Really interesting, learnt a lot and had plenty of nice wine and food. Recommended!
These grapes have been declared a Historic Monument because they are so old. In the 19th century lots of vines were wiped out by an imported bug called Phylloxera, these survived because of the sandy soil. Almost all vines now have to be grafted on to American root stock to survive!
There are 17 different varieties of ancient vines in this quite small area and they are busy studying them to help find suitable vine varieties as the climate warms. The existing ones are starting to make wine that is too strong because they develop more sugar as the climate warms!
Basement at the monastery where we did the tasting and had lunch. You can stay here, the rooms are enormous, it has a pool and lots and lots of wine! What’s not to like.
This is one of the new varieties they have developed from the ancient vines
Lamb for lunch
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