This was one château Mick was not going to miss.

It was very different to the ones we had visited in and around Fontainebleau a few weeks ago. Château de Jau, located on the outskirts of Cases-de-Pène, makes wine and offers dégustations with a luncheon during the summer season.

I had booked a table for 5 people months ago, as I had been told it is very hard to get in.

The place was packed with the patrons who had been waiting for the restaurant to open at 12.30pm. There even was a wedding reception being catered for as well. You can see from our photo that we were amongst the first there. We were waiting for our friend from Fenouillet to arrive. It was her beautiful home we had made ours for 11 weeks at the start of this house-sitting experience abroad.

Once our friend arrived, the young staff commenced serving our courses. We knew that each course would be accompanied by a different wine, and that all of this was included in the price for €38.

First course was olive focaccia and olive oil, during which time we were served a glass of white wine. As I was the driver, I had a sip, and then kindly shared the rest with Mick.

To our surprise, two further glasses of different white wines were served for us to enjoy. So that made three glass of wine with one course. That was unexpected.

We were seated beside this beautiful pond, which was quite stunning.

No one was complaining about the ‘surprise’ wines, and there was lots of discussion about the differences and the preferences for the three whites. The result was that the first wine, a blend of two grapes one of which was Vermentino, was the favourite amongst us all.

The second course arrived – a tomato bruschetta with Iberian ham……

….accompanied by a glass of rosé, which all five of us later voted ‘best of the day’.

While we were enjoying the food, wine and overall experience, staff were busily cooking our main courses over this very large fire made from of old grape vines and rosemary plants.

We were offered fresh tomatoes as our ‘salad’ to accompany firstly a barbecued lamb chop. Which of course came with a glass of red wine. Then we were served a Catalan sausage with a different red wine. And just for the heck of it – a third red wine was offered to us.

By now I am counting the number of glasses – that made seven. Not that you had to drink each glass – there was a ‘spittoon’ on the table for unwanted wine.  Funnily enough, it got little use.

But there was more to come. Actually three more. Two sticky or sweet wines that accompanied the cheese and dessert courses –  Roquefort and then ice cream and sorbet.

At the conclusion of the meal we were offered a glass of a sparkling white wine that was too sweet for all of us. The spittoon did get used at this point.

Almost four hours later, we had finished our experience and Mick thought he’d make us all laugh by checking that we had wasted nothing.

By the end of the meal, Mick was reminding me of the reasons he had so much wanted to spend this year in France – food, wine, great people and friends – both old and new!!

This wine dégustation was possibly up there with the best wine tasting experience ever, although it is a toss up between the one Mick and I went on with his mother last year at Gambino in Sicily near Mount Etna.

FOOTNOTE:

Although it had been a very big day, with us getting home around 5.30pm, after a small break, Helen, Mick and I reconvened for a snack dinner….

…and a glass of wine. (Remember I was the driver and I had had a very small amount during lunch). Poor Derek had not been well all day, and so he wisely decided to head to bed for an early night.

Around 9.30pm, the owners of the Chambres d’Hôtes where we are staying popped into our room. I was worried we were making too much noise, but was very pleased to find out that was not the case. I invited them to join us for a wine, and after a little pause, they accepted gratefully, but said they had to finish off the meal they were serving for the guests who were almost finished their four course meal.

Around 10.00pm the owners returned and Mick opened up a bargain bottle of wine he had bought at the very first winery. It was a bargain because the wine normally retails for €9 per bottle, but he had bought this magnum (equivalent to two bottles) for €12 because it had been labelled incorrectly.

Around midnight, Helen said goodnight saying she should go and check on Derek. (We saw straight through that excuse as she’d been gone for 5 hours and Derek was not that sick, but we let her get away with it!)

Meanwhile, a very enjoyable discussion continued including topics such as extreme sports, French wines and visa applications amongst other things. Thankfully the conversation was in English, as the Russian owners are more confident in English than in French.

I remember saying good night to them around 1.30am, thankful I only had a few glasses to wash up before I could go to bed, while they headed off to clean up the dishes for the meal that had served a few hours earlier to 14 people.

A big day.