Château Pizay…

I was invited to a ‘press trip’ by the syndicate of growers from Moulin-à-Vent, and normally I don’t make press trips – you would be forgiven for asking why(?) Okay, I’ll answer that anyway:

The only previous ‘press trip’ that I’ve done, was to Chablis. I was one of five who were deemed worthy of invitation – I formed the opinion that two of the invitees were very serious and were busy writing copy, the other two seemed interested only in emptying every mini-bar that they could find…

I wasn’t very impressed that everything that the free-loaders were eating and drinking was on somebody else’s ‘tab’ – I know that they were freeloaders, because this pair published nothing that I could find.

Then there are the days (weeks!) where I see half a dozen people on twitter, tweeting images of the same bar and same cocktails in Buenos-Aires or Capetown – for instance. It just doesn’t taste very nice. So why did I say yes to this one? Well, it is Moulin-à-Vent, and that’s my day job. Whatever the other people do, I’m here to work – and on the positive side, it’s clear that the organisers want us to work too – there are 100 samples to taste in the morning – in roughly 3.5 hours – which sounds at least one hour too little to me! Then in the afternoon after a quick lunch (really – only a quick lunch on a press trip?) visiting 3 producers, culled from our notes from tasting.

The setting and accommodation are classic ‘press trip’ though – the Château Pizay and its hotel. Let’s see how this works out!

And the rosé? Driving to the Château Pizay from Beaune, as the sun was setting, left a beautiful view of Mont Blanc in the East – all rosé coloured due to the setting sun….