Provence from Fayence: Provence Guide

Headline of the week from Provence

"Sir Sean Connery has won a multi-million-pound court battle over a business deal involving diamonds, villas and property on the French Riviera. "

The winner is the Telegraph.

Rosé debate rumbles on

More grumblings regarding rosé production - this time from Anjou. "The debate threatens to re-ignite a much wider, and more explosive, argument on the nature of wine itself. Is wine a mysterious product of soil, soul, weather, grapes, sweat and tradition? Or is it an industrial product for mass-consumption like any other?"

The answer - label real rosé as "traditional": "when news of the decision began to circulate, pink grapes of wrath fermented in Provence and Anjou. "Real" rosé wines could be marketed under a new label: "traditional rosé". Blended or "fake", rose wines would have to be labelled "rosé coupé" or "rosé de coupage." But, claim producers, "it should not be for us to have to rename our wine. If the others want to label their bottles 'rosé made from jumbling up red and white', that's fine."

The debate threatens to re-ignite a much wider, and more explosive, argument on the nature of wine itself. Is wine a mysterious product of soil, soul, weather, grapes, sweat and tradition? Or is it an industrial product for mass-consumption like any other?

Provence rose makers apoplectic

There's an extraordinary proposal that the EU would allow any wine producer in Europe to blend white and red wine to produce rosé. "Pink plonk can be made by simply mixing red and white."Naturally, Provence rosé producers are up in arms.

The uproar has generated some fantastic rhetoric:

"The battle for rosé's nobility risks being lost with a wave of Europe's magic wand. When you go home tonight, try mixing white wine with a few drops of red wine. It comes out orange and doesn't taste good It's nothing like rosé."

"It's as if the ferryboat was sinking and there was only one lifeboat – rosé. The new rules will allow everyone to jump in the boat and the result will be that everyone will drown. All our efforts have borne fruit and have permitted French rosé to be the world market leader. Now they want to saw off the branch which we have nurtured and are sitting on."

Producers say it is sacrilegious to simply throw together different coloured wine rather than following the "nobler" tradition of macerating red grapes for a few hours and bleeding off the rose-tinted liquid.

Cycling in Provence

I am constantly reminding folk what a great place Provence is for cycling holidays - not that I would do it myself. Guests to our house at Mons do the 4km to the local village (with 300m of elevation) with gusto, and David our neighbour punishes his body with a 60-80km road trip every Saturday, dreaming of Lance Armstrong. 

Here's Nicholas Roe of the Daily Mail trying to enjoy 3 days on the saddle.  "If you're going to try a biking holiday, Provence is a wonderful place to start. Sure, it's hilly  -  my own 75-mile, three-day circuit had many climbs on the first two days, although it was almost entirely downhill on day three. But distracting you from the pain of effort is an almost constant parade of scenery...And when you get tired? Well, there are beautiful villages to welcome you with cries of 'Bonjour Monsieur!' and coffee, wine and cakes. "