More From The Isere

Tuesday, May 1, was a holiday in France, roughly equivalent to Labor Day in the United States. While most things are closed, we had planned to go to a festival in the town of Condrieu. That town is known for having two AOP (Appellation d’Origine Protegeé) products – Condrieu wine and a small disk of goat cheese called Rigotte de Condrieu – and both products have been celebrated for 31 years at the annual May 1 Fete des Vin et de Rigotte de Condrieu.  There were a couple of dozen producers of Rigotte de Condrieu at stalls in the center of town, and we tasted a lot of their cheeses and bought a fair amount. The wine producers were set up in a nearby hall, and with the purchase of a glass one could taste any of the wines, mostly Condrieu, Cote Rotie, and Saint Joseph, that were being poured by about 20 producers. We tasted a number of wines, but since we had stocked up on so many wines yesterday, we didn’t buy any here.  After the wine tasting we wandered a little more through the center of town, where additional food vendors had set up stands.

We then headed back towards Beaucroissant with plans to make a few stops on the way.  Our first stop was in Chatenay to view the church that was supposed to have a beautiful interior. However, like so many churches we stopped at on this trip, the door was locked. We then continued to the town of Bressieux to take a look at the 13th century Chateau de Bressieux, which was high above the town looking over the plains below. The chateau is mostly a ruin now, but two corners of the structure have been well preserved, as well as vestiges of the walls. There is also a large church in the lower part of the village, but alas, the door was also locked.

After leaving Bressieux we drove to the town of Vinay, which we had passed through the day we arrived in the area and thought it was worth going back to. We parked at the entrance to the center of town and took a brief walk. There were some interesting buildings in and around the center, including a modest chateau that was for sale.

Chateau for Sale

We then drove back to our gite in Beaucroissant for aperitifs and then dinner. For dinner, Ann made tartiflette, a Savoie specialty made with Rebluchon cheese, potatoes (using Ghislaine’s father’s potatoes), cream (using cream from the farm in Guegnon), and lardons (thick cubes of smoked bacon), baked in the oven. It was fantastic, and went well with one of the Mondeuse wines from Maison Phlippe Grisard.  After dinner we took a walk through the quiet village.

     On Wednesday we had two appointments at wineries in an obscure wine region to the north of Grenoble.  The first was Domaine des Rutissons in the town of Le Touvet, where we were to meet up with co-owner/winemaker Wilfrid Debroize. To say that the winery was unpretentious would be an understatement. After a little trouble we found the building that houses the winery, and were ushered into the cellar down steep, unlit stairs. But the wines we tasted more than made up for the surroundings. Domaine des Rutissons, like the winery we were to visit later in the day, and indeed like many wineries in the Isere and Savoie, emphasizes indigenous gape varieties that are unique to this region, some of which were almost extinct before being revived fairly recently.  Among those varieities, Rutissons makes a red from the almost-unknown Etraire de la Dhui grape, and a white Verdesse.  The wines were outstanding, and despite the fact that we had more wines than we could handle, we bought 4 bottles.

    After leaving Domaine des Rutissons we drove to the next village, Crolles, to have lunch at a restaurant that Wink Lorch had mentioned. Crolles was very suburban and congested, but it did have an impressive church.

   After lunch we headed towards Bernin, where we had an appointment with Thomas Finot at Domaine Finot. We had a very difficult time finding the winery, having stopped at 2 different places to ask for directions. Fortunately, Thomas Finot seems to be well known in the town, and we finally found the "winery." I put that in quotes, because the "winery" was in an industrial area consisting of a lot of small warehouses, car repair places, and similar buildings, and Domaine Finot was an even smaller facility than Domaine des Rutissons. But like Rutissons, they make superb wines. We were greeted by Audrey, Thomas Finot's partner, who said that Thomas was busy working in the vineyards, and that she would be giving us a tasting and tour.  Like at Rutissons they make a wine from the Etraire de la Dhui grape variety, and while they had sold all of the small 2016 vintage, Audrey poured us the 2017 out of the barrel.  We also tried their late harvest Verdesse, and a Persan (another indigenous grape variety), both of which were outstanding, so we bought both of them. Audrey also told us about a couple of other virtually unknown varieties that Thomas had planted and which they hoped to be able to harvest and make wine from in a few years.

    From Domaine Finot we drove through the outskirts of Grenoble towards the town of Vizille to see the Chateau de Vizille.  The chateau is quite impressive, as is the huge park surrounding it. The chateau is now simply a museum, which we skipped, but we took a long walk through the park, whose grounds contained a long canal with lots of waterfowl, including a family of ducklings, and an extensive fenced in area with dozens of deer.  We had parked a long distance from the chateau, on the edge of the center of town, so we got to see a good part of the town in addition to the chateau.

    We then drove back to our gite in rush hour traffic, and made it back in time to take a walk to the boucherie (butcher shop) in the village to pick up some provisions for dinner. We also encountered several scared cats on the walk, but also a friendly cat that looked remarkably like our late cat Tavel. Unfortunately, I had forgotten to bring the camera.