Charles Neal

A couple of years ago I was asked by the Guild of Sommeliers to write an article about the wines from Southwest France.  I enthusiastically agreed, but said that I could not write just one article because the region was too vast.  Instead, I decided to break it down into three articles, to be researched in the three regions over three successive summers. The first installment dealt with the wines from Irouléguy, Jurançon…

In my first installment on the wines of Southwest France I covered wines from the Pyrénées, including Jurançon, Madiran and Irouleguy. In this second installment, we are moving from the western edge of the Southwest to its eastern border. Here the wines are influenced by the intersection of two bodies of water: the Atlantic Ocean to the west and the Mediterranean Sea to the south.

The Atlantic climate…

This is the first installment of a three-part series on the wines from Southwest France, a huge area that begins at the Basque border and runs northeast past Toulouse, all the way to Rodez in the Aveyron department. Driving on the autoroute at 70 miles an hour, this west-to-east journey of 360 miles would take approximately 5 hours. To put this into perspective, driving from Chablis to Mâcon in Burgundy takes about half…

I remember driving along the autoroute between Alsace and the Southern Rhone about a dozen years ago.  Just south of Chambery, I viewed an immense stone mass to my right, part of which seemed blasted into a crescent shape.  Before me, the rugged, snow-capped Alps, standing majestically against the beautiful cobalt sky, receded toward the distant horizon.  To my left I saw vineyards stretching up the steep and barren mountainside…

Armagnac is a brandy that hails from the Gascony region of Southwestern France.  Traditionally, Armagnac is consumed in a snifter, but today it is often served in a shorter, narrower glass like a sherry copita.  Armagnac is commonly served straight and is typically consumed after a meal.  Its sublime flavors and bold alcohol make Armagnac a true digestif, providing immense gustatory pleasure while simultaneously aiding digestion…