Robert V. Camuto

The wine taste police will probably be after me for this one. But I have to confess, I liked the wine Saturday night.

I hadn't really expected to. I bought a bottle of Cotes du Ventoux to mark the end of the Tour de France with its climb up Mount Ventoux at the only place I could find one -- the local Le Clerc supermarket in our corner of Southeast France. It cost me 3.50 Euros (About $5) and it was made by a local coop: les Vignerons du Mont Ventoux Bedoin. To summarize: it was a cheap, coop wine purchased at supermarket. (I feel guilty just telling this.)

I wrote this post at the request of David McDuff of McDuff's Food & Wine Trail .

I always wondered why it is so many wine lovers enjoy watching professional cycling. And I finally figured it out: It’s one sport you can drink wine with and really feel like you’re part of the event. (The vinous equivalent of the relationship between weak, gassy beer and the NFL).

I wrote this commentary as a contribution to Cory Cartwright's 31 days of Natural Wine. I was incited to write this after a recent trip to Le Verre Volé Paris'found great wines being decanted in chipped and grunge-stained glass. I mean if one doesn't  like yeast and bacteria added in the winery-- why should it be okay to add (with a big dollop of attitude) local microbes in the 10th arrondisement? Anyway......

Sticking my nose into the natural wine world these days, I’m getting a big whiff of essence of dogma, aromas of Parker-esque certitude and attitudinal notes of …Could that be arrogance?

I just got back from a long weekend trip with my family in one of my favorite places on earth, the Loire Valley around the city of Angers-- a.k.a the Anjou. I have three things to say about exciting new restaurants with great food and my kind of wines. I'll just preface by noting that this part of the Loire is more natural and less touristy (with fewer blockbuster chateaux) than the area around Tours. And I love Angers -- a small University town with a big art school and a laid back vibe-- and find the people some of the friendliest in France.

Okay, so the three things:

 Yesterday I returned to Chateau Pradeaux in Saint -Cyr-sur-Mer (Bandol) for a generous vertical private tasting led by Cyrille Portalis, Pradeaux's  stubbornly individualistic owner/ vigneron (featured in Corkscrewed). The tasting proved that Pradeaux's mourvedre doesn't just evolve over time, it goes through fascinating personality changes as it deepens and shows off its age. A crusty bottle of '61Pradeaux (seemed about 80 in human years), was a bit wobbly,  but was still lucid and engaging. See video and more images.