La Chapelle-de-Guinchay

We put the disappointment of St Etienne behind us yesterday and set off to the Beaujolais region - our base for the next four days. We entered from the southern end visiting a few hillside villages in the area of “Golden Stones” - a reference to the deep golden colour of the local rock which you will see in the photos. Being Monday most shops are shut in small villages but we lucked on an boulangerie/patisserie in Oingt that had just brought out a fresh tray of eclairs of all flavours - I had the pistachio while Vanessa had coffee.
We then moved to the northern end - the region is 55 km in length, 11 to 14 kms wide and 44,000 acres of vineyards! It is 99% Gamay grapes to make the relative light Beaujolais wines that are drunk young - not a problem for us! We are staying at Chateau Bonnet in a renovated section of the main house which is a 16th C Alderman’s lodge - great to have space to spread out and a washing machine! This is a working winery where they just finished harvesting and are now processing the grapes. Over the last two days we have seen the workers picking grapes on the steep hillsides by hand and putting the grapes into large open packs on their backs which they then walk over to a open top steel container behind a tractor and go up a ladder on the side and just lean over and tip the grapes in. We have encountered numerous tractors taking their full trailers along streets and narrow roads to the coops and wineries.
Today we drove up to a small mount winding our way amongst acres of vines and pickers to a panoramic viewpoint over the valley - on a clear day you can see Mt Blanc apparently.
We were unsuccessful dropping into a few restaurants and things were looking grim until we lucked onto a lovely Auberge set amongst a vineyard which was a new fine dining establishment. Entrees of snail,mushroom and fig tartlet for me and frog’s leg with ginger and sorrel emulsion for Jane - may as well while we are here! The main was salmon for Jane with a green tea gel and sauce while I had veal liver sautéed with baby beets and mash - scrumptious! Then eclairs again for dessert.
Obviously wine tasting is the major activity here and we are doing our best - we even have a stocked cellar in our apartment of the Chateau wines!Read more