Entre Les Murs

Salon des Vins

Today we made our annual expedition to the Paris Salon des Vins, the independent vintners' massive expo.  The ticket invites one " à la rencontre de mille vignerons indépendant" and while it's possible the claim of 1000 vendors is a marketing exaggeration, if so it's not by much.  I tried to take some pictures of the show floor, all in one huge exhibition hall this year, but it proved impossible to get it all in the frame much less capture a sense of the vastness.


With so many booths, one must find a way to focus.  As we did last year, we selected a region that we hope to visit and then within that, selected the medal winners.  The wine industry is worse than Hollywood when it comes to handing out awards to itself, and even that short list gives a lot of ground to cover.  Our pin-in-a-map choice of destination was Chablis (part of Burgundy).  Being Saturday, the crowds grew formidable, but it seemed that everyone had their own plan of attack and the medal-winning vintners we chose didn't seem any more swarmed than the others.  Nonetheless, navigation was not easy, and by the time we'd visited tasted 29 wines at almost a dozen booths, Janet had had enough.  We'd finished our Chablis list and Janet had gamely taken on a couple of Sancerres, but with her back still giving her trouble, she decided to call it a day.  I stayed and educated myself regarding the differences between the similar-sounding but in fact widely separated (geographically as well is in the character of the wine) regions of Pouilly Fumé and Pouilly Fuissé.

We paced it well this year.  While I was definitely losing discernment by the end of the afternoon (first the finishes all started to taste the same, then I began to lose the nose), and I wouldn't have driven after the first hour and a half, I remained on my feet and in charge of all the equipment of the day (notebook, knapsack, water bottle, etc.) and I managed to carry home safely eleven bottles (mostly selected early in the afternoon, so there should be no surprises when we open them).

posted 25.11.06