The village of Thézan last September, surrounded by vines.

Yesterday I paid a visit to the dentist in St Chinian who was recommended by our friends Barry and Mary.
I had broken the side of a tooth eating bread and a loose back molar, loose for some years now, was swinging about telling me it was it’s moment for leaving.
All was accomplished painlessly and cheerfully (and cheaply), one extraction, one filling’ and I headed home happy.

Unfortunately later I started to bleed where the extraction had taken place and during the night it showed no signs of stopping.
I headed for Google and discovered that the best cure was a wet tea bag clamped on the wound, do not lie down, and then, once it stops no exertion (or chewing) for 24 hours.

The first two I have done and (after a shocking waste of Barry’s Gold Blend Bags) they worked, the third I am working on so I have a blissful 24 hours with nothing to do.
I went and had a rootle of the books I had brought out here three years ago when we bought the place and started a re-visit to a book I had enjoyed at the time; “ Confessions of a Wine Lover” by Jancis Robinson.
As I started reading I remembered that she had also bought a house in the Languedoc and went to that part of the book where she writes very well about the area.
She tells us that despite the area around Narbonne having the longest history of wine production in France, the Romans even imported it from there to the Rome Empire, by the mid twentieth century the majority of producers in the Languedoc were producing “cheap plonk for the industrial workers in the north who regarded thin red wine as a more reliable alternative to water and drank it in great quantity”

As the taste for this declined , along came the EU and these wines became part of the “wine lake”.
This has let to a lot of digging up of old prolific vines and has led to the area being known as “France’s New World” as more flavourful, low yield and demanding vines are planted in their place.
There is now evidence of this transformation all around us.
Wines of the Languedoc are now commonly named by their Grape Type as new world wines are. Chardonnay, Viognier and (my favourite)Picpoul thrive here as do Mourvèdre, Grenache and Syrah.

Another snippet of information which Jancis passes on is that the vineyard owners of Australia and California are busy buying up land in this area.
I wonder why?