To celebrate the launch of our brand new website design, we are delighted to be able to offer the winner of our Your Views Competition two free places on Château Ventenac’s long wine tour weekend 2-6 Oct 2008 in the company of Master of Wine Juliet Brice Jones.
A particularly nice double room with views over the Canal du Midi, pictured above in the foreground of this view from the chateau over the local vineyards, and en suite bathroom has kindly been donated by Château Ventenac, the handsome 19th century stone chateau pictured here that dominates the village of Ventenac in the Minervois appellation west of Carcassonne.
You are welcome to share it with your spouse, partner or other good friend, who is also welcome to participate fully in these three days and four nights of wine tastings, visits and meals. You can find out more about the extremely appetising programme here. It all sounds very attractive to me. Flights are not included but nearby Carcassonne airport is well serviced by the budget airline Ryanair which currently seems to be almost paying passengers to fly with them.
Juliet is a Master of Wine with 18 years’ experience of buying, selling, and teaching about wine. As a wine educator, she has enthused countless wine lovers both in the UK and New Jersey, USA where she ran a wine school. She worked as a wine buyer for The Wine Society in the UK for several years before moving to the Languedoc in 2004. She now lives in the Minervois, exporting wines from top quality domaines to the UK and sharing her passion for Languedoc wines with visitors to the region.
As some of you may know, this is the region where I and my family have spent every summer since 1989. (You can see the summer sunlight there in this recent video. I love the unspoilt Mediterranean landscape, and am quite amazed by how much the winemaking has improved over the last two decades and what great value can still be found here in the deep south of France.
This exceptional prize will be awarded to the purple pager who I judge to have made the most valuable contribution(s) to the new Your views section of JancisRobinson.com where you are encouraged to share your tasting notes and reviews of restaurants, bars, hotels and wine or food stores.
You have until midnight this Saturday night London time to win what promises to be a thoroughly instructive and enjoyable long weekend at Château Ventenac. The judge’s (i e my) decision is final (Julia is currently on holiday – in the Languedoc – so I can't ask her to help me) and will be announced on Monday 15 Sep 2008.