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The Gaillac AOC appellation celebrates the local wines over 3 days (8–10 August 2008) in the town of Gaillac (81 Tarn, Midi-Pyrenees) Famous for its wines made from local grape varieties such as Mauzac and L’En de l’El, a wide range of wines styles is produced from dry to sweet, white, rose, red, still. sparkling and perlé, which is a local lightly sparkling wine with some natural bubbles.

Situated in the north of the Tarn departement, the Gaillac Appellation area covers 2.500 hectares spread over 73 communes, for an AOC production of over 165.000 hectolitres.
Today, the appellation gathers around one hundred independent producers and 3 cooperative cellars.
The 3 different terroirs and the age of the vineyard enable Gaillac to offer numerous traditional grape varieties. The diversity of the Gaillac vineyard means that it can produce a great variety of elaborate wines, a wide range of dry, sweet and “perlé” white wines, red and rose wines as well as sparkling wines.

Our recommended producer in the region is Domaine de Labarthe, where the Albert family make consistently good wines which retain traditional character - try their Cuvée Guillaume (oaked red) and their dessert white “Grains d’Or” (golden grapes).

For more info on the wines of Gaillac see www.vins-gaillac.com

The village of Lautrec (81 Tarn, Midi-Pyrenees) is proud of its local pink garlic (l’ail rose) and celebrates this every year in August with a Festival, market, competitions and music.

According to Chocolate & Zucchini. one of the best food websites:-

Apart from its undeniable attractiveness, l’Ail Rose de Lautrec is also distinguished for its aromatic and subtle taste, sweeter and milder than its white cousin. It also keeps for much longer, six months to a year. It can be used anywhere you would normally use garlic — raw or cooked, sliced, chopped, crushed or unpeeled (”en chemise”, which means “shirt on”) — but also in a variety of recipes created especially for it : a pink garlic soup, a walnut and pink garlic tart, a lime and garlic sorbet, and even a pink garlic chocolate cake!

For more on Lautrec’s Pink Garlic and the Festival see www.ailrosedelautrec.com

Lautrec also holds an annual Bread and Windmills Festival (Fete des Pains et Saveurs) 15 August 2008, celebrating the making of bread from milling the wheat in a traditional windmill through to the finished product!

For more on the Tarn and our customised map

Another of those books that leaves you yearning for the gentle pleasures of southern France, this one combines the story of setting up a classy B&B in the Tarn département and 100 recipes based on the food of the area. This is the land of Gaillac wines, Albi and the Tarn Valley on the border between the Languedoc and the SouthWest.

While walking in South-west France, cook and journalist Orlando Murrin dreamed up the adventure of a lifetime: why not wave goodbye to the rat race and come to live in this rural paradise, where the only traffic is the boulangerie van delivering baguettes? His book tells the story of how he set up a boutique b&b and includes 100 amazing recipes. …. they set about transforming the dignified old manor house into a phenomenally successful boutique b&b with its own magnificent kitchen garden. A Table in the Tarn charts the discovery, acquisition and renovation of the property. Along the way, we learn about the local food scene, with its astonishingly rich heritage of ingredients and dishes, about working in France and coping with the famous French bureaucracy, and about the unforeseen delight of working with the locals.Four years on, with countless plaudits and a coveted entry in the classy Mr and Mrs Smith directory, the business attracts visitors from around the world and continues to be a gastronomic destination for anyone seeking peace, tranquillity and above all fantastic food.

As former editor of the BBC Good Food Magazine and Olive Magazine, the owners know something about food and the recipes sound very enticing - Roast Pigeon breasts in Armagnac!
So now you can read the book, try the recipes and stay in the Manoir! The Manoir des Raynaudes is near Carmaux (81 Tarn, Midi-Pyrenees) - see our map of the Tarn and its attractions
A Table in the Tarn: Living, Eating and Cooking in South-west France

Le Manoir de Raynaudes, 81640 Monestiès T: 0033 563 36 91 90 F:0033 563 36 92 09
www.raynaudes.com

In the vicinity you’ll find the delights of the cathedral city of Albi (home of the Albigensian crusades against the Cathar “heretics”, a Toulouse-Lautrec museum - and you could pop in and taste the wines of one of the best Gaillac AC wine producers (red, white, sparkling and rosé) at Domaine de Labarthe at Castanet.

The Tour de France 2008 (21 stages, 3500 km) Stage 8 is on 12 July 2008 and starts from Figeac (46 Lot, Midi-Pyrenees) and runs 170km via Gaillac (81 Tarn, Midi-Pyrenees) to Toulouse (31 Haut-Garonne, Midi-Pyrenees).

For more on the Tour de France 2008 see www.letour.fr/
For details of coverage on ITV see www.itv.com

Lautrec (81 Tarn, Midi-Pyrenees) holds its Festival to celebrate the connection between windmills and bread (Fete du Four au Moulin).

includes a demonstration of milling the flour in the traditional manner (wind permitting!)

- plus a Marché de Terroir (farmers market) - lots of different breads to try, music,dancing.

The village also famous for its Pink Garlic (Ail Rose) festival earlier in the summer. Gaillac is the local wine. See Domaine de Labarthe for a good selection of Gaillac wines.

For more info see http://ot.lautrec.free.fr

In this mosaic of very different terroirs, the Gaillac vineyard is situated 50 km east of Toulouse, in the direction of Albi, in the Tarn departement. The vineyard stretches over both sides of the Tarn and to the north up to the medieval town of Cordes. An ancient vineyard it hosts some very individual grape varieties such as Mauzac, Braucol and l’En de Lel. Whilst many acceptable wines are produced here, we recommend a winemaker who concentrates on combining the traditional grape varieties with modern techniques, resulting in wines which encompass the specific characteristics of Gaillac and remain very drinkable.

Domaine de Labarthe is a family run estate owned by the family of Jean Albert. Jean Albert has a very high reputation within Gaillac, as he aspires to produce wines which are very faithful to the local and distinctive character of Gaillac, but employs modern techniques to produce wines which are clean, fresh and full of style.
Gaillac can be a difficult appellation to recognise, as many growers tend to minmise the use of traditional (and more difficult) grape varieties and maximise the use of better known varietals such as Gamay, Syrah and Cabernet. They produce perfectly good, but rather anonymous wines - i.e. they could come from anywhere. The problem is that with the local grape varieties (Mauzac, Len de L’El, Braucol, Duras) it can be much harder to produce really good rather than “rustic” wines. However, this is one domaine where it works - welll-made wines of great character and distinctiveness.
Increasingly his son now undertakes much of the day-to-day work in the vineyard and cellar, and this combination of youth and experience bodes well for continued development of the domaine.
There are several styles of wine from Domaine de Labarthe:-
Gaillac AC Rouge Tradition - A big soft red with tons of fruit from Braucol and Duras grapes supported by a small proportion of Cabernets and Merlot. Full-bodied, elegant and smooth - with aromas of blackcurrant and raspberry
Gaillac AC Rouge Cuvée Guillaume - Sumptuous oaked red from 80% Braucol grapes (also known as Fer Servadou) - tons of vanilla and soft red fruits (cherries)
Gaillac AC Blanc Sec - A delightful dry white made from the tradirional grapes of this area (Mauzac (also known as Blanquette de Limoux) and Len de L’EL which impart fresh apple and pear tones. This is supplemented by the addition of a little Sauvignon Blanc to add body and finesse.
Sparking Gaillac Brut (Methode Gaillacoise) - A very distinctive Sparkling wine from the South West of France, made using only the Mauzac grape (also used in Limoux) - this is a fruity dry sparkler with good mousse and a slight tang of citrus - quite different!
(NB There is also a local speciality called Gaillac Perlé which is a slightly petillant dry white wine)
Gaillac AC Doux Les Grains d’Or - Stunning dessert white made from 100% Len de l’El grapes - late harvested and vinified in oak - golden, rich and well-balanced, it develops flavours of honey and quince in the mouth together with hints of praline and conserved fruits. Excellent served chilled as an aperitif or as a dessert (pudding) wine.
UK Stockists: ?
Address: Domaine de Labarthe, 81150 Castanet (Tarn) (see map)
Website: www.labarthe.com

For the South West the A20 autoroute (l’Occitaine) is now complete linking Paris and Toulouse via the A10 to Orleans, then the A71 to Vierzon onto the A20 for Toulouse via Limoges, Brive, Cahors and Montauban. This is a very enjoyable road cutting through some glorious scenery - and such a joy for those who used to struggle on the old N20. This provides much easier access to Limoges, the Upper Dordogne & Sarlat, and the Lot Valley, Montauban and Toulouse. Cahors is now less than 7hrs from Calais - although you will have to pay about €47 (£30) in tolls (2006 figures) for the journey from Calais to Toulouse. However, the stretch from Vierzon (18 Cher, Centre) and the A71 junction south to Brive-la-Gaillarde (19 Corrèze, Limousin) is toll free!

On Bastille Day it seems appropriate to feature Garlic, so quintessentially French!

The small village of St Clar in Gascony (32 Gers, Midi-Pyrenees) south east of Lectoure is known locally as the Garlic Capital of Gascony, and every summer celebrates with a day of festivities and a market. (see map)
This year it is on Thursday 17 August 2006, when you can behold a great country market (inevitably with stalls selling white and pink garlic, but also other local produce such as duck and goose products); a competition to create the most amazing structures out of garlic; and more bulbs of pristince garlic than you could eat in a lifetime! Music and street entertainers weave in and out of the visitors, and at lunchtime an impressive meal is served (booking required) under the market hall with huge pans of mussels being cooked on massive log fires as a starter! (see picture).

There is a market here every Thursday morning, so if you cannot make the Festival you can still get a “taste” of the place - plus there is a Garlic Museum (I kid you not!) - see www.mairie-st-clar.com/http://www.mairie-st-clar.com/

Meanwhile over at Lautrec between Gaillac and Castres (81 Tarn, Midi-Pyrenees - see map) they have their Pink Rose Festival (Fête de l’ail rose) on Friday 4 August 2006 which follows a similar programme, except that here the lunch is a giant free Garlic Soup, and the competitions include the epic struggle for the best Garlic Tart and the longest tress of garlic (the record to beat being 21.66 metres!). The Ail Rose de Lautrec is protected by an IGP (Protected Geographical Indication, a European certification of origin) and benefits from a Label Rouge quality certification and is recognised for its aromatic and subtle taste, sweeter and milder than the white garlic.See www.ailrosedelautrec.com