A day of wine tasting

One of the big annual events in Cagnes-sur-Mer is the annual gastronomy fair, which takes place for a few days at the famous hippodrome. We’ve missed the last two editions of this glorious event, so I figured I’d give it a go this time. Conveniently, Hannu (a regular visitor), had a spare ticket I could use… So I decided to join them on their way to the fair Sunday evening.

The focus of the fair is definitely on wines. Never have I seen so many wine producers cramped in one place before in my life… The name of the game is (at least to a Finn such as myself): buy a glass for 1 Euro 50 cents, and taste as many wines as you can (and if possible, try to avoid buying a bottle at every stand, which is actually a bit difficult…). So true to this principle, we toured around the tent, trying wine, champagne, Armagnac and other beverages from the various regions in France (we ticket off at least Bourgogne, Languedoc, Anjou, Armagnac, Champagne, Bordeaux, Corsica and Provence…).

It was all kind of good fun, chatting away with the producers, and trying to pretend I actually know something about wines. Even Hannu’s kids seemed to be enjoying themselves, even though they obviously had to contend with soft drinks and water. Actually, the wines themselves aren’t that cheap, but one sort of feels obliged to buy at least one bottle at each stand one does tasting… But in the end, I managed to keep my spending in check (5 bottles for about 40 euros, that’s all right I reckon…).

So all in all, it was a pleasant enough way to spend a Sunday evening – especially since the weather wasn’t all that great. And I suppose might’ve even I learnt a thing or two about wines…