France’s high speed train, the TGV, will one day carry passengers between Toulouse and Narbonne. The line will also have a Carcassonne stop. I’m following developments in the planning of this future train line pretty closely. I’ve uploaded the slideshow presented to the public recently concerning potential installation sites for the new tracks around Carcassonne and the new train station as well. Download the TGV project slideshow 21 10 2011 complete with confounding maps and bullet points. 😀
Changes required by a TGV line
Interestingly, as I’m writing this, TGV trains already pass through Carcassonne quite often. But since the tracks aren’t set up for Grande Vitesse traffic, the trains have to run at normal speeds until they reach Montpellier. I don’t know much about the technology here, but I’ll just say it has to do with magnets and move on. 😀
Anyway, the engineers have to lay new track suitable to the TGVs and this means they’ll have to run the new track north of Carcassonne or south of Carcassonne (going straight through the city makes no sense). This is when winemakers start to get worried because there are lots of vines north and south of Carcassonne and we don’t want a bunch of train tracks to replace the vines we love so dearly.
From a business standpoint though, it’s pretty interesting since there are plans to build a new station. If the TGV connects Carcassonne to the grid, it can bring a lot of tourists and business to the area. After all the work from Bordeaux to Toulouse is done and this project connects Toulouse to Narbonne, the Carcassonne-Narbonne axis will be much closer to Aquitaine. And I’ll have to do some math, but I think it might bring us closer to Paris too (the current fastest path to Paris is a slow train from Carcassonne to Montpellier and then TGV up to Paris)
Enough babbling!
There’s a lot of information here as the slideshow also presents all the projects from Toulouse to Narbonne.
Since my vineyard is very close to Carcassonne, slides 16-21 are of most interest to me personally.
The slide that made me panic a little
one of the potential sites is close to O'Vineyards
The first reason to panic is just because it looks like somebody’s planning a war strategy. Or like a geometry textbook just threw up on a map of Carcassonne. But we’ll try to make sense of this map.
I’ve added a little o’TGV so you can see where O’Vineyards is located. As you can see, we’re actually inside one of those circular bubbles meant to represent places where it might make sense to put in the new train station. And that big golden arrow running straight through us is supposed to represent the possibility of a track running to the north of Carcassonne (but not its actual placement). The bright red arrows cutting through Villemoustaussou represent tracks that tie the new train station to the small, older train station in the center of Carcassonne (but not their actual placement).
It is important to stress a few things:
this is still hypothetical planning,
many of the arrows are symbolic representations rather than showing physical placement,
those enormous circles are very generously sized.
Let’s break this map down in a less panicked way. The track has to go either north of Carcassonne or south of it. The big green bands show the zone that is most suitable for a track. Rather than look at the large golden arrow representing the northern line, realize that the northern line is actually a very thin track that would go anywhere within that massive green band.
There will also be a new gare. The big green circles are supposed to represent potential sites where it might make sense to build that gare. The actual station will be a small dot compared to the circles used to represent their potential placement sites on the map.
Also, knowledge of the terrain where my vineyard is located allows me to say that the tracks could not pass through O’Vineyards. One one side, we’re too hilly. On the other side, we’re very close to a village. If the tracks run north of Carcassonne, it’s much more likely that they’ll pick one of the flatter, lower zones like the one running through Conques sur Orbiel. With a good set of binoculars, we’d probably be able to glimpse the train behind some hills/trees as it passes in the distance.
I also think they’ll favorize one of the construction sites that is already near rails connecting to the old gare in Carcassonne. Nobody likes to build in the jurisdiction of Batiments de France and the old gare is right next to the Canal du Midi. The more they can use existing track, the better. So those dastardly red arrows seem unlikely. My money is on one of the oblong ovals that already skirts existing track.
Although, that said, I wouldn’t necessarily mind the station being built in that circle really close to O’Vineyards. If it’s at the far end of the circle, we could get all the benefit of a nearby train station without any of the noise or visual pollution. It’s too early in the development of this project to know how harmful/beneficial the placement will be. I’ll just have to watch carefully. In February, they’re supposed to make a decision about whether the line goes north of Carcassonne or south. And at that time, they’ll provide more details about where exactly the tracks would go.
Hopefully, this won’t mar the local landscapes or prevent winemakers from doing what we do best. And as a secondary wishful thinking kind of hope, maybe this will increase land value for a few of the locals. And make it easier for me to get to Paris one day. ;D
2011 Vintage Report
People have been asking me about how the vintage is going to turn out since back in August. I’m always hesitant to guess at quality that early in the game, and this year is a perfect example of why we shouldn’t be too confident in our speculation.
All year, the vines were ahead of schedule and carrying a pretty bountiful crop of grapes. But in the last stretch, conditions changed drastically and how winemakers responded to those changes will lead to a wide spectrum of results. I think that quality of 2011 Languedoc wines will vary wildly depending on yield, microclimates, and harvest strategy. While this variance is always something to consider, it’s especially crazy this year.
O’Vineyards 2011 Vintage
The grapes were tasting great since mid August which is unusually early. We taste them daily with the tour groups that come through to visit the vineyard. Normally they don’t start tasting good until closer to harvest. As I explained to the tour groups, the flesh of the fruit tasted good but the seeds were still green.
As we continued tasting, I felt confident that the ripeness would be there by the second week of September. Muse the dog was also eating grapes in the second week which is usually a good sign! The lab was telling us to wait and was predicting that the grapes would be ready late in the third week or fourth week of the month. I thought that was ludicrous and we went ahead and started harvesting on the night of the 14th.
Grapes came in very well and very ripe. In retrospect, we sort of look like genius wine wizards. People who followed the textbook guidelines on how to harvest may have been taken off guard by several of the unusual circumstances this year.
Unusual circumstances of 2011 harvest
It was a very late summer with tshirt and shorts weather through most of September and part of October. This had an incredible effect on the late ripening period for the grapes in my area. Lots of shriveling and therefore less water and higher sugar content.
There was also a special kind of late season mildew which knocks out the youngest leaves on the plant. This wasn’t a problem for us because we had low to moderate yields and lots of healthy leaves. But if you had a lot of grapes on the plant, you might have needed those young leaves in the final stretch. Then again, most of the producers that really push yield also treat more against mildew and it seemed like my neighbors weren’t much affected by this.
It seems like there were less pips this year. We didn’t really notice this until decuvage, but it seems significant. 2-3 seeds per grape instead of 2-4. The grapes also stained our equipment a lot less than usual which might be related to the fewer seeds observation.
All this combines for a crazy late season. Winemakers who harvested later might be facing extreme concentration levels. The grapes started shriveling very quickly in the record-breaking heat we had at the end of September. Judging by the dates some people were harvesting, I imagine some of my neighbors were bringing grapes in at 17% and 18% potential alcohol. These concentrations are obviously TOO high to be making typical terroir wines. Independent wineries can counter this by illegally adding water (although that’s not an alternative that fills me with joy). And this sort of cheating can be harder to pull off in larger more public wineries like cooperatives (depending on the visibility and honesty of the winery).
On the other hand, winemakers who brought things in early might face some other issues. For example, if you prune for high yields, you were looking at exceptionally high yields this year. But exceptionally high yields can mean it takes longer for the seeds to ripen. So if you brought in your harvest early, you might still have green seeds. But if you waited too long you might have ripe seeds but you’ll also have huge sugar levels.
Anyway, we hit some kind of magical middle path. We pruned for low yields. The bumper harvest just meant a normal amount of grapes on our vines (floating around 40 hectoliters/hectare). So we got seed maturity early enough that we could bring the grapes in at a reasonable 14-15% potential for the most part.
And there are lots of other variables I’m probably not noticing or forgetting to mention. Components like surface area of foliage, depth of roots, deep water reservoirs, and so on. And there are much finer variables that people hardly mention like leaf attrition, cane width, migration of African swallows carrying coconuts by the husk, etc. 😉
Hopefully this has been helpful and gives people some insight into the 2011 vintage. Should be a fun one. 😉
We had a great surprise during harvest. One of our friends dropped by with a crate of freshly picked mushrooms from the Malepere (southwest of Carcassonne and northwest of Limoux)! So in the midst of harvest chaos we had time to make some delicious mushrooms.
People around here know what mushrooms to pick, but even if you have doubts you can bring them to the pharmacy. French pharmacists will tell you what mushrooms are edible and which aren’t. How adorable is that?! Once you’re confident in your mushrooms, then you chop them up and toss them in the frying pan for just a bit. Some olive oil and garlic. Voila! Hopefully these photos make up for the fact that I don’t have the time to write much.
Enjoy.
Alternate names for these mushrooms
Cepes, Ceps, surenys, Cepes de Bordeaux (we don’t like that one much around here), porcino (means piglet in Italian), king bolete, penny bun. In German, it’s a stone mushroom (Steinpilz) and my favorite might be the Austrian Herrenpilz which feels a bit like saying Mr Mushroom or Gentleman’s mushroom.
There were also a few cepes bronzés in the batch (sometimes called Tête de nègre).
Carcassonne and the surrounding area are very popular travel destinations because of the charm, character and history of the region. Rather than staying at a cookie-cutter hotel when you visit Carcassonne, consider taking advantage of some of the incredibly unique accommodations available in the area.
Obviously if you’re looking for holiday accommodation on a vineyard, I highly recommend visiting me at O’Vineyards! But vineyards aren’t the only cool place to stay while you’re in Carcassonne.
Gypsy Caravan
Les Roulottes Du Lauragais
1, rue de la République
11320 MONTMAUR
33 (0)4 68 60 56 64 lesroulottesdulauragais@orange.fr
This is a list of accommodations on the Canal du Midi and Canal du Rhone. These are bed & breakfasts, gites or other lodging alternatives that let you sleep on a boat that cruises down some of France’s grooviest canals.
Obviously, I’d like to see you stay at O’Vineyards Bed & Breakfast which is a few kilometers from the Pont Rouge stop of the Canal du Midi. But staying at a vineyard isn’t quite the same as staying on a boat. So here’s a list for the fluvial accommodation lovers out there:
Canal du Midi
France is renowned for having a diverse landscape, and the department of Aude is particularly rich and varied. One of the few landmarks that manages to unite this vast area is the Canal du Midi or Canal des Mers that connects the Mediterranean coast to Toulouse (and thus allows ships to pass from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean without circumnavigating the Iberian peninsula).
Péniche “Mirage”
28 rue du Canal.
Ecluse d’Herminis.
11090 CARCASSONNE
info@mirage-hotes.fr
06 16 46 28 67
This summer, we were very excited to be featured in a special wine issue of L’Express magazine in France. This is a national magazine and the equivalent of TIME in the United States. So it’s got a wide reach, and the people reading it aren’t necessarily wine geeks.
Billing me as an American in Carcassonne, Nicolas de Rouyn shares our journey in a fun, relatable way. “Mazette. Grosse affaire,” as the article says. 😀
We’re happy with the coverage. Especially because this publication is designed to be read by normal people.
So often the wine world tends to limit itself to other wine professionals or initiated wine lovers. But most wine is consumed by normal people who only think about wine a few minutes a week!
Hopefully this sort of article can get us out of the omphalocentric wine beltway and get the word about O’Vineyards out into the big open public.
This whole issue of l’Express was pretty interesting. They had something like 12 pages devoted to wine bloggers (where O’Vineyards was mentioned a couple times as well). The Languedoc Roussillon was well-represented throughout the issue. Hopefully, the French wine blogosphere can benefit from this exposure and get more people interested in wine.
But then, seeing the way some people reacted to the article, I don’t have TOO much hope for getting the French wine blog world popular exposure. We still seem pretty preoccupied by petty rivalries, alliances, and vendettas. If you don’t have the patience to read through the 200+ comments in this thread, suffice it to say that people disagreed with the selection criteria for the Express articles. Thankfully, most people will never be privvy to this squabbling (despite my willingness to link to it ;D) and most people will just think “Oh there are French wine bloggers. That’s cool!”
I just had a spectacular hike to the Chateaux de Lastours last night where we had a picnic and watched the sunset. One of my buddies at ESC Dijon’s wine commerce program stayed at the B&B this week with his girlfriend. And Gabriella Opaz came up from Barcelona too. Everybody asked me how they could spend their last night in town so I suggested a picnic in the Chateaux de Lastours.
Lastours is a tiny village north of Carcassonne and it used to be the headquarters for the Lords of Cabaret, the guys who give their name to the Cabardes. Lastours was the center of their feifdom and all the surrounding lands were farmed in the name of these lords. They built these fortifications on the high ground above Lastours and the ruins still stand today. And they’re open to the public. So if you want to see a castle that isn’t crawling with tourists, check out Lastours after hours. We walked up and were the only people there. We sat down and had a lovely picnic with some sandwiches and O’Vineyards wine. If you do this, don’t litter! You have to be very tidy or else you’ll ruin this historic site.
Lastours is about 25 minutes north of Carcassonne so you’ll need a car, but it’s totally worth it if you like nature, breathtaking views, and castle ruins. There are lots of stairs too and it’s sadly not accessible to wheelchairs.
Additionally, we went at sunset but you have to be very careful and bring flashlights if you do this. The path down is rather treacherous in the dark and there aren’t always handrails so be safe.
This post is about charming Bed & Breakfast rooms available in Carcassonne.
Obviously, I’d love for you to come and stay with me at O’Vineyards B&B, but we’re not very close to the castle. So if you like slurping red wine and you’re going to have a car, you can come sleep at our place. Otherwise, here are some excellent options that are walking distance to the medieval Cité de Carcassonne.
This is a really unique building in the Bastide St-Louis (the historic downtown). The interior is a very contemporary design and the exterior is a rather ornate historic facade. The location is perfect for short walking trips into the town for restaurants, cafes, local markets, concerts and everything else that locals do. It’s a tiny bit removed from the more touristic sites of the citadel (a good thing in many ways), but it’s still walking distance from the ramparts.
Stay on a barge on the Canal du Midi. This has been fully outfitted as a charming B&B / houseboat. The owners are onboard to take care of you. There’s also a jacuzzi on top of the boat. Prices range a lot depending on how much luxury you want on the peniche. Children have to know how to swim if you want to stay on the boat.
This B&B is notable because it’s actually in the medieval citadel. A lot of people don’t realize just how big the castle is. Hundreds of people live within those ramparts. There’s a school, dozens of restaurants and shops, 2 hotels, a hostel, and a B&B.
A B&B at the foot of the castle, just outside the remparts.
Other accomodations
For a full list of accomodations, check out Trip Advisor’s Carcassonne Hotel page. Whether or not you trust the reviews, it’s a pretty complete list of lodging options in and around Carcassonne.
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 their sleeves and work for a bit too! It’s the perfect way to get immersed in the wine from the region while you visit Carcassonne.
Who is this workshop designed for?
This is great for anybody who is curious about how wine is made. You don’t need to know a lot about wine. It’s interesting to every level of wine drinker. We’ve actually had visitors who don’t even drink wine but still love the tour because they get to see a really fascinating process that defines the life of our entire region for an entire month. Wine is really the backbone of the Languedoc Roussillon and visiting a vineyard is a quintessential experience!
All that said, if you do already know a fair bit about wine, this is a great way to take it to the next level. You’ll see soooo much in a short period of time. It will certainly be time well-spent.
When is harvest 2011?
Harvest should start around the second week of September.
But this is the toughest part of planning the harvest workshops. Folk lore says that harvest starts 45 days after the grapes change color. And they’re changing color right now. According to that, you can expect harvest to start around the second week of September. But that’s not set in stone. On the bright side, if you come right before harvest, there is still a lot of interesting stuff going on. We’ll be tasting the grapes to see whether they’re ready to be harvested. We’ll be setting up the winery for harvest. And we’ll be doing some last minute work to prepare the parcels that are going to be machine-harvested. You might also get to peek in at our extremely limited white wine production (just a couple of barrels).
Harvest should end around the second week of October.
But even toward the end, there are lots of interesting things going on. Vinification for example! How do we turn that grape juice into wine? In many ways, the end of harvest is the most interesting time to visit because you’ll see freshly picked grapes (generally the Cabernet Sauvignon comes in last) side by side with the first grapes we picked (and they’re generally finishing their fermentation by the end of harvest). The downside is that we’ll be exhausted so you’ll meet a much less energetic version of the O’Connell family. 😀 But we love to receive people and share the harvest so don’t be shy!
What do you see and do at harvest?
You’ll see everything. There are no closed doors. You’ll see how we pick the grapes and bring them into the winery. You can see the sorting table in action. You’ll see how we bring the grapes up to the tanks without any pumps. You can see us mix yeasts or sulfites that will be added to the fermentation tank. All this is open book. Last year, a group from Barcelona took some brilliant harvest photos that really showcase how much access they had to every step of the process.
A lot of tourists choose to participate actively in some of the easier jobs. Spend fifteen minutes at the sorting table to contribute to the quality of O’Vineyards 2011! Help pick a row of grapevines. Or do more technical stuff like learn how to take sugar density measurements on the incoming juice and calculate the potential alcohol level. Whatever tickles your fancy (within reason… we have to be careful about insurance issues).
How to book a harvest tour
You should email us at ryan@ovineyards.com and let us know what day or days you can come by. We’ll tell you what’s likely to be the best day to visit. Also tell us if you want the tour (25 Euros / person) or the more involved harvest workshop (95 Euros / person, lunch included and more time with the winemakers).
I hope to see a lot of you very soon!
This is an index of an ongoing series of posts about what people can do in and around Carcassonne. Millions of people visit the medieval citadel (the Cité de Carcassonne) each year, but what should they do after walking those gorgeous castle ramparts?
I obviously recommend visiting my winery at O’Vineyards. We offer a full tour of the winery, and our unique history (we’re first generation winemakers) means that we can talk to you like normal human beings about the sometimes scary or pretentious subjects of winemaking and wine tasting.
But I also want to offer a full list of possible activities because there’s a lot to do in and around Carcassonne other than visiting me!
Things to do around Carcassonne
Walking distance from Cité de Carcassonne
Drink good wine
Eat good food
Visit castle ruins and historic sites
Cave spelunking
Walk, Hike, or Cycle
Ville-Basse
Walking Distance from Cité
This is a list of activities I’ve written about that are walking distance from the medieval castle of Carcassonne. This may overlap significantly with the other categories on this page, but it was a very popular question so I have to talk about it separately.
Carcassonne is beautiful wine country and you don’t have to know a lot about wine to appreciate the rich flavors of the local producers. The greater Carcassonne area touches five major wine classifications:
The rest of this is a work in progress. If you find this article unfinished and you’d like more information, feel free to email me at ryan@ovineyards.com
Eating around Carcassonne
I plan on writing a bit about different dishes and meals that are typical to the south and southwest of France. I’ll also include some addresses of favorite restaurants.
Castle Ruins & Historic Sites
I plan on writing a bit about all the castles and ruins other than Carcassonne like the Chateaux de Lastours.
There are many other ruins scattered around Carcassonne.
And some places aren’t even ruined yet:
Quéribus
Peyrepertuse
Puilaurens
Castelnou
Oppidum
Cave spelunking
I’ll write about the various cave visits like the Gouffre Geant de Cabrespine and the Grotte de Limousis.
Carcassonne for walkers, hikers, & cyclists
I’ll start listing ideas for walkers, hikers & cyclists.
Ville Basse
Things to do in the downtown area of Carcassonne known as the Ville Basse. Things like local markets, the Place Carnot, the Canal, and the river.
How to find us
Domaine O’Vineyards, located in the North Arrondissement of Carcassonne, is just minutes from the Carcassonne train station, the Medieval City, and the Carcassonne Airport.
GPS coordinates: 43.259622, 2.340387
O’Vineyards
Wine, Dine, Relax at our Boutique Vineyard
Unique thing to do in Carcassonne
Wine Cellar. Winery Visits. Wine Tasting.
Wine & Food Pairing
North Arrondissement of Carcassonne
885 Avenue de la Montagne Noire
11620 Villemoustaussou, France
Tel: +33(0) 630 189 910
Best by GPS.
Follow the signs to Mazamet/ Villemoustaussou using the D118. At the end of the last straight part of D118, you will come to a roundabout with the Dyneff gas station.
Take the exit towards Pennautier. Continue 500m to a small roundabout and go straight over.
Look out for the second road on your right, Avenue des Cévennes which curves up hill (about 1km) to Avenue de la Montagne Noire on the left.
At the last juction, bear left. the road sign “Ave de la Montagne Noire” (confusing as it seems to show a right turn)
After another 500m you will see our red brick color building in the middle of the vines.
This is great for anybody who is curious about how wine is made. You don’t need to know a lot about wine. It’s interesting to every level of wine drinker. We’ve actually had visitors who don’t even drink wine but still love the tour because they get to see a really fascinating process that defines the life of our entire region for an entire month. Wine is really the backbone of the Languedoc Roussillon and visiting a vineyard is a quintessential experience!