very exciting. There's something of ourselves in the wines we choose for the cave. Opening and serving them to our guests when they're ready is a real pleasure.


They were selling stuffed duck necks at the wine fair. Serious markup!