TRAVEL: southern rhone peak of indulgence The Southern Rhône isn’t just about Châteauneuf-du-Pape. It also offers a gourmet paradise around the towering , says Mary Dowey

he word is out that Mont Left: enjoy superb food at the wine Ventoux works miracles for estate of Domaine de la Camarette the local wine. The white- capped peak that Cheese fans shouldn’t miss Claudine photographersT love and cyclists dread acts Vigier’s magnificent cheese shop, the like a massive cooling system, facilitating Fromagerie du Comtat. Watch her eyes elegant wines with a freshness that other sparkle as she talks about her wares and parts of the southern Rhône might envy. invites you to taste intriguing local Less well known is the fact that the creations like Le Cachat du Ventoux, a 1,800m Giant of Provence looks down mix of goat’s cheese and Marc de on a gourmand’s paradise. Starting at Provence, or La Fourme des Dentelles de and meandering east, a route Montmirail, a blue cheese injected with of less than 40 kilometres is studded with Muscat de Beaumes de Venise. foodie treats as densely packed as the Finally there is Chez Serge. Sommelier toasted almonds in the best local nougat. Serge Ghoukassian has made his restaurant By good luck, some of the most famous both for its wine list (300 well- worthwhile Ventoux wine estates also lie chosen bottles, mainly from the Southern along it, making for a deliciously Rhône) and for unpretentious food. He indulgent four-day break. And as winter champions summer truffles – widely rears into view, the good news is that regarded as the poor relation of their spring is the perfect time to visit. more intensely flavoured (and vastly more March-April is the best time for lured by the local food. A gifted cook and expensive) winter cousins. Try them asparagus; April-May for strawberries; spirited conversationalist, she lays on freshly sliced and anointed with good Clockwise from above: whether it is sweets, wine, truffles or pâtisserie, the Mont Ventoux region is a gourmand’s paradise May-July for cherries. For scenery, late lively table d’hôte dinners a few times a olive oil and crunchy fleur de sel. June is magical, especially towards Sault week, sometimes preceded by a cookery strawberry millefeuille.) The wine list nougat made in St-Didier by Philippe rooms but smashing food cooked by ,where lavender and grain create a demonstration. She’ll even share her best Day 2: around St-Didier here is impressive too – two pages of top- and Pierre Sylvain, brothers who make all trained chef Hugues Gontier. The other patchwork of purple and gold. At any food addresses with you. Southeast of Carpentras you land into drawer Châteauneuf-du-Pape. the ingredients on their own farm. is to drive up to and succumb to time of year try to visit the market that One of her favourites is Pâtisserie territory so layered with possibilities that One fascinating alternative is to learn If your appetite lasts, there is even a luxury. Château de Mazan, built in 1720 spills through the centre of Carpentras Jouvaud – not just a classy cake and you may need to pick and choose – or about truffles. Truffle hunter Robert snail farm nearby. ‘When I was a child by the family of the Marquis de Sade every Friday morning. You’ll be dipping chocolate shop but one of the few places start early. There’s no point turning up at Florent takes groups out with his dog in there was a snail market in Carpentras,’ (and visited a few times by the man into history as well as exceptional produce that still makes candied fruits the the bakery in after 10am winter and summer – sometimes near the recalls Chantal Curreli of L’Escargot du himself), is delightful in every way – – it’s been going strong since 1155. traditional way, involving over a dozen because there won’t be a crumb left. exquisite village of . He’ll tell Vieil Amandier. ‘But the climate is so kitchen included. If the summer truffle boilings in increasingly concentrated Baked in a traditional wood-fired oven, you which wines do justice to both kinds much drier now that they’re in danger of menu matched with three Champagnes Day 1: in Carpentras sugar syrup. Sweet-toothed shoppers the crusty organic breads of Roger and of the highly prized tubers, how to store dying out.’ Not here in St-Didier, where is on offer, don’t hold back. First things first: a good base. If you like should also look out for berlingots, the Robert Bouvier sell to restaurants for them, cook them and more besides. more than 100,000 specimens a year are the idea of a handsome 18th-century striped sweets created in Carpentras in miles around. They can be sampled up Or visit Au Jardin des Couleurs to see sold, presented in provençal sauce or Day 3: around Mazan town house with graceful rooms and a the 14th century when Pope Clement V the hill in the Auberge du Beaucet with 50 varieties of heirloom tomatoes. Market preserved with duck fat in a confit. Time, now, to plunge into wine. The pretty garden bang in the middle of town, was a resident. You can buy them here or some of the most accomplished cooking gardeners Yves and Dominique Broggi Where to collapse after all this? One first estates on this gourmet trail are close book into Maison Trévier. Gina Trévier see them being made at the Confiserie in the Ventoux. (Hot tips: gazpacho with don’t mind your exploring the polytunnels suggestion is to stay at Domaine de la to the village of Mazan (see box, overleaf).

sold her Paris wine bar to move here, du Mont Ventoux on the edge of town. chorizo chantilly, cod with aioli, and cephas alamy(3); photographs: before you buy. Or seek out the superb Camarette, a wine estate with simple But that’s not all. Near here too is the ➢

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WINE PRODUCERS dowey’s gourmet ALONG THE WAY address book Around Mazan Hotels & restaurants Domaine de Fondrèche www.maison-trevier.com Top restaurants now list these wines www.chez-serge.com thanks to Sebastien Vincenti’s rigour. www.chateaudemazan.com New cuvée Nature – pure, peppery www.aubergedubeaucet.fr and sulphur-free – sprang from the www.domaine-camarette.com move towards organic certification. www.aubergeduvin.com www.restaurantloulo.fr Domaine Terres de Solence A small, organic estate run by www.restaurantlafermedupezet.com Montpellier-trained Jean-Luc and www.valdesault.com Anne-Marie Isnard. The top cuvée Shops & food producers Cippus, Syrah-dominated and silky, is Fromagerie du Comtat +33 4 90 60 00 17 a star buy at €10.30. Patisserie Jouvaud +33 4 90 63 15 38 www.berlingots.net Cave de Canteperdrix This co-op (the biggest producer of Robert Florent +33 4 90 72 11 60 Viognier in the Southern Rhône) has Boulangerie du Beaucet +33 4 90 66 11 self-guided, half-day vineyard tours. 21; www.nougat-sylvain-freres.fr Au Jardin des Couleurs +33 4 90 67 20 62 +33 4 90 Around L’Escargot du Vieil Amandier sugar instead of honey,’ explains Alice ‘Lavender is good with lamb,’ he says, ‘but 30 17 32 Château Pesquié Above: Mont Ventoux towers over the Jardon. ‘It tastes sickly sweet, sticks to not fish or poultry. It’s wonderful in ice The Chaudière family has been an village of Mazan. Right: Sault-based Catherine & Périg Belloin +33 4 90 64 your teeth and has fewer almonds.’ Boyer cream or crème brûlée too.’ eloquent ambassador for the cheesemakers Catherine and Périg Belloin 17 76; www.nougat-boyer.fr uses only local lavender honey. Gattechaut’s food is individualistic Ventoux since the 1980s. Don’t miss Wine producers Auberge du Vin – a wine-focused B&B Your last night will be a dreamy one without being fussy. While lamb in a the hedonistic Artemia: co-fermented www.fondreche.com in a magnificent, elevated setting looking up at the Hostellerie du Val de Sault. The lavender and cassis sauce is a winner, his old-vine Grenache and Syrah. www.terres-de-solence.com across vines to Mont Ventoux. You don’t woodland setting with plunging views signature dish is more memorable still: a www.cotes-du-ventoux.com Domaine des Anges have to take a wine course to stay in this across the valley is stupefyingly tranquil. soft-boiled egg in its shell with foie gras www.chateaupesquie.com Winemaker Ciaran Rooney has beautifully restored farmhouse with its By contrast, chef-proprietor Yves and black Ventoux truffles slipped www.domainedesanges.com improved quality at this hilltop calm rooms, inviting pool and well-kept Gattechaut fizzes with creative energy. meltingly inside. Regard it as the final www.vindemio.com estate where he believes the altitude garden. But as Wine and Spirit Education He has developed his own techniques for extravagance in a gastronomically www.terraventoux.com favours whites as much as reds. His Trust-accredited educator Linda Field cooking with lavender, using fresh flowers glorious trip. D Archange – rich, barrel-fermented offers so many options from half-day early in the season, dried flowers later and Roussanne – suggests he’s right. courses upwards, you just might. sometimes a single drop of essential oil. Mary Dowey is wine editor of The Gloss and When dinner time comes around, is writing A Food and Wine Lover’s Guide At Villes-sur-Auzon head for L’Oulo. Tucked in behind his Below: lavender blankets fields around to Provence. www.marydowey.com Vindémio restaurant, chef Richard Bagnol has a As you climb towards Sault, Mont the hilltop town of Sault Jean Marot makes harmonious, refined marvellous garden which supplies all of Ventoux looms closer and the landscape wines (without oak) at very modest the vegetables and herbs and most of the becomes more rugged before the first prices. Look out for the stylish fruit he needs. His dishes are as colourful lavender fields appear. Clinging to a rocky Grenache-Syrah blend Imagine. as they are flavoursome. Especially ledge, this small town overflows with Terraventoux popular is the surprise menu he creates Provence’s favourite flower. It’s also a Besides producing decent wines, this for a table on demand; customers merely centre for high-quality lamb (distinguished energetic co-op offers vineyard bike have to say what foods they dislike and by a red label) and petit épeautre, the spelt- rides and walks, including a tasting in away he goes. ‘It’s great fun – it makes me like grain of Haute-Provence, abandoned maxineap: heath a red ochre canyon (below). come up with new ideas,’ he says. from the time of the Romans until chefs Vegetarians fare brilliantly here – not an seized on its nutty flavour and health- everyday occurrence in . promoting properties a dozen years ago. All of these things can be explored Day 4: on to Sault over dinner. First, make a detour to visit Plan to devote at least the morning to Catherine and Périg Belloin, refugees wine because some first-rate producers from big city life who make 200 cheeses are to be found around Mormoiron and a day from the milk of their 50 goats. You Villes-sur-Auzon as you travel east. A can buy them at the farm: fresh, cremeux good spot for lunch with vineyard views (matured for a week) or sec (a month). is La Ferme du Pezet, where Pascal Morin Few €1.50 investments are as tasty. cooks with a sure touch. He is renowned Next stop, particularly if you missed for his raspberry gratin – but even better out on Sylvain Frères, is Maison Boyer, a is a tender fillet of salmon in a Champagne temple to nougat since 1887. What’s the velouté. Simple but sophisticated – quality test? ‘Cheap nougat is white not

though the décor needs to catch up. cream in colour because it’s made with m 4cornersimages.com. alamy, dowey(2), mary photographs:

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