Lo vin es nòstre lait mairal

Wine is our mother's milk. Alan Roch as usual provided the Occitan interlude in the proceedings of L'Université de la Vigne et du Vin. He got off to a smashing start, rising to his feet with a broad gesture that knocked over an open bottle of wine and smashed a glass (see the sparkles at bottom right).

See last year's blip for more about the event. It was less interesting than usual, and after lunch I was somewhat exasperated by a very poor presentation of some research on how the word terroir is used by the media. Conclusion: use the word in your marketing materials and your wine will be rated more highly and sell for double the price. Somehow I think there's more to it than that. And what's more, the presenter ignored the fact that his graphs showed precisely the opposite effect in the Languedoc. Very curious. Anyway I decided I wouldn't spend any longer cooped up indoors on this lovely sunny day. This photo fits well with Saturday senses.

I thought I'd spare you yet another vineyard blip, but the obligatory golden vines, with added pylon, are here. The colours really are splendid this year, and getting better by the day.