in the middle of the vines!

Enjoy our outdoor lunches 

Book now: 

and party with us
Special 4th of July
14th of July celebration with views on the Cité of Carcassonne fireworks!

Two years in the row:

Thanks to all our Visitors and their wonderful reviews, O’Vineyards was awarded the 2013 Certificate of Excellence, repeating our last year ‘s performence!
This prestigious award, places us in the top-performing 10% of all businesses worldwide on TripAdvisor.

Tourism and Cinema in the heart of Aude

The Oenovideo film festival chose the Medieval  Cite of Carcassonne and the Hotel de la Cite to celebrate its 20th anniversary.

The OenoVideo Festival was hosted by the Syndicat du Cru Minervois in the heart of it’s vineyards and in the walls of Carcassonne from 30 May to 2 June 2013. Oenovidéo found one of the best possible places to stage its international scope. For twenty years, Oenovidéo international showed that it is possible to unite the seventh art and wine.

It was four long days for the Grand Jury but the Minervois region treated the Jurors to many excursions hi-lighting the beauty of the Carcassonne area.

The Festival started by a meet and greet luncheon for the members of the jury at the restaurant Saskia. and that was only the beginning!
The gala was held at La Barbacane, the Hotel de la Cité Michelin starred restaurant located in the Midieval Cite of Carcassonne.

Œnovideo 2013 Grand Jury

Grand Jury Président
Christophe Barratier. Director – Writer – French Producer

Grand Jury Members
Fabrizio Bucella. Doctor of Science University of Brussels. Sommelier – Columnist

Corinne Destombes. Executive Producer – Studios Folimage

Pascal Frissant. Winemaker - Château Coupe-Roses

Daniel Hernandez. CNRS physicist. writer

Patrick Masbatin. Master Sommelier – film Buff

Bernard Nauer. Fiction and documentary filmmaker

Joe O’Connell. Vineyard owner-winemaker. Historian, University of Massachusetts. Domain O’Vineyards, Carcassonne

Marc Olivier. Journalist - Journalist – Honorary Director ANEV

2013 Awards

awards from the Festival Grand Jury chaired by Christophe Barratier

• Grand Jury Special prize to the full length film   :
    Pelican's watch. Greece. Lea Binzer production.

• Best full length Film is awarded to two films:
    Red Obsession Australia. David Roach et Warwick production
  À la poursuite de Mme Li France. Anne-Marie Avouac production.

•  Best short film is awarded to :
    Vendanges d'hiver France.  Guilhem Connac production.

• Price for best picture goes to feature film :
    Boom Varietal - The rise of Argentine Malbec USA. Sky Pinnick production

• Award for best screenplay and staging is presented in short film:
    Le vin, culture universelle Spain. Jorge Mazo production

• Best Picture “Promotion” is given to the short film:
    Do Rias Baixas - A year of wine. Spain. Ramses Rivera production

• Best film for professionals in feature film :
    La vente en primeur des vins grands crus classés bordelais. France. Production Hervé Remaud, Mylène Jaillette, Christophe Villain.

Special Mention

• Special Mention of the Grand Jury for the feature film :
    Like the old vine. Croatia.  Milka Barisic procduction

Audience Award

•   A year in Burgundy. USA. David Kennard production.
•   Lafleur. Germany.  Mathieu Charrière production.

Partners awards

• Landscape and Environment Prize awarded by Bayer CropScience :
    Do Rias Baixas - A year of wine Spain. Ramses Rivera production

• Imaginarium Prize awarded by  Imaginarium  :
    Le vin, culture universelle Spain.  Jorge Mazo production

• Best work of general interest Prize awarded by ANEV :
     UJVR, Union des jeunes viticulteurs récoltants France Florent et rémy Gaillard production

• Revue des Œnologues Prize awarded by la Revue des Œnologues :
    Zucco, le vin du fils du Roi des Français Italy.  Lidia Rizzo production

• Wine – Health – Pleasure of Life Prize awarded from VSPV :
    No wine left behind USA.  Kevin Gordon production

This receipe is for Donna VanAlstine and Chris Rud, our visitors from Toronto Canada.

Use preferably a roll of “pâte sablée” (kind of shortbread dough). Could be replaced by another pastry such as the puff pastry and adding some honey over the goat cheese.
cut the dough in 12 round portions
Lay a slice of goat cheese on each portion of dough
spray on top some dried rosemary mixed with fresh rosemary. add honey if you did not use the “pâte sablée”
Lay another smaller round slice of dough
fold and seal both slices of dough
Bake for about 10 to 12 minutes in 210° oven

Liz’s Salmon Rillettes

At the request of our World Travelers Sabine Bessey and her husband Ebaheart, here is the receipe of Liz’s Salmon Rillettes:

Get from the fish market about 200g of fresh salmon

heat your oven at 200°
Few drop of lemon, salt and pepper, roll your salmon inside of an aluminium sheet
cook in the oven for 10 minutes
Cool the salmon in the refrigerator
smash it with a fork
put in the ginger and garlic sauce
back in the refrigerator until the serving time

prepare the ginger-garlic sauce:
3 table spoon of mustard
about 20g of garlic. 20g of ginger
mix with about 3 table spoon of olive oil
put the sauce to the refrigerator.

Before serving, mix the salmon and the sauce.

Burbot in butter sauce

I like the  small fresh burbots! Have to wake up early to get those at the fish market!

Very fast and easy receipe! Saute the fishes in a small amount of butter. add  the garlic and parsley. When the garlic is golden, add some more butter, add the chopped parsley. Cook only one minute. Serve immediately!

I like to serve dishes, French or fusion, that our World Visitors can discover and appreciate. Travelers from Japan love sea food but I knew enough not to feed them shrimp tempura. I treated them to a Liz’s bouillabaisse.

Here is the receipe:
As for all my ingredients, the fish need to be very fresh! Then add onions, carrots, tomatoes and potatoes, salt and pepper.
I use the carrots for the color and the potatoes to thicken the broth and give it more of a “bisk” look and taste.
Sauté the fish before in a little amount of colza oil.
Sauté oinions, carrots, tomatoes and potatoes.
Put all ingredients together in a steamer and cook for 10 minutes.
Remove the bones, keeping only the meat of the fish.
blend fish and vegetables with some fresh dill. Serve hot. You can add on top a grilled toast covered with ementhal or gruyère cheese. or a grilled garlic toast!

At O’Vineyards our visitors from around the World are fascinating and unique!

The power of word of mouth: halfway around the World, in a Brisbane beauty salon, Jacinta was recommended to visit us by someone she just met, Barbara who was with us in January for her honeymoon!

Adorable truth from Babe’s mouth: Piper 13, traveling with her parents from the US, told us she will be back when she will be 21!

“A unique and lovely experience”

Memories:

This is for you, our International Visitors who appreciate the Foods served and Wines that accomodate them! Good foods start with very good ingredients! Receipes posting soon!

This photo of Domaine O’Vineyards is courtesy of TripAdvisor

Here are two Tripadvisor recent reviews about O’Vineyards Getaways! Thanks to Judi, Debbie, Denise & Terri, our visitors from Wisconsin! We  love to be the highlight of your trip. We also enjoyed having you with us! Cheers! 

“The Highlight of Our Trip!”

“Great Wines – Lots of fun!”

“Four women from Wisconsin. We stayed overnight – and really enjoyed all that this place has to offer. The wine tour started with wine (that’s a good sign). We sat near a fireplace in a fabulous living room and learned about Liz and Joe and their vineyard. We were sorry we didn’t get to meet Ryan! Joe took us outside and into the wine-making facility. It was great to taste the wines and see the operation. We especially loved the very personal nature of our visit — felt like we were Liz and Joe’s friends from the State just in to say “hello.” They immediately made us feel welcome and at home. Their pride in winemaking is evident — we were impressed with the products and the hard work that goes into producing them.”
Reviewed April 11, 2013
by Judi Walsh
Waunakee, Wisconsin

This photo of O’Vineyards Table d’Hote is courtesy of TripAdvisor

This photo of Domaine O’Vineyards is courtesy of TripAdvisor

This photo of Domaine O’Vineyards is courtesy of TripAdvisor

This photo of O’Vineyards Table d’Hote is courtesy of TripAdvisor

A Happy Winemaker’s Table

We are lucky that our International visitors seemed to share different months of the year!
Our customers word of mouth is our best advertising. Google search is also very important, keeping us busy… since  Tripadvisor somehow moved us from the Carcassonne area to the whole Department of Aude.

People who have visited us know that O’Vineyards is in the Carcassonne Metropolitan area, only minutes from Carcassonne airport, Carcassonne train station and the Medieval City of Carcassonne!

Here is the lastest Tripadvisor review we got from Cindy and David Phillips who were sharing our Winemaker’s Table with Stan & Polly Jurczak from UK and Katsuhiko & Yuriko Toyoshima, Tsuyoshi & Mariko Kuwahara from Japan.

“All I can say is that I can’t wait to go back again!

Domaine O’Vineyards is a delightful vineyard about 8 km from Carcassonne. Hubby and I had a delightful two night stay with Liz and Joe earlier this week. We were spoiled from the moment we arrived until the moment we left. We enjoyed a fabulous wine tasting with Joe, from tanks, barrels and bottles. By the time we left I think we sampled nearly every wine they produced, and every one was just fantastic. We enjoyed two delicious meals cooked by Liz – I don’t even know how many courses there were, served with a generous amount of wine. Liz even took me into the kitchen to teach me a recipe or two!

Their dog, Muse, took us for a walk through the vineyard, through Merlot, Shiraz and Cabernet vines. The vines were just starting to bud and I can’t wait to return in the summer to see the vines in full leaf and grape.

Would I return? I’m definitely returning! “

Reviewed 10 April 2013
London, England, United Kingdom
Tripadvisor Senior Reviewer