Vintage Cycling

Bicycles, baguettes and bottles of Sauvignon blanc – it doesn’t get any more French than this. It’s 11 am and I’m flying over tree roots and fallen pomegranates, feeling light-headed and carefree in the gentle Mediterranean sun. We’re participating, along with 500 other outdoor enthusiasts, in the region’s first vineyard and epicurean tour à la bicyclette, an event that twins the French passion for wine with their appétit for fine foods, and blends it all together with their obsession with cycling.

As part of the Fête des Vins Nouveaux or New Wine Festival, an annual week-long celebration marking the release of the year’s new vintages, the tour has us cycling through some of southern France’s most spectacular countryside. Autumn has painted the fields with a breathtaking palette – row on row of grape vines, long since released from the burden of Syrah, Grenache and Chardonnay, among other varieties, arrest us with their red, yellow and orange brilliance. Pomegranates dangle tantalizingly over rust-coloured dirt paths that give way gracefully to vineyard laneways lined with towering Plane trees.

A church steeple, a crumbling farmhouse, baked red-tiled roofs on village houses – it is no less a painter’s paradise than a cyclist’s tour de force.

Stretching from the Pyrenees in the west, along the Mediterranean east to Provence and south to Spain, Languedoc-Roussillon is the largest wine producing region in the world, with over 2,800 square kilometres devoted lovingly to grape cultivation. Its more than 2000 vineyards produce more wine than Australia, South Africa, Bordeaux and Chile combined, with an average production surpassing two billion bottles annually.

The region also boasts some of France’s oldest vineyards, their lineage tracing back to the 5th century BC when the Greeks travelling from Asia Minor made their first settlements here. Winemaking flourished under the Romans particularly along the Via Domitia, the ancient road that led from Rome through this sun-drenched region down to Spain and which even 1,500 years ago, transported millions of litres every year.

Which makes it all the more surprising that it’s taken them so long to pull together the Randonnée Vélo Tout Terrain, a mountain biking tour featuring six of the region’s cooperatives each representing a handful of local vineyards. Organized collectively by the Communauté d’agglomeration Béziers Mediterranée, the Foyer Rural de Bassan, and the Fédération Française de Cyclotourisme, the event has drawn all kinds, from mothers with infants strapped on baby seats to seriously-decked out racers pedaling in teams.

Like us, Guy Tannou of Servian and Marie Sibrac of neighbouring Béziers, have chosen the 27-kilometre route, leaving the 51 km option for the more ambitious athletes (and connoisseurs). And like us, they are in it as much for the food and amitié as for the wine. “It’s festive and convivial, and great exercise. Frankly, the wine is nothing exceptional,” they say, with a laugh. “But the food! Now that is something. And it’s free!”

In fact, each of us has paid 12 Euros for the privilege of sampling a wide range of reds, whites and rosés, and an assortment of epicurean delights. We enjoy robust Syrahs, citrusy Clairettes, buttery Chardonnays and lively Grenaches, mature 2005 and ‘06s, along with those born of grapes harvested just this year.

 

Peter and his snacks

But it’s in the artisanal foods that we truly indulge – in the crisp green olives and tapenades spread generously over warm baguette, the mountains of freshly-shucked oysters barely kissed with a tarragon vinaigrette, the plates of herbed sausage, chorizo and wafer-thin slices of dry ham, and, from the Chocolaterie Doucers d’Oc in the sunny seaside village of Marseillan, the exquisite fig compote delicately sandwiched between layers of gingerbread and chocolate mousse, topped with a white chocolate crisp encrusted with nuts.

That there are few wine connoisseurs among this crowd is hardly a secret. Didier Bouscari is a board member for the Vignerons de l’Occitane, a cooperative whose members collectively produce more than 33 million bottles each year. He banters easily with the crowd as he serves what is perhaps his 1000th glass of wine.

“Most people won’t come back. They buy locally, close to home, for the convenience,” he says. “But it’s a great way for people to discover les vins primeurs (the 2008 vintages),” he shrugs. “We showcase our wines and maybe a few locals will come back.”

Our tour began at city hall in the sleepy village of Bassan, where we registered and received directions to the first fueling point around the corner. Few cyclists sampled any of the wines set out, opting instead for an espresso in which to dip freshly-baked croissants. Six hours later, music greets us as we pull up to our final stop. Roasting chestnuts, soft chèvre, and oozing chocolate fondants accompany the various wines the Cave de Bassan invites us to sample.

Someone hands us each a bottle of Parfum D’Octobre, a primeur 2008 bottled only days earlier. Exalted but weary we heft our reward for our hard work and, climbing back on our bicycles, steel ourselves for the 10 km ride back to our rented Béziers farmhouse. There, we will soon discover that this wine is as robust and full-bodied as was our day – dappled with sun, deep in flavor, and altogether delightful.

~ by Rita Parikh on October 24, 2008.