Dramas with Dromara, cherry scrumping and Lily digs her toes in...
For the first time in the tour Lily dug her toes in when it came to making an early departure for the Languedoc – she just didn't want to leave Chateau d'Angludet. I completely understood... we had been invited to join a special dinner hosted by the five Sichel brothers featuring a jeroboam of 1982 Chateau d'Angludet the night before and my 6am alarm to muck out both horses was not a welcome feature either.
From Bordeaux we trundled south-east along the autoroute to Carcassonne breaking only for a water and carrot stop for the horses. I took advantage of the straight roads to sit in the back of our truck and use it as a mobile office with my laptop to try and catch up. The horses hopped out at 'Equi Passion', the stables at Millegrand and pronounced their stables nice and cool, shaded from the southern sun.
No cool rest for us – back in the truck on the autoroute to Montpellier to get John our driver on a plane back to Stanstead and pick up a new crew. Our mean green mint machine flew into the coach park and he got his plane just in time, leaving me alone for the first time: no people and no horses... but the bubble burst as Ben our driver came through customs and the phone started ringing with Nerida Abbott announcing the arrival of Claire Gordon Brown MW – my visiting rider for the week, and Steven Morris our photographer commissioned by Sainsburys magazine for their autumn feature.
Good blacksmiths are not that easy to find in France, especially with the month of May being littered with Bank Holidays and our trusty friends' shoes were wearing very thin. We are travelling with four spare sets for each horse but still need an expert to actually change them. Following an urgent fax from Bordeaux to Isabelle who runs Equi Passion she sent out an SOS and by 11am on our first morning our equine girls were modelling their new shoes in preparation for crossing some serious terrain.
A big vote of thanks should go to Nigel and Nerida at Abbotts Wines who had worked very hard to organise a great programme for us in this vast region, one of the highlights of which had to be our visit to Château de Paraza which is the most amazing property owned by Dominique and Bernard Passerieux. It dates back to Louis XIV with wonderful pieces of the time. This was followed by a wonderful three-hour ride along the Canal du Midi shaded by leafy trees past holidaymakers on riverboats. How Claire and I resisted a cooling beer at the third lock I will never know! The following day on return from our ride around St Jean de Minerve we discovered a nail balanced sideways in Dromara's hoof – a real potential nightmare. Fortunately it was wedged sideways not vertically so we managed to wrestle it free without her even flinching – a close escape for Lily's trusty friend who then happily trotted from Villeneauve to Château Villerambert completely sound the following day.
Before moving base to St Georges's Equitation Centre just outside Montpellier we caught up with James Herrick – for whom I had worked the 1996 vintage. When the jokes ran dry about my ability to clean the press he poured us a glass of Château Russol's Grande Reserve and we were hooked. The next day we met Bernard Gardy de Soos who owns and makes the wine at Château Russol which is at Laure-Minervois. After our tasting we rode around his beautiful old estate where we not only checked out the vineyards but started to hone the art of cherry scrumping from a horse! As Claire discovered, not easy when you are on a willing Irish hunter (Dromara) who thinks you want to jump the stone wall the other side of the cherry tree!
One of the most amazing rides of the tour so far was from the Caves Cooperative at St Jean de la Blacquière where we met Sévérine the charming and skilful winemaker. Daniel Bellet, one of their growers had sorted out a seriously impressive route for us which started along a river bed which then led on up to the most enormous hillocks cut into the red rocky soil which the horses gallantly climbed – especially the ever-enthusiastic Dromara Hill (to quote her full passport name). From terroir the colour of Ayres Rock we climbed up again into the garrigues which were covered with wild thyme and roses. When we finally got to the top we were rewarded with the most stunning views stretching out as far as the eye could see all over this part of France.
Regional aromas here are from the huge open spaces where numerous types of wild thyme grow. The hillsides are also full of the scent of broom from its vibrant yellow flowers. The honeysuckle is just coming out too. It is hardly surprising that this wild and rugged countryside is reflected so strongly in its wines: rich in colour and aroma. This is where Grenache, Mourvèdre and Syrah rule with concentrated fruit aromas of bilberry and the spice of the garrigues.
This has been a magnificent area to ride in – so vast we could have stayed for days and still not scratched the surface but it is time to move east to Châteauneuf-du-Pape and then start climbing slowly north up the Rhone Valley.