Wine Tour: Beaujolais

"Aaaauuuaahh, Ugh! What fucking time is it?" A mixture of the noise and thought that ran through my head the morning of the Beaujolais wine tasting trip. We were scheduled to depart at 8:00 am from the school building, and we apparently did not take this fact into account when we were drinking the night before.

It must have been a Sunday because I went out drinking both of the previous two nights. That, or I started the late night schedule on Thursday... not a good sign. Regardless, I managed to walk over the hill to get home on the first drinking night, a first and heralded achievement. I remember thinking at the 207th step whether this route would be better suited for one who is drunk or sober. As I was drunk, my feet didn't really hurt too bad. But, as I was drunk, the steps presented a bit of a challenge and my knees may have been quite bruised the next day. On the sober side, I would have managed to not fall down but the level of bitching and moaning would have increased ten fold, from everyone. While both of these options seem lovely, I would advise to make sure you catch the last damn metro or have enough money for a taxi.

On the second drinking night, we had a visitor! Kelly's cute faced, hot bodied friend from Boston. I had the pleasure of entertaining her earlier in the day while sugar tits was in class, so I got to talk to her some and learn enough to keep me going. There was that whole obstacle of a boyfriend and her not having any sexual interest in me, but those were minor speed bumps in the pot holed road that is my love life. Regardless, we had to show the new girl a good time, and of course took her to Cosmo. I did get a good look at Cory stripping in full view of the entire bar (unfortunately), but a better view of two girls using a pole as their dance partner directly in front of me... nice.

Where were we? Oh, right, the morning. So, we head over to the bus just a little bit early, the American way, and everyone else was late, the French way. So after waiting for a bit the lot of us, all entirely hung over, got onto the bus and fell asleep as we made the three hour journey out to the wine making region closest to Lyon. I didn't know this at the time, but the Beaujolais region is an exceptionally shitty wine making region. In general, the French people consider it one of the worst domestic wines. Only a few bottles per 100 can actually age and develop, and the taste is generally very shallow and usually a bit sharp. The famous George de Boeuf managed to market the hell of his name, however, and created a fairly large demand in the United States. Now, prior to my visit to France, none of this would have made any difference. I didn't drink much wine, and really couldn't tell you the difference between a Merlot and a Chiante. However, given the amount of wine we enjoyed since the first day, I have actually developed my own taste, and had become quite picky. Look at me, a freaking wine snob. Anyways, we toured the museum and wine making facilities, saw a crazy automated show, and then got to the part we were all waiting for; the wine tasting!

Well, turns out they were a bit more stingy than predicted and we only tried two different types of wine, and had a fairly limited supply during the following meal. Lame! Not to fear, we are still going to another vineyard to try the goods. Better yet, we still have two more to visit! Perfect! The next place we went to was first class all the way, and they knew why we were there. We tried six different wines, and they certainly weren't afraid of refills and full glasses. Their wine was also some of the best in the region, reaching the level of tolerable. After venturing into the back room with the vintage selection and exploring price tags (umm... yikes), we grabbed souvenirs in the form of the glasses we were using for tasting and headed to the next venue. If you haven't guessed, the whole group seems to have developed a tendency to acquire glassware from just about everywhere. I blame CEFAM for this as they gave us shitty and inadequate glassware to stock our rooms with. So, the next place, also can't remember the name, was more of an underground cave set up. They were only serving one type of Morgon wine, but it was actually pretty good. I discovered the Morgon wine to be the only desirable product of the Beaujolais region, and picked up a bottle as a gift because of it.

Good and smashed, we left on the bus we came in on. I sat alone with 5 wine glasses next to me, haha. As we indulged in red wine all afternoon I began the nap that finished into a rainy evening at home. It was a great :"cultural" experience that allowed me to drink and chat with new and old friends. Dylan got a new nickname, too.

Peace and Love with wavering enthusiasm,
Scott Stephen Smith