STL DPB ON THE ROAD - PARTY WITH THE CROWES

 

When my extended family gets together there is enough wine on hand to serve an emperor's banquet (and only the good stuff, please). My brother brought this from his town in Massachusetts. Although it lacks an E, it was refreshing but failed to get me on my feet.                      

CITY DAILY PHOTO AUGUST THEME - FRUIT

 

My long-time City Daily Photo friends know that, given the chance, I prefer not to take the monthly theme literally. While this photo is not specifically representative of my city, it is representative of my kitchen cupboard. Which is, it turn, somewhat representative of my city. 

City Daily Photo members around the world tell us about their juicy favorites at https://citydailyphoto.org/category/theme-days/ .              

MISSOURI VINEYARDS

 

I mentioned the other day that this state produces some wine. Based on experience before last week, I would have avoided putting a glass of the stuff to my lips. While in Ste. Genevieve we tried some white and red from Chaumette Vineyards, pictured here. Not bad. I probably wouldn't go out of my way to look for it at the supermarket but I wouldn't turn it away.                 

IN THE VINEYARDS

I mentioned yesterday that there are a number of wineries in this part of Missouri. The product is not of a quality that is distributed widely but it may be improving. One of them, Chaumette, https://chaumette.com/, has some homes on the site amidst beautiful rolling countryside. There are facilities for fancy, expensive weddings. (Since Wednesday was our anniversary, we were reminiscing about how utterly cheap our wedding was. We put it on ourselves and couldn't afford a wedding cake so someone put the plastic bride and groom figures in a McDonald's cheeseburger  and  we fed each other a piece of that.) 

Chaumette has an excellent restaurant overlooking the countryside, perfectly beautiful in spring. There is a large dining porch. Since it was a bit chilly and windy, the place had clear plastic sheeting hung on the outside. That's how we met this chap.        

Macedonian Wine

I am really low on material but last night brought an opportunity. There is a hot restaurant in our town, Webster Groves, that's been open about a year. It's called Olive + Oak. We've never gone because you have to book about two weeks ahead and, frankly, it's a bit expensive for our trying-to-retire budget. But my staff gave me a gift certificate for Christmas so off we went last night.

It was a delight. No space here for a full review but there was an unusual treat. The wine list had a page of "no one would ever buy this" bottles at reasonable prices. Absolutely unknown stuff. The owner is also a qualified sommelier and gave us guidance. We ended up with this Macedonian red. Just terrific. Ever drink wine made from kratosija or vranec grapes?         

Chaumette Winery

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No, we don't normally drink at lunch. (Almost never, actually.) Under the circumstances, though, we decided to pretend we were in France and just laissez le bon temps rouler.

There are a surprising number of wineries in Missouri, mostly clustered in two groups: one about 75 miles west of St. Louis, south of the Missouri River, the other the same distance southeast, in the hills west of the Mississippi. The second area surrounds Ste. Genevieve, where we spent the weekend.

The best known in that area is Chaumette Winery. It has a group of several homes, a wedding chapel and a superb restaurant. Since they only serve lunch on Sunday we headed over around mid-day. Although I've never been able to develop a taste for our state's wines (and, as the top picture illustrates, Lord knows I made another try) the meal was fabulous. We might make a special trip down here for dinner and a night away.

The bottom photo is a detail from a painting in the restaurant called The History Of A Missouri River Town painted by Brian Dawes Haynes in 2002. The old song says that Davey Crockett kilt him a bar when he was only three. This guy looks ten times older and I'm betting on his opponent.

STL DPB Hits The Bottle: Chateauneuf-du-Pape

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No time to chat. We have to get up early today to get the TGV to Paris. We took a short trip yesterday to the little wine town of Chateauneuf-du-Pape, literally, the pope's new castle. (The Holy See really knew how to live back then.) An interesting stop was the Brotte winery and museum of wine-growing. We picked up a few bottles, which may or may not make it out of our Paris apartment onto the plane.

The bottom photo shows the ruins of the old chateau.

Big meetup with Paris photobloggers tomorrow.