Galavanting to Gigondas

I've decided not to head up the Rhone River. Mostly because I couldn't find cheap lodging up there since all the campsites are closed. Also, the wineries start to peter out. However, I did find a hostel in Gigondas, right in the middle of wine country and well known in it's own right. So I figured, perfect.

The ride to Gigondas was uneventful if horribly horribly uncomfortable. I guess the rain that came in yesterday brought in a cold front because it's annoyingly cold now. And dreary. I can't say that the ride was fun at that point. I figured that I'd stop into Vaqueray first since it's only 3km away from Gigondas and is also known as a different unique region. That's right, you're supposed to get significantly different wine 3km away. Crazy isn't it? Especially when most of the vinyards for the towns are all int he same flat space, although Gigondas does work it's way up the hill a little.

Anyway, I went to one of the winemakers in Vaqueray to try their wares. Most of them were basically closed, but I got somebody to open the door for me. It was this nice lady although I could tell she was thinking "stupid kid tourist wants free samples". Anyway, it wasn't worth the stop. All their wine was horrible. So, on to Gigondas to drop off my gear and get some lunch.

I wasn't in too good a shape when I got there because I was cold and it was starting to rain, but I got to drop off my stuff in the virtually empty hostel and change into some warmer clothes. Turns out that this hostel exists because right behind Gigondas is a small mountain range called the Dentelles de Montmirail, which has some great hiking and climbing. So the hostel caters to the eco-toursists. It's even a common stop for bike tours.

I went up to the town for lunch, which of course was pretty empty. The only people there were the folks working in the local vineyards, so I found a small place. There was one other lunch customer who knew the proprietress pretty well it seemed. They were chatting all lunch. Between the chatting, I managed to order a tarte (quiche) of broccoli and smoked salmon with a glass of wine and finished with some tea. The tea was the best part. I was finally able to chase away the chill I had all morning.

After lunch, I wanted to do a tour up through the hills so I headed up. The paved road stopped and it turned into some mountain biking through the vineyards that were clinging to the hills. I'd almost say that this was the most scenic part I've seen so far. It took me a while to figure out since I haven't really done much before, but it was fun. Took a little while though. Although part of that was that I was stopping every 50m to take a picture :-)



On the other side of the ridge, I found some paved roads and made my way down to Baumes-de-Venise where I stopped at a couple of wine caves. I found out that most of the vines up in the hills were Muscat and they make an excellent wine. I ended up buying a small bottle of the Muscat, mostly because it would remind me of the incredible ride. I also found a Plan-de-Dieu that could use some aging, but it was a nice subtle complex flavour and for 8 euros was a steal.

Finally, I made my way back to the hostel and found out where the other tennants were. They were up in the mountains hiking all day. I walked in and the front porch was covered with very muddy hiking boots. My kind of place :-)