Back in the 1990s, Domaine Tempier was an annual pilgrimage during our trips to France. I became good friends with winemaker Jean-Marie Peyraud and his wife, Catherine. But it's been 14 years since my last visit. It is funny that when you go back to visit friends after so long, it feels like you really haven't been away a long time at all.
Jean-Marie and Catherine are fantastic hosts. They live in a place called Cancebeu, some land on top of a knoll that Catherine's family bought back in the 1960s. From here you have a 180 degree view of the Mediterranean, from Sanary sur Mer over to La Ciotat. Around their house are Mediterranean pine trees, oaks and olive trees that they have planted. It is an amazing place.
Jean Marie met us at the train station at Toulon after a very long ride up from the Cinque Terre. After showing us around and having a short rest, Catherine cooked us a lovely meal of moussaka and a vegetable casserole. This was washed down with their delicious 2008 rose (Domaine Tempier makes one of the best anywhere) and a 2007 Cuvee Classique red. According to Jean Marie, 2007 is a great year, one of the best in a long time. And to top the meal off, in the French tradition, we had a plateau de fromage. This consisted of many different cheeses...cow, goat and sheep.
The next morning we went to a local market in Sanary sur Mer. These French markets are wonderful; farmers from all over the region sell their produce here. Just the colors are enough to satisfy, but along with that were the smells, the tastes, the sounds and of course the sight, right on the port of this lovely little sea village.
For lunch, we started out with a plate of oysters from the Ile de Re that Catherine got at the market. This was washed down with the Domaine Tempier 2008 white, a wine they make in small quantities and I don't think it is imported here. Following this was a wonderful tuna...tuna steaks cooked in the oven with onions and spices. With this dish we drank a bottle of the 2006 Tempier Classique and a bottle of 2004 Gros Nore Bandol. Wow! And of course more cheese.
In the late afternoon Amy learned how to play petanque. This is is the game you see played all over France, but especially here in the Midi. It is played with metal balls and is similiar to the Italian game of bacci. During our little game, Jean Marie and Catherine's daughter, Valerie, showed up with her husband, Olivier, and their three kids. The last time I saw Valerie and Olivier was for a party right before their wedding and now they have three very nice children. So of course everyone stayed for dinner and the food was great and the wine went down easily.
On Sunday, Jean Marie and Catherine had some things they had to do, wo Amy and I took the short train ride over to the seaside village of Cassis. I had stayed here a few times in the past and had always love it. It is one of those picture postcard little towns with fishing boats and cafes on the port. But since it was Sunday, half the town of Marseille was here!!! Wow, what a crowd! So Amy and I walked over to Port Mieux, a kilometer or so west of town. Here you have the 'calanques' which are deep gorges that form narrow bays. Back in Cassis for lunch, we had a very nice meal...soup do poissons, moules a la provencale (stuffed, grilled mussels), grilled dorade fish, pintade (kind of a guinea hen), a cheese plate and a mousse au chocolate.
So lets just say that we ate and drank very well over the couple of days that we were with the Peyrauds. On Monday, Jean Marie took us to the Domaine to taste the wines that are still in the barrels, the very new 2009s and the 2008s. Domaine Tempier is in the small town of Le Plan de Castellet. It was started in the 1800s but became a great winery in the last 50 years or so thanks to the dedication of Mr. Lucien Peyraud, who took it from a winery producing table wine to one of the world's great wineries. Lucien passed the work of the winery onto his sons, Jean Marie and Francois in the 1970s and now the wine maker is Daniel Ravier. About 40% of the production is exported to the USA by Kermit Lynch, in Berkeley.
Anyway, Jean Marie took us to the cellar and we tasted many of the different cuvees right out of the barrel. Here, the barrels are called foudres and they are giant oak casks, some new, some old. The red wine ages in these for about 20 months before being bottled in four different cuvees...Cuvee Classique, La Tourtine, La Migoua and Le Cabasseau. The last three are distinct vinyards that are around the area.
After tasting these wines we had a nice drink with Jean Marie's mom, Lulu Peyraud. Lulu is really a great lady. She is one of the people who inspired Alice Waters of Chez Panisse and is therefor partly responsible for a lot of the good food we eat today. It was great seeing Lulu again and talking with her after so many years. She is 92 now, but is so full of energy and vitality you would never know it.
When we got back to Cancebeu for lunch, Catherine had made us one of the most amazing lamb dishes I ever had. Pretty simple...lamb shoulder covered with herbs and olive oil roasted in the oven. Roasted with the lamb were new potatoes, cut in half and the cut half put on the pan, so the olive oil cooked right in. Wow. With this we had a 2001 La Migoua. After coffee, Jean Marie got out the Marc de Provence, which is similear to a grappa and is quite strong.
So thanks to Jean Marie and Catherine, we ended our Italian/French journey on a really high note. We are home now after the very, very long plane ride back and have many wonderful memories that will last forever. Thanks to all the folks that we met along the way who made this such a great trip.
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