One of the highlights, for me, of any journey to the South of France is a trip to Beaugravière, conveniently situated a few miles off the autoroute, North of Orange. I was first introduced to this restaurant by François Perrin of Château de Beaucastel over 25 years ago and have been coming back on a regular basis ever since. The 3 bedrooms are, shall we say, "basic". The setting is completely unpretentious and a little noisy – the "route nationale" on one side and a train line on the other. The food is good, classic old school French with lots of truffles, but not fancy. The waiter wears a bow tie but we didn’t feel out of place in jeans and tee shirts.
Last Friday I travelled from Battersea up to Oxford to host the tasting for the Oxford University Blind Tasting Society’s black tie dinner. Farr Vintners had sponsored a case of the wine for this event, held by the society that I was a Committee member of this past year. We were in the picturesque surroundings of New College for the tasting and dinner, organised by James Flewellen and David Stewart. All wines were tasted blind.
