Wine and Cheese

Oh là-là... do I feel french right now!

Who ever said too much of a good thing can make you grow tired of it has certainly never been to France. The theme of this past weekend was WINE and CHEESE and... well, let's just say I don't feel the least bit tired of either yet! Au contraire!!

** FRIDAY **

Friday night kicked off this great weekend with the arrival of our good friend Jorge from Spain. Jorge was spending the week in Paris interviewing for some jobs here. We all agreed the event could not go unnoticed and so it was decided we would hold a Raclette party at our place in his honor. Lucky for us, good friends José and Maria (also from Spain) were available to come over and I jumped on the occasion of inviting Johana as well, whom I recently met through Mamacita Chilena, hoping she would enjoy an evening with a bunch of crazed Spaniards, a Frenchman and a Mexicana. And go figure, we even had an authentic "colado" (party crasher) at our party!!! Jorge showed up at our place with Carlos, a Mexican friend of his who's also been living in Paris for some time! Talk about a jam-packed spanish speaking party ahead of us!!!

If you've ever had a raclette than you know what this type of party is about: CHEESE, CHEESE and more CHEESE. The basis are simple: you put an electrical grill in the center of the table (kinda like the one on the right) and everyone grills their own slices of cheese in the individual little pans. When the cheese is brown and bubbly you then scrape (hence the raclette name, to racler = to scrape) the cheese on to your plate over a steamed potato, raw veggies, cold cuts or all of the above. The result is D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S-!!!! (and best of all, there is absolutely NO cooking involved!!!! :D)

And let's not forget the wine!!! Johana brought a lovely Concha de Toro Chilean wine, Jorge, Maria, José and Carlos brought some nice Rioja bottles and Hubby and I had gotten our cherished Burgundy wines out of the cave for the evening. Let's just say that the different wines along with the yummy food were satisfactory for everyone.

But without a doubt the best thing of the evening was the awesome conversations that went around the table. Being that Jorge is from the Asturias region of Spain, Maria from Galicia, José from the Basque country, Johana from Chile, Carlos from Mexico City, Hubby from Paris and myself from Puebla, we each had a slightly different perspective of things even if the common thread was Spanish and the Latin culture as a whole. It was incredibly interesting to swap opinions, anecdotes and experiences on quite diverse topics such as politics, education, history, geography, culture and even jokes such as the one below, which had us peeing in our pants (courtesy of Carlos) - Apologies beforehand for the non-Spanish speakers... unfortunately there is no such thing as a translated version of the Huevos Poetas, but if you watch the video I'm sure you can get the general idea and it will still crack you up I bet :-).

All in all it was an amazing evening and I am still kicking myself for not thinking of whipping out my camera at some point in order to immortalize all the fun!! Grrrrrr!

** SATURDAY **

On Saturday morning, Hubby and I got up early and head out to pick up his parents' car down at Sceaux where they live (since we sold our little car last year we have to borrow or rent a car every time we want to get away from the city :-( ). The plan for the day: drive down to our friends' Eric and Stéphanie's house in the Burgundy region.

We got chez Eric and Stéphanie around half past 1 and already they were waiting for us with a list of highly intriguing wine cellars and producers/farmers to visit in the region. Since we were in the heart of the Chablis land, that was the wine theme for the day. Our first stop was in the little town of Préhy to visit the wonderful shop of Jean-Marc Brocard. Sebastien, the shop attendant did a great job explaining all there is to know about the Chablis wines and their classification (Petit chablis, Chablis, 1er Cru and Grand Cru), characteristics, tastes and best keep time-periods. Since we were the only visitors of the store on that lazy Saturday afternoon, we had Sebastien all to ourselves and we quickly hit it off. He had us taste all sorts of different Chablis ranging from the petit chablis all the way up to a couple of Grand crus, varying the years and parcels so that we could compare between them. Each new glass was a discovery of taste and odors and we had an amazing time talking about the different flavors and scents we were each getting from each new wine. It was incredibly interesting and the hour and half we spent in the company of Sebastien flew by without any of us noticing it. Stopping at Brocard's was definitely the highlight of the day and it set the tone for the rest of the afternoon.

We then visited smaller wine producers sprinkled along the Serein river and surrounded by the slopes where the Sauvignon grapes from which Chablis is made of grow upon. We had a wonderful time putting in practice everything Sebastien had taught us while we carefully tasted wines from different parcels, lands and categories/years. By early evening we had visited 3 more wine cellars and were ready to hit Eric and Stéphanie's cozy little cabin set in a small town between lovely slopes of the greenest land on one side and dark and spooky woods on the other.

Stéphanie had arranged for us to have fondue for dinner and again, what is there not to like about CHEESE??? Basically, the Fondue is the more chic cousin of the Raclette. Although the idea remains the same (the fondue set is placed in the center of the table for everyone to "cook" their own meal while dinning) the result is a totally different one. In this case, the cheese is previously melted with a half bottle of white wine (in our case a Chablis - what else?) and when the mix is brought to a boiling globbery consistency you're set to go. Each person then spikes a piece of bread and dips it in the cheese until it comes out completely wrapped in the mouthwatering mix. I cannot tell you how delicious a Fondue is and even more so when you're in the middle of the country side in a cozy little cabin sharing a hearty meal and a lovely glass of wine (a pick from the day's earlier events biensur) with good friends.

** SUNDAY **

On Sunday we all got up and lazily planned the activities for that day over a cup of warm tea/coffee and some fresh croissants / pains au chocolat.

Over breakfast, it was decided we would go to a jewelry auction that was taking place in a nearby town that Stéphanie and Eric had heard about and wanted to check out and Hubby and I agreed it would be fun being as we'd never been to an real auction before. The afternoon we'd stop by to visit a nearby wine cellar before Hubby and I had to drive back up to Paris.

The jewelry auction turned out to be a indeed a very funny event. It was set up in a little town hall nearby and consisted of all sort of stuff ranging from spoons, christening medallions and packs of 6 rings for a buck all the way up to highly elaborated rings with extravagant precious stones and ancient rolex watches. Even though I'm not much of a jewelry buff (my engagement ring and my wedding band basically constitute the bulk of my "collection") I curiously looked around and happily set about people watching as the attendants of the auction eagerly lingered over the glass cases comparing the pieces and ticking off selections of items to bid for from the long list of auction items they had in their hands.

We ended up not staying for the actual auction as we heard it was going to be really long (supposed to last 4 hours!) and instead headed out to the La Chablisienne wine cellars. Although the nice lady who tended to us wasn't as patient and explicative as Sebastien from chez Jean-Marc Brocard had been the day before, she was indeed able to sneak a few glasses of Château Grenouilles 2006 (usually only reserved for the connaisseurs), while her boss had his back turned in order for us to be able to taste this delicacy of a wine.

Before we knew it, it was time for Hubby and I to head on back to good ol' Paree. When we got home we were famished and everything was closed (this being Sunday in France and all). The only things we had in the fridge were leftovers from the Raclette of Friday evening. Being as we were in no mood to take out the Raclette grill and set it up all over again, we decided we might as well make a Tartiflette.

Now, a Tartiflette is like the long lost adopted sibling of the Raclette and the Fondue. Basically, a Tartiflette is the cooked version of the Raclette/Fondue. You mix in the cheese, potatoes and white wine in a cooking casserole and let it grill in the oven until it looks... well... cheesy and appetizing.

Of course, our Tartiflette didn't have any bacon it it (a pretty important ingredient according to Hubby but ni modo) and instead had lots of fresh mushrooms we had left over from Friday. Yum!!

So by now you're probably wondering if this cheese and wine orgy-fest didn't affect our tastebuds (in addition to clogging up our arteries), but like I said at the beginning of this post... I could still go for mac and cheese right now if you asked me to.

All in all it was a great weekend and a wonderful gastronomical and cultural trip. My only regret is that the past three days probably canceled out the past two weeks of going to the gym every day... but heck! It was so worth it!!! :D

Fned.

P.S. All images courtesy of Google Images.