Wine Tasting Day3 - Domaine Morin - Langara

We finally made it to our last winery of the tour! Seven wineries in three days. Not bad, if I do say so myself! 

A deceptively plain sign for a gorgeous winery

Our last winery is famous for the region's variety of 'house' white wine grape, Picpoul de Pinet. I had honestly never heard of the grape before, but in the two months since our trip I have seen Picpoul de Pinet on at least three separate wine lists. It goes to show the more you learn about wine, the more wine there is out there in the world. I hope to taste it all! :-) 

Morin - Langara Family Home

This winery was another old, family-run place with the owner's daughter heading up the wine making - Woohoo, another gal! It was located on the family's beautifully maintained land. The buildings weren't historic, but the gorgeous trees and flowers outside made up for a building that's only a hundred or so years old.  

Wine tasting room

In the middle of wine tasting we went downstairs into the cellar where papa was waiting for us. Papa didn't speak any english (his daughter had some English), but he cracked open a new French oak barrel of merlot and let us taste.  YUM!! Needless to say, no one pitched out their portion of this taster. 

Papa doling out samples of the not-quite ready Merlot

I picked up one black and one white label of the Picpoul de Pinet simply because I want Bill to try the grape. The bottles contain the exact same grape and were treated the exact same way, but the black label's grapes were grown in a chalkier soil than the white label. The winery says about 50% of their customers like the black label better, and 50% prefer the white. I preferred the white, but I'm curious to know what Bill thinks. Stay tuned...

Picpoul - black label

Picpoul - while label

Unoaked Chardonnay

Blonde prestige
48%Chard 48%Sauv 4%Muscat

Rose
100% Syrah

Rose Prestige
Syrah & Cincault blend

Cuvee Caroline
100% Carillon

St. Paul Coline
Grand Cru: 90Cab / 10Merlot

Petite Marie
Dessert Wine w/ Muscat & Viognier

The other thing I learned about on this trip was carbonic maceration. The Cuvee Caroline (which I did not purchase) is made with the Carillon grape and had gone through this process. While I have heard of Malolactic fermentation, I had not heard of this other method. Carbonic maceration is when whole grapes are fermented in a carbon dioxide rich environment prior to crushing. Therefore, the grape juice is fermented whilst still inside the grape. Pretty cool, huh? :-)  

OYSTERS!!!

After our wine tasting, the winery hosted a luncheon in their garden. With plenty of wine (of course) and raw oysters harvested that very morning. Those of you who know me well know how much of a picky eater I am. I won't eat hamburger because of the meat's nubbly texture. Normally I wouldn't go near an oyster, but you know, I'm under a giant walnut tree, in a garden, in the south of France and people around me are 'oohing' and 'ahhhing' because the oysters are so, so, so good. So what the hell; I dove in.  

YUM!!!

And I LIKED them!! I could almost hear my mom laughing in heaven at her picky eater as I gobbled up my three oysters. The wine makers kept passing around the oyster platter and I almost had more (there were tons!), but decided not to tempt fate and enjoy the three I had. Besides, there was plenty of charcuterie.

This was one of those afternoons that will be seared into my brain. The mediterranean breeze, eating oysters under the giant walnut trees, and lots of laughter. We sat there for well on three hours devouring everything in sight and having a grand old time. I didn't take any additional pictures as I was simply enjoying life far too much.