Tuesday, May 11
So let me start off by saying that we were told not to eat that much for breakfast this morning. You see, the day started off with a visit to a Denis Matyasy’s company. Matyasy is a patissier and traiteur, in other words he is a caterer and pastry chef and is highly respected in his area. He makes some of the most wonderful looking and tasting desserts I have seen. Here’s a mental note, Keith and I have to go take some classes at the CIA. Maybe its time for Chris to really learn how to cook and bake. Anyway, the business goes through about 600 tons of chocolate each year and employees approximately 40 workers. Denis treated us to a delicious lunch and walked us through how he makes some of his deserts. It was obvious that he inspires those around him to do better in their work and that all his employees enjoy working at the office. Additionally, he feels strongly in the mission of rotary and even with being busy running his business; he is also president of his local rotary club.
Following Matyasy’s we visted our first winery, L Ameralyde. The winery dates back centuries and has a courtyard filled with trees planted in 1594. The massive trees have more trunks and are higher then other trees in the area because they are a mix of the American Sycamore trees with the French Plain trees.
The vineyard is protected by Apollo, the greek god that protects us from diseases and bad weather. This is unusual for a winery, as most have statues of the roman god of wine, Bacus.
What a car! We ran into the owners during our tour, a lovely older couple. They showed us the below, 1962 Chevrolet Impala they are fixing up as a wedding present for their son.
So on with the wine, the winery (domaine) has over 1,200 acres of grapes with 80% of the crop being rose, 15% white, and 5% rose. Harvesting of grapes is usually completed in September and they begin to prepare for the harvest 6 to 7 months earlier because once they start harvesting they will continue non-stop for 1 month, day and night. The grapes, except for the most exceptional, are harvested at night by machines. One key element to Rose wine is to leave the juice in contact with its skin to give it it’s color. Rose and white grapes soak for 5 to 10 hours. The skins are then removed, they are pressed, and they are placed into the vats/casks. Each vat holds approximately 148,000 liters of wine. The red wine are left for 2 weeks and then the skins are removed (they float on the top). Then sulfites are added and it is left again before being placed into the vats/casks.
The night ended with a presentation before the Hyres Les iles d’or rotary club. It was a wonderful evening with great food and pleasant conversation. I especially enjoyed the conversation with Stephane Gourjon and Armand Salehi.
