After filling the vans with water and emptying out we drove to Bistrot de Port Lesney “Le Pontarlier” and had our lunch. It was a real bistro and quite informal. The manager was larger than life and explained that he knew Raymond Blanc quite well and that he had been there many times.
We had a lovely lunch, not quite to the standards of Loiseau des Vignes, but very nice all the same. We decided to go for the local wine Arbois made from a Savagnin grape, no relation to the sauvignon grape, but actually related to the traminer grape, used to make gewurtztraminer wine. The wine was delicious and as it was used to make vin jeune we thought we were on to a new chapter in our understanding of wine.
Late afternoon we drove to Mesnay near Arbois and stayed on an aire. In the early evening we walked into Arbois and found some of the vintners open, so we did a couple of wine tastings. We thought we would try the savagnin grape again. Well, it was not my taste at all and had a taste similar to sherry. The wine man explained that we had had a “Nature savagnin” which was made completely differently from the usual savagnin wine. He told us where we could taste the Nature Savagnon, so we walked there and had a taste. It was much better, but not as we had had at lunch time. I think I am going to stick to the chadonnay, merlot, Riesling and muscat and forget the rest. We are learning a great deal and seeing some lovely countryside.
Tomorrow we are going cheese tasting and then on to Besancon