Vinidôme 2010

You may remember that one of my personal goals when moving here to France was, among other things, to learn about French wine. That has proven to be a difficult task. In fact I have given up a few times, only to have my interest peaked again. I mean, wouldn't it be a shame to live here for several years and not know anything about wine?

Well, this past Sunday, Preston and I went to Vinidôme 2010 here in Clermont-Ferrand with our good friends Robin and Oscar. Vinidôme is a wine exposition held once a year with well over 300 wineries from all over France. Each winery has a booth were you can taste different wines and talk to the wine makers themselves.

Last year, Preston and Oscar went alone. 3 hours and 5 cases of wine later, Preston returned home. Not only was I surprised at how much he spent (did you have to buy cases, they don't sell just 1 bottle?!), but I was also surprised that he didn't buy wines that I preferred (the real issue). All of the wines he purchased were reds and I like white. What was he thinking? Well it all worked out because I actually grew to like some of the wine and we didn't have to buy any more red this past year. However, this year I knew I had to go to "supervise".

Our goal this year was to buy enough wine to last over the next year as well as get a larger variety of wines, ie. stuff that I like too. I also thought this would be a great opportunity for me to learn more about French wine. Well, let me just say that Vinidôme was OVERWHELMING!!! With all of those wine vendors from different regions, it was just information overload. Now I know why Preston got a little carried away! I quickly changed my strategy from learning about new wines to finding wines that I know I like and tasting those. That's the real advantage to Vinidôme. You get to taste everything before you buy it. Most of the wine is priced better at the expo as well, so you can get a better wine for a lower price.

All in all it was a very successful evening. The task was to purchase wine and that is exactly what we did. After several hours of tasting...we purchased 7 cases of wine and 3 cases will be delivered next week! I guess I did a pretty good job "supervising"!

We had a fun evening and hopefully have enough wine for the rest of the year. We now have plenty of everyday table wine as well as really good ones for special dinners and guests. I still don't know much about French wine, but I do know that I like what we bought!