galoshes blog

Part III The Grand Tour

By Gavin Murphy

When I retired I thought about where we might like to travel. There were many places in Europe I had never been before. I had never been to the south of France. Never been to Spain. Never been to Germany or Austria, or Greece for that matter. There was lots more of Italy I wanted to see. I figured there were about five or six “vacations” I needed to take to see the places I wanted to visit. When we found out our first grandchild was coming I decided it was time to act before the baby was born. We would take the Grand Tour – a three month excursion that would go to all those places by a combination of rented car, train and a cruise ship and require only one roundtrip flight across the pond. 

We took the high-speed rail from Paris to Avignon. It was a little disconcerting for an American used to snail rail in the states to watch the utility poles flash by like toothpicks as the train rocketed across the countryside at nearly 200 miles per hour. Then the food and beverage cart rolled up and a glass of wine quickly calmed the nerves. 

We rented a car and, after a couple of days in Avignon, began to tour around Provence. We spent a day and night in the area of Châteauneuf du Pape, famous for its red wines that are a magical blend of Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre. Yes, it is also the place where the popes – based in Avignon at the time – got their wine. We sampled the wine and that night stayed at a modest hotel planted in the countryside amidst the famous grapevines of the region. There was a pool but it wasn’t heated. We had a delicious meal in the hotel’s small dining room that night. There was only one other couple there. My dish turned out to be one of those gourmet gastronomical experiences that people talk about experiencing in France. It was some sort of small fowl, a quail or a partridge or something like that. Prepared perfectly with some beautiful vegetables. The wine was good too.

Later in Arles I had an equally transcendent culinary experience in a small restaurant that served an appetizer of different pates served on a cutting board. You could eat as much pate as you wanted. This was followed by a risotto with ‘gambas’ – large shrimp. It was exquisite. I usually don’t care that much for risottos. They’re either too creamy or not creamy enough. They’re usually bland, but this dish was rich and perfectly seasoned. 

We went to the famous outdoor market in Aix-en-Provence and bought the paella, a combination of rice and saffron with chorizo and shrimp cooked in a giant pan. To go with it I bought an excellent Bordeaux for less than €10 in a nearby food shop. 

(I often use what I call the “bin test” when selecting a bottle for purchase. If the bin has only a couple bottles left in it I assume it is selling quickly because it is good and people familiar with it are snapping it up.)

There are lots of Roman ruins scattered around Provence. Giant arenas, temples, arches, tombs and the not so ruined Pont du Gard. I imagine that once the troublesome Gauls had finally been subdued and assimilated, being dispatched to Provence was a sweet deal for a Roman. Of course the Romans brought their winemaking skills along.

We went to Germany next but the weather was cold.

We saw that it was much warmer in Italy so we hopped on a train and crossed the Alps for the first of three crossings on our trip. We ended up in Verona where it was about 70 degrees F. We had an excellent dinner at a small restaurant tucked away on a narrow side street that I later saw featured in a Rick Steve’s Europe episode featuring the same guy – the owner – who waited on us at an outdoor table while his wife did the cooking. 

In Siena there’s a wine shop right in the Piazza del Campo, where the famous Palio – a mad bareback horserace – takes place. The Piazza is the central tourist zone and this shop had a sign out front advertising a bargain Amarone. Siena is in Tuscany and Amarone is not a Tuscan wine. It’s a fancy Valpolicella from the Veneto region of northern Italy. It’s a dry light bodied red wine made from a variety of grapes and it isn’t cheap. I went into the shop and asked for the Amarone. It was a bait and switch situation. The salesperson tried to get me interested in some of their other offerings, suggesting they would be better than the Amarone. I held out for the cheap Amarone but probably should have taken the salesperson’s recommendation to buy something else. The Amarone was okay but even on sale is was a relatively expensive wine and I could have gotten something better for the price. (Buyer’s remorse is sometimes part of wine buying.)

We had been in Italy for a couple weeks and after several days in Siena I had stopped by a tourism “center” located on the Piazza, next to the one of the tallest towers in Italy, built in the 1300s. I inquired about taking Italian language lessons. They said nobody had ever asked for such lessons before, which surprised me. (I, personally, was embarrassed by my ignorance of the language.) They told me to come back in two hours, which I did. A young woman who obviously spoke both English and Italian and probably one or two other languages had been assigned to provide lessons at a reasonable charge per hour. We repaired to a nearby cafe and, over a couple glasses of wine, she attempted to teach me some Italian. I took three of these lessons while we were in Siena. Needless to say that was not enough for me to learn the language.

Siena is a fantastic place, basically a medieval fortification of a town with ramparts and formidable city gates that open on to a labyrinth of winding streets. It’s like a town inside a giant castle. But after a few days of wandering its streets enclosed by walls and buildings, you can start to get a little claustrophobic. 

I wanted to get out and see some more of the Tuscan countryside. I went back to the tourism center to find out what they had in the way of a day tour that would get us outside the walls at least for a few hours.

We ended up signing on for a day trip by van to San Gimignano, another fortified town famous for it medieval towers. The trip would take us through the countryside and after a visit to San Gimignano a stop at a winery for a wine tasting. We had a pleasant ride around Tuscany with a couple of stops that allowed us to take in the vistas of verdant rolling countryside occupied by endless rows of grape vines. In San G we had some gelato – a treat that I was finding increasingly addictive. San G is famous for its local white wine – Vernaccia, gold in color and dry with citrus and floral aromas. Not terribly expensive. I purchased a bottle or two for later consumption.

We had been to several wine tastings with tour groups already and I usually was somewhat disappointed. Typically we tourists would arrive and be seated at long tables, usually in a pleasant enough spot at a winery, served a tidbit or two to clear the palate and then given a few small glasses containing a splash of wine. The wine was typically not bad but usually not that exciting and then the owners would take orders. (They seemed to assume, probably correctly, that most Americans didn’t know much about wine.)

When we pulled up to Tenuta Torciano after leaving San G we parked in front of what appeared to be a relatively modest farm house. (Earlier in the trip we had passed by the monumental Antinori Winery.) My expectations were not high. But when we entered, there was a large table arrayed with plates and nice glass stemware in different sizes set at each place. This looked promising and indeed it turned out to be a wonderful tasting experience. The food was excellent and ample glasses of the winery’s delicious wines, including a couple ‘Super Tuscans’ – a blend of the ubiquitous Sangiovese with other grapes including Cabernet and maybe Merlot – were served by a young man who was a member of the family. He had a lot of personality and kept calling Cynthia “princess” as he would pour her another glass. She ended up ordering about $500 worth of wine to be sent back to the states. I didn’t object and the ride back to Siena was pleasant, even though we took a less scenic highway for the return trip.

Italian wines used to be cheap and Italy always has been among the countries with the highest per capita consumption. (Meanwhile in places like California lots of cheap Chianti in the basket bottle was passed around the beach bonfire as bongos were played back in the beatnik days.) Often the wines, at least those readily available in the states, weren’t very good. No longer. The advent of the Super Tuscan revolutionized Italian winemaking and prices for Italian wines are right up there with – or more – than French wines. A Barolo is very expensive and Primitivos don’t come cheap either. 

Austria

We went back over the Alps by train and went to Salzburg. I had always associated Germany and Austria with white wines. Back in the 70s Cynthia had a wine party in our apartment where a wine salesman explained the difference between Auslese and Spätlese.

What surprised me now in Austria was how good the red wine was. They often are blends of the native grapes with names like Zweigelt and international varieties like Cab and Merlot.

Spain

In Spain they serve wine – including red wine – cold. It’s a little startling at first when the bottle of red Tempranillo comes to your table chilled like a white wine might be chilled in the states. It has become accepted in the U.S. that red wines should be served at “room temperature.” Thus they often are served too warm and I often make a pain of myself asking for an ice bucket when the pricey red I’ve ordered arrives at the table hot.

In Barcelona we found a great tapas place near the Ramblas right across the street from a famous old opera house. This discovery was made after we consumed a fair amount of what I thought was mediocre tapas. Barcelona is beautiful of course. But you have to watch out for thieves. One night at our favorite tapas place, which was always crowded, a woman had her purse stolen.

We had arrived in Barcelona as the final destination of a cruise that had started in Venice. We sailed around Greece, stopped in Naples, Palermo and Corsica and skirted the South of France with stops in Monaco and San Tropez. We were supposed to go to Tunis in North Africa but after a terrorist attack there we were diverted to Sardinia. 

Cannonau di Sardinia is a red wine made from Grenache grapes that is high in antioxidants and considered a factor in why Sardinians have long life expectancies. There also are beautiful beaches.

The cruise was great but the rules for bringing wine on board were rather draconian. It was frustrating to be put ashore for a day of touring and shopping, eating and wine drinking and not be able to bring back some of the local wine you had just discovered. I could see a limit of maybe one or two bottles per port but it was pretty obvious the cruise operators wanted to keep the passengers as captive customers for their on board stock. Sometime they featured a special wine for sale on board that you could buy and take to your stateroom. But those wines didn’t ever impress me. It almost seemed like they were dumping mediocre wine on the tourists. The ship did have an interesting policy in their dining room for wine you purchased there but didn’t finish. They would cork the bottle and hold it for your next meal.

We were traveling in Spain by rail, often high speed rail, so we went places we could get to by train. Zaragoza was midway between Barcelona and Madrid. It was way less touristy than Barcelona but featured a lot of interesting sights, including Roman ruins, a massive cathedral and a fortified moorish palace built in the 11th century called Aljaferia, now a museum. One night we met a couple of guys from Britain who recommended a red wine to us –  Glarima Tinto (tinto meaning red wine). It was soft and fruity as I recall and very reasonably priced. We enjoyed it so much that we came back the next night to the same restaurant, not for the food but for the wine.

After a couple days in Toledo gawking at all the El Grecos, we spent a couple days in Madrid, seeing still more great art at the Museo del Prado (including more El Grecos), then flew home.

What have I learned about wine: Well, that life indeed is too short to drink bad wine. When I can, I’m going to opt for better over good. This may reduce the balance in my rollover IRA but c’est la vie. I intend to imbibe, maybe until my liver and kidneys and pancreas decide they are not going to put up with that any longer.

Sante!

(To your health)

(The ancient Greeks often stored wine in amphorae sealed with pine resin, imbuing it with a resin flavor.)

“So far as drinking is concerned, you have my hearty approval; for wine does of a truth moisten the soul and lull our griefs to sleep.” – Socrates

Postscript: A good friend of mine and his wife recently returned from a wine tasting trip to Mexico. Now I usually associate Mexico with Cerveza – beer – or Tequila or maybe even Mescal. But my friend reports that Mexican vintners have planted grapes from Cabernet to Tempranillo in rocky soil, mainly in Baja, and are experimenting with blending all kinds of varietals. Some of this production has started making its way across the border. Will we soon see Mexican wines in our local wine shop?

Posted Jan. 2025