To begin, I love the French countryside. I love its gentle hills, sprawling vineyards, open sky, and quaint country houses. I love its small town centers, often made up of charming, old buildings... Basically, I was extremely excited for this little adventure.
The farm was everything I had imagined it would be! It is owned by a middle-aged French couple, the wife who is a farmer and baker and the husband who is a wine-grower and sommelier. Not only are they the sweetest couple, but they are also extremely passionate about what they do and were extremely welcoming to us American students. They produce wine and cereal, as well make jam and bake bread using their own organic wheat, all on their farm!
After we arrived and they gave a short introduction of themselves and their farm, they lead us through a courtyard and into a cave, where wine is usually kept in big barrels before being bottled. There, several long tables were set up for lunch so we all sat down and waited for our meal. A seasonal salad was served first, followed by an aperatif of country terrine and tartine Bressane (toasted small slice of bread with curd cheese), which was accompanied with one of their rosés. At the end of this first course, the husband spoke to us a bit about wine: the basic characteristics, what wine legs indicate...
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| The cave and the tartine Bressane |
We were then taken back up to the courtyard and to the wood-fired stove where the wife began to explain the process of making bread as she kneaded an enormous amount of dough into small loaves. She then showed us the various way the stove could be used, before putting all little loaves in to bake!
After the little bread presentation, we had our main course back in the cave. It was a beef stew - the meat so tender from braising in the pot with the sauce - and boiled potatoes (very French countryside), served with a red Beaujolais this time.
We then took another break from the meal and went back up to the stove to take the bread out of the oven! The wife let us students do the honors - I was ecstatic. I wish my mom had been there for it, she would have loved the whole thing.
To conclude lunch, we had dessert with a sweet, thicker wine and then coffee. As we got ready to leave the cave, the wife packed all of us the fresh bread she had made and gave each student their own small loaf to bring home! She then directed us to the the room where they made their wine. There, her husband gave us a quick overview about how they made their own grapes into the various wines and even let us taste what the wines were like after their first round of fermentation! I've never seen wine in the middle of production, so I was surprised as to how opaque it was. Nonetheless, it was a great ending to our big meal.
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| Terre Vivante's grapes are grown on top of granite |
All in all, it was an incredible afternoon.
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