Chateauneuf-du-Pape

Chateauneuf-du-Pape.

Sounds French and posh right?  

If you break it down it sounds a bit like.... 

chateau = big house

neuf = nine or new

du = of

Pape = Pope or who's your daddy?

It also sounds like an actual place, but it's not, it's a region.  A region for growing wines and that's pretty much about it, but when you do it as well as these guys - there is nothing else. Our guide kept saying, "When you are born in Chauteauneuf du Pape your career has already been laid out for you."

The grapes grow in rocks that were washed down through the valley from The Alps centuries ago.  It obviously works, cause they've been doing it for a few years and the wine tastes more than ok.

It's all picked and cat back by hand.  These optimistic workers were signalling us on the bus to come and help them.  Good luck with that.

This alien looking vehicle is for spraying the grapevines with pesticide, 

but they also just drive it into town when they need something from the shops.

There were heaps of bike riders in the area, which would have been a great way to get around if it wasn't for the big tour buses on the very narrow roads.... These bikers shat themselves just a bit as we approached.

There are 321 wineries in this very small region.  We know there are 321 because our guide mentioned it 321 times.

The winery we were going to visit for our tasting was Brotte.

This chap here was the wine maker and he was a total wanker.  He kept asking the group questions that only a wine maker would know and then when someone who knew a little something about wine asked him a question, he replied by saying, "be careful with your vocabulary, this is the wine maker that you're talking to."  I'm not sure how she offended him, but he in return was offending everybody, not only with his harsh, 'I know everything' manner, but also with the tightness of his pants.  You can't see as he is hiding behind the barrel, but when he asked if there were any questions, mine was going to be "Why do you have your little brother's pants on?"

We tasted a few lovely wines and he lectured us on the French way to taste wine.... which by the way is the same way as everybody else!

Look

Sniff

Taste

Simples!

This was our favourite wine.  It is produced in a crooked bottle and made to look old and dusty.  We loved it so much that we bought a bottle (not expensive at all).  We're yet to drink it though.  Perhaps we'll down it (non French expression) before we have to fly to Venice.

Next, our guide took us into the small town which is full of wine shops where you can do more tasting.  There was a couple of cafes and one souvenir shop.  That's it!

Apparently the top half of the town was closed because something was being filmed there.....?  So we got to look around a small section which was really pretty.  I love how everything is so decorative and the buildings all adorned with carvings of things of the region.

Wineries..... Wineries...... Wineries!

I love how the European men can always be found sitting around in the centre of the town under the shade of a lovely tree just shootin' the breeze with their mates.  It can be seen in Italy, Greece, France and most Australian shopping centres where a lot of European families have migrated to.

However, something tells me that the chap in the two different sorts of cheques, standing up at the back of the group is either not European, or has just moved there and is awkwardly trying to join the group.