Tonton Marcel, a French and German guide to agritourism, dropped by O’Vineyards toward the end of harvest.  They’re on the lookout for the  unpretentious, country relation of Mr. and Mrs. Smith who also runs accommodations on the farm. Photos they took while here   Tonton Marcel separates the wheat from the chaff I think this [...]

A lot of people ask me what wine regions are closest to Toulouse, because they’d like to get out of the city to taste some wine.  I thought I’d write up my wine tasting recommendations in one place. If you want to spend a day visiting a wine region near Toulouse, I’m naturally going to [...]

The grapes are getting ripe enough to start talking about harvest dates.  I’ve been tasting grapes in the Cabernet and Merlot multiple times a day with everybody who comes through on the winery tour.  I go out to the Syrah once every couple of days to taste there too.  And of course, the real expert [...]

note: This post is written as advice for winemakers offering tours.  If you are looking to participate in a wine tour, you can learn about our winery visits and wine tastings. By looking at feedback we receive from our clients through social media and review sites like TripAdvisor, we’ve learned a surprising lesson about the [...]

TripAdvisor users who look for “Things to Do” in the Languedoc Roussillon region are presented with a top 3 attractions list, and Domaine O’Vineyards is the number 1 attraction on that list!  We also placed #1 on the complete list of 174 things to do in Languedoc Roussillon. What is TripAdvisor TripAdvisor is the world’s [...]

I had to reorganize all the photos on our computer systems and I found some real pearls from the first few years at O’Vineyards (some of them are back when it was le Domaine du Thou! and not even called O’Vineyards yet). Nostalgia time The first year we were at O’Vineyards, there wasn’t a winery [...]

I managed to take some pictures yesterday.  Lots of photos of the Syrah and Cabernet finishing veraison.  That’s the period when the plant turns the grapes purple. I also found some baby birds newly hatched in the Syrah! For more pictures of grapes turning purple, check out this Love That Languedoc post about veraison in [...]

Everybody likes wine!  Okay, not quite everybody.  But besides the President of France, really a lot of people love wine.  And it’s time for wine tourism to take this into account.  This post summarizes some of my philosophy on our winery tours and travel activities by thinking about normal people and what they want when [...]

Grape harvest in the south of France The grapes are changing color and that reminds us that harvest time is right around the corner.  We get exceptionally busy around harvest, but we leave the door open and let tourists come to the vineyard and see exactly how harvest goes down.  Some people actually roll up [...]

This is part of an ongoing series about places to visit near Carcassonne. Small wineries and vineyards around Carcassonne, often lack the infrastructure to receive tourists year round.  This post will attempt to list some of the wineries that are well-known in the area for receiving visitors without reservation. If you’d like to visit a [...]