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The new Michelin Guide hits the shelves to the welcome news that punters can still find a few extra pennies for good food.

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Needing bread and eggs this morning forced us to venture out in the bitter cold to the village shop. Not wanting to waste any possible photographic opportunities I took the camera and snapped away. Even though the sun is shining and it appeared to be a little milder, with much of the snow melting in parts of the village, some areas are still treacherous. Despite the freezing wind we walked along the road that leads to Cascastel des Corbieres and large parts were covered in black ice.
Both the village shop and the post office were without electricity, and on the walk back home we saw an EDF van, so we thought that when we got home we too would more than likely also be without power. Unfortunately we thought right, we had no electricity, but thankfully the power was back on pretty soon and I uploaded the photos I’d shot.
Thankfully I do not need to go out in the car until Friday, so fingers crossed the sun will continue to shine and all of the ice will gone by then.

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Joel Gott, Charles Bieler, and Roger Scommegna sit down with Gary for a special release of The Show Malbec on Wine Library TV.

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Yesterday morning I awoke to discover that it had snowed overnight, and judging by the dense white sky, the weather looked set to dump a great deal more snow on us. At 7.30am I made a mad dash to Durban Corbieres for vital supplies. Throughout the morning the weather continued to get worse, and between 8am and noon there were a dozen short power cuts. Just after midday there was yet another power cut, but unfortunately this time the power did not come back on after a few seconds as it had previously been doing. From past experience of the power cuts we have had whilst living here, I knew it would be out for the rest of the day. Having no internet or T.V. there was little else to do but go for a stroll, and enjoy the village and countryside, which was completely covered in a thick coat of snow.
Our house is all electric, so in the evening it was a cold dinner of cheese and pickles for us. This morning we were still without any power, breakfast consisted on a cup of instant (very old) coffee made with hot tap water. It tasted as disgusting as it sounds, but was better than the alternative which was ice cold tap water. Today looked set to be another day of no heating and cold food, but thankfully just after 11am the power returned much to our delight, so I dived in the freezer for a frozen beef casserole that I’d made a while ago. I was rushing around the kitchen making the most of the electricity just in case in went off again. The power stayed on whilst we ate our lunch and so far, touch wood, it is still on – I hope it remains so.

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Gary tastes 2 wines, a Vouvray and a Montlouis, made from the interesting and versatile Chenin Blanc grape.

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This is a travelogue written by my wife and it was on an old website of mine but that website is now defunked, so being eco-friendly I’ve decided to recycle it here.

We made a flying (well driving actually) visit to Germany on our way back home to France after we had been visiting family in England. Richard has been to Germany before ,but I had not, and I don’t know why but I wasn’t expecting to like it that much. Happily I was very pleasantly surprised with the tiny part of Germany that we visited. We had been happily driving along on the excellent motorways that Germany has to offer when tiredness got the better of us. One look at the map and we decided to stop for the night at a place called Uberlingen. Uberlingen is beautiful place, and well known specialist health resort with magnificent public buildings in pale green stone, lots of alleys full of half timbered houses, wonderful views across Lake Constance (Bodensee) and glorious gardens. The most important of the city monuments is the Munster, a large medieval structure that required 200 years to build. The larger of its two towers functioned as a military watchtower during wars. On the opposite side of the square is Uberlingen’s Rathus which was built in the late 1400’s. Now most of its interior is used as municipal offices. It was early afternoon on a Saturday when we arrived, and everything was closed but there were lots of people walking about taking in the air. The first few hotels we tried were fully booked, it wasn’t looking too promising. Finally we got lucky at a large hotel called Bad Hotel, Christophstr. 2, 88662 Uberlingen, (Tel: 0 75 51/83 70). From the outside the hotel looked a bit run down, I guess it could have been the paint work, a rather lurid lilac colour. Inside however, was a completely different story, it was very contemporary. Our room was huge, with an equally large bathroom but surprisingly there was no bath just a shower, no matter we were too tired to care. Not too tired to head out and explore the town though. There was some interesting architecture and photo opportunities, it was a shame that the sun was not out though. As most people seemed to be walking along by the water we thought we would too. It was a dull day, and although the locals seemed not to notice, it was very cold, it made England feel warm! There were many bars and restaurants all along the waters edge, so we stopped off for a drink. Most people were seated inside but there were a few people sitting at the outside tables, so we decided to sit outside and watch people go by. We ordered two large beers which were delicious and stayed very cold until the last sip! By now we were feeling very cold, so we went off for a little walk again before finding ourselves unable to resist the temptation of another beer. This time though we sensibly sat inside. This bar was modern, busy and more importantly warm. Richard ordered a dark beer, and I ordered a cola-beer. Richard’s beer was good not too bitter, and the cola-beer I had ordered was exactly that, a beer that tasted like cola ~ absolutely yummy! The time seemed to fly by quickly and before we knew it it was dark. Earlier in the afternoon we had noticed that in one of the town squares several stalls were being set up, and there was a band practicing. So even though by now we were absolutely freezing, we thought that as we were only here for the one night we would go along and see what was going on. There were quite a few people there, and all of the stalls were now open, selling food and drink. Neither of us speak or read much German, but the food looked good and we were hungry, so we bought a small roll, just one to share. It was filled with warm fish and lettuce and a tangy sauce, really tasty. At another stall we bought a beer and also tried some red wine, both were good although the wine was a bit too cold to taste the full flavour. After sharing the fish roll I was still hungry so I tried a different food stall, and this time I had another roll also filled with fish and lettuce, but it was cold, it tasted exactly like a roll~mop, so I guess that’s what it was! It must have been the cold, but I was still hungry so I went back the first stall and bought another of the warm fish rolls, boy they were good. There were more substantial meals on offer, and lots of people were eating them but there was no way either of us felt like sitting down to eat in that cold weather, we were much happier to pace round, moaning about being cold! When the cold got too much for us we headed back to our hotel, where we had a nightcap in the bar before turning in for the night. The next morning we went down to the restaurant for breakfast, which was a buffet with everything anyone could possibly want. I was particularly happy as there were about 20 different teas to choose from, and there’s nothing like a good cup of tea for breakfast. There were quite a few people at breakfast, as there had been a wedding party held at the hotel the previous evening. Had we visited Uberlingen when everything was open I am sure we would have found more to do. We both thoroughly enjoyed our short time in this beautiful place and would highly recommend it.

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Final Flight

This is a cracker (good) of a novel. It combines lots of tech details and mixes aerial action with good old fashion spy novels. It is very Tom Clancy meets Top Gun.

Amazon Product Description
Navy jet pilot Jake “Cool Hand” Grafton returns in what “may be the best thriller of 1988!”–Tom Clancy. This time Jake is a commander of a carrier that is harboring a deadly female terrorist. What unfolds as a plot to tip the balance of nuclear power pits Jake one-on-one in a spine-tingling and extremely dangerous dogfight that will be someone’s Final Flight. HC: Doubleday.
About the Author
Stephen Coonts is a former naval aviator who flew combat missions during the Vietnam War. His previous novels have been worldwide bestsellers. A former attorney, he resides with his wife and son in Las Vegas, Nevada.

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Gary picked out three iconic wines from California with big scores and put them to the test.

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After years of outsourcing abroad, some French companies are now changing their minds and bringing their production — and jobs — back home. AFPTV went to visit one happily returned maker of office furniture, which has gone from “Made in China” to “Made in Noyon, northern France”.

If the video does not play and returns an error message, just click on it and it will take you direct to it on youtube and it should then play.

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Les Remparts de la Tour

There is not a lot I can say about this wine. It is indifferent to say the best. The best description that I can think of is that is is red and liquid. It is drinkable without being vile but there is just nothing of interest in the glass. It tastes like it was created by a committee so not to offend any anyone. It is like sliced white bread in a glass!!!!!

Cost 9€
winner of a gold medal at the Challenge International du Vin 2008
Produced by Union de Producteurs de Saint-Emilion

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