There are two overriding reasons for favouring French wines this Christmas. The first is to show cultural solidarity with a nation which has taken a kicking in recent times. A bottle or two will automatically indicate whose side we’re on, help to sustain a fluttering French economy – and will be livelier than lighting a candle. Everyone wins, the more so given that France has the greatest selection of wine on earth.
The second is to plot a trip around the country. Cracking into the plonk properly – a different wine for each stage of the Christmas meal – furnishes a terrific tour-de-France, from the half-timbered warmth of Alsace and semi-limping dog of Champagne to sun-dried Provençal hills and the stone seat in the south-west which aids women with their pregnancy plans.
The dinner-inspired wine itinerary has, in short, something for everyone. You might do it right now, during the festive period itself, or some time soon. People insist that present outrages shouldn’t interfere with life. (“That way, the bad guys win.”) But they’re also staying away from France in droves. We need to get a grip.
Here’s the route, through both dinner and France:
Apéritif: nibbles
Champagne
It’s Yuletide. Champagne is a minimum. The most elegant, because made from chardonnay, comes from the Côte -des -Blancs, a suitably gentle landscape upon which epic tranquility has been bestowed. Vine fields lap to the gates of villages possessed of the proper prettiness of hard-won prosperity. Finesse is fixed in the reality of farm work. South of Épernay, the village of Cramant oversees the slopes, while Alice Voirin oversees Champagne Voirin-Jumel. She is as elegant as her wines, and attended by a small dog which limps. Or not. “He limps only when he’s with me,” she says.
Her Brut Tradition is a fine, entry level Champagne, at just over a tenner. Better still is the Premier Cru at £12. If you’re feeling flush, then best of all is Cuvée 555 at £20. These are small-independent-house Champagne prices. For equivalent quality from the big-name producers, you’d be paying at least 40 per cent more.
• A weekend in Reims
Where to stay
If you’re there Monday until Thursday, you may stay at the wine farm, b&b doubles from £36 (0033 326 575582; champagne-voirin-jumel.com). At weekends, accommodation is reserved for larger parties, so consider the modern, beflowered and four-star Hotel Mont Aimé at nearby Bergères-lès-Vertus (0033 326 522131; hostellerie-mont-aime.com, room-only doubles from £89). Dine there, menus from £32.
First course: scallops
Condrieu
Seared scallops are unbeatable – especially so if there’s a Condrieu to hand. I like the dry, fruity snap it brings and so might you. I also like Condrieu village, on the right bank of the Rhône, just south of Lyon. It’s jammed in between the river and hills which shoot up perpendicular, forcing vineyards vertical in terraces. There is a whisper of the Italian lakes about the place – water, slopes, old-world style. In common with the neighbours – Côte Rôtie, Saint-Joseph, Crozes-Hermitage – Condrieu is among the northern Côtes-du-Rhône aristocracy. Thus, it wears a sense of entitlement. It’s hard-earned, mind. No one in his right mind would ever have thought of planting anything on those slopes. Grape-pickers need one leg longer than the other to be truly stable. Clearly, they’re doing a good job with the viognier they gather – at Rémi Niero’s domain, anyway. At £20, his 2014 Les Ravines is giddily good (0033 474 568699; vins-niero.com). Ask nicely and young M. Niero will guide you to the top of his hill to enjoy the river views.
Where to stay
The Hotel Beau Rivage brings class to the riverside and has a distinguished restaurant (0033 474 568282; hotel-beaurivage.com; doubles from £136; dinner menus from £46).
Second course: smoked salmon
Jasnières
I’m old enough to consider smoked salmon a luxury… and must say it goes a treat with the little-known Jasnières white from the Loir valley. That’s Loir with no “e”. The river flows to the north of the stately Loire through a more modest land of meadows, vineyards and little cliffs, gentle white-stone villages and the sunlit certainties of an earlier age.
Kick off in Vendôme – birthplace of Balzac – and follow the river as it provides the running commentary for a life of loitering and long lunches. You’ll doubtless get to La Flèche, journey’s end, one day.
Along the way, at the Domaine des Gauletteries in Ruillé-sur-Loir, Francine and Raynald Lelais make terrific Jasnières wines: mineral yet floral. Prices start at about £5 (0033 243 790959; domainelelais.com). Then move just east to Trôo, where there’s a cliff-face of troglodyte dwellings.
Where to stay
Nearby, at the Moulin de la Plaine, Martial Chevallier runs the loveliest chambres-d’hôtes around (0033 254 725784; moulindelaplaine.com; b&b doubles from £57). The Manoir de St Quentin in the next village has outstanding French cooking, under oriental influence (0033 254 775446; lemanoirdesaintquentin.com; dinner menu £26).
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Main course: turkey
St-Emilion
I’d prefer beef, boar or pheasant but we shall have turkey because, as head of the family, I have no say in the matter. A good Bordeaux red will go with them all. Better yet, a St-Émilion – and not merely because St-Émilion is France’s finest wine town. Built into its hillside, as if an amphitheatre, the monumental centre is a wonder, medieval through Renaissance. Steep sett streets test wearers of high heels to the max. Towards the bottom, the vast underground basilica testifies to the Benedictine capacity for digging. There’s room in there for 5,000, plus loaves and fishes.
Next door, in what was (the real) St-Émilion’s subterranean hermitage, a stone slab seat, once sat upon, ensures fertility in women. Difficult to know how this works – St-Émilion was a monk – but, apparently, it does. Above or below ground, the whole town is a treat. The past presses in, calling for lyre accompaniment. Granted, the wine shops may exact ambitious sums for key local vintages. If you have £8,500 to spare, you could go for a Petrus 1945. Or a car.
St-Émilion’s own stars – Cheval Blanc, Ausone, Angélus, Figeac – also edge effortlessly into serious money. So try Château La Dominique. It’s almost next door to the big names, is a grand cru, has the requisite notes of ripe fruit and truffles, and its purchase doesn’t require a hedge-fund bonus. Prices start around £20, though rise according to vintage.
Where to stay
Along with wine, La Dominique offers a startling new winery – it glows different reds as the light changes – with a decent restaurant on its roof terrace. Allow around £30, which entitles you to views over some of the world’s most cherished vineyards (0033 557 552073; chateau-ladominique.com).
St-Émilion being so splendid, you’ll want to stay within the walls. Head for the Hôtel au Logis des Remparts (0033 557 247043; logisdesremparts.com, doubles from £68). Dine nearby at the Huitrier-Pie (0033 557 246971; lhuitrier-pie.net, menus from £18).
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Dessert: Christmas pudding
Gewürztraminer Vendanges Tardives
I was never a fanatic for Christmas pudding – until recently. This is partly because it’s more distinctive than the French Christmas log, partly because I now accompany it with a glass of Gewürztraminer Vendanges Tardives. This is like drinking liquid gold. And, as you’ll be aware, it comes from Alsace, where they know a thing or two about rich, hearty eating. For supporting evidence, head south from Colmar to Eguisheim, a folk-tale of half-timbered houses now somewhat sagging, of flowers, epic domesticity, tithe courtyards, gothic lettering and ancestral plumpness. It is so mind-bendingly picturesque that French television viewers voted it French village of
the year in 2013. And it overflows with wine from vineyards running up the surrounding hills. Léon Beyer is a good bet. The age-old family company has mastered the late harvesting which ensures a great concentration of sugar. This translates into mellow wines of rare and substantial luxury. Bottles are around £26. Steep, I know, but you’ll thank me.
Where to stay
The village’s Auberge Alsacienne is the place to stay (0033 389 415020; auberge-alsaciennne.net). Eat there, too, (menus from £22.50) or Au Vieux Porche slightly off-centre, for grand Alsacien plate-fulls, menus from £17 (0033 389 240190; auvieuxporche.fr). Then you should explore north along the Alsace wine route. At the hinge of Vosges mountains and Alsacien plain, it winds up and down and round and through remarkable villages offering the promise of food, wine, apple-cheeked matrons and the warmest possible homecomings.
Penultimate course: cheese
Bandol red
Depending on the cheese – if, say, it’s salty like Roquefort – you could continue with the gewürztraminer. Or you could change to the best red from Provence, grown in the hills above the little Med resort of Bandol. This is real Provençal Provence, not to be confused with the Riviera. Concerns may still be farming, family and feuds around the fountain. The wines are appropriately assertive and, because of the mourvèdre grape, sometimes peppery. I’ve never found a bad one, but those at the Domaine de la Tour du Bon are a particular pleasure. Producer Agnès Henry-Hocquard is as intense as her wines. She talks of them as if they were expressions of the spirit of the earth, so you need to grasp words like “holistic”. But stick with her. The domaine’s top-end St Ferréol is a cracker, the 2012 at £19. The classic 2013 red costs £14 (0033 498 036622; tourdubon.com). Pay no attention to her website; it was last updated in 2007. Try Caves de Pyrène in Artington or, better still, visit the domain outside Bandol.
Where to stay
Motor up to the perched settlement of La Cadière d’Azur, where the Hostellerie Bérard remains a family-run spot woven into the village’s medieval fabric. The restaurant deserves more than its single Michelin star (0033 494 901143; hotel-berard.com, doubles from £83. Two-course dinner £41).
Digestif: Calvados
By now, you’ll require something short, strong and striking to bring you to your senses. Or knock you right out of them. France has the wherewithal, not least in its three major spirits: cognac, Armagnac and Calvados. In 2015, I’m going for Calvados. It’s fruitier, more rounded and, with seven apples per glassful, keeps the doctor away indefinitely. Production is in Normandy, in wooded valleys and pastures behind Deauville and Honfleur. There are seven million apple trees around here – imagine that at blossom time – and a memory of Englishness, though not chez Christian Drouhin at Coudray-Rabut, where the Calvados is French all over (0033 231 643005; calvados-drouin.com). You taste the Réserve (£27.50 a bottle), then you drive to exquisite villages like Beuvron, Crèvecoeur and back to Beaumont-en-Auge for lunch at the l’P’tit Beaumont (0033 231 648022; leptitbeaumont.fr; menus from a tenner).
Where to stay
Head on to the coast at Trouville and a night or two at the brand new Les Deux Villas – a modern adaptation of two 1902 villas a few steps from the sea (0033 231 490919; les2villas.fr, doubles from £61).
Telegraph Tours
Anthony Peregrine will lead a six-day tour of Provence next spring, taking readers to his favourite places in his inimitable style. Run by Historical Trips, departures are on May 2 and May 16. Places from £1,995pp. Call 03330 059095; or visit http://ift.tt/1J6J9zM
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