Vas-y, Vassy

We’re currently in the midst of a trip to France, looking forward to a week in the Tarn, staying close to Cordes-sur-Ciel.

I was planning on writing a short preview post to this trip and then subsequently writing about it in more detail whilst we were here - but everything was rather derailed last week.

For work reasons I ended up having to postpone the start of our trip (we were due to leave on Fri 9 Sep for a week from Saturday 10 in the Aude). I made a deal and after having worked through the weekend and into Monday we finally got away on Tues morning, 13 Sep - leaving home very early for an early crossing via the Tunnel.

It was also the first chance I’ve had to proffer to a border official my hard-earned Italian passport; which in the way of such things of course turned out to be a complete non-event to everyone concerned, given the in hindsight obvious business-like experience of passing through a border checkpoint, not least when you’re in a car!

Our original itinerary for the trip was out the window, so after some hasty re-arranging, our first stop was scheduled in the lieu-dit of Vassy in the Yonne, about 10km south of Chablis. 

This of course was completely unrelated to a desire on my part to have a look at the Grand Cru and other vineyards of Chablis itself, which were duly inspected on Tuesday afternoon. 

Chablis itself is rather unprepossessing, but a short stroll east of the modest centre and over the Serein you’re faced with the full majesty of the south west facing slopes of Les Clos, with the rest of the Grand Cru vineyards (with the exception of Blanchot) stretching away in a north-westerly direction on the hillside.

As with many of the top vineyard locations it's really striking how local the geography is, with a relatively short walk enabling you to take in all of them over the course of a couple of hours. A walk, alas, that we couldn’t undertake given we needed to make it to our Chambres D’Hotes, La Cimentelle, in the aforementioned Vassy.

I couldn’t leave without a treat however, and although a full degustation at William Fevre or similar was, alas, off the cards, I picked up a bottle of Vaudesir to sweeten the stress of a postponed break. At least that's how I justified it.

On arrival at La Cimentelle we were greeted a lovely view from the window

We then had a lovely evening meal, including a cuisse de pintade (guinea fowl) cooked by our hosts, washed down with a very respectable Petit Chablis. A relatively early night followed given we awoke at 0300 to start the drive.

Next stop on Weds was Tain L’Hermitage - more of that next post!