A Very Special Restaurant
"La Grande Sieste." Eating amongst the vines
FOOD, WINE AND HOME
9/23/20262 min read
French food and wine go together, and so it makes excellent sense to create a restaurant amongst the vines. This is the concept of 'La Grande Sieste' a wonderful restaurant that is part of a small wine domaine, nestled amongst the vineyards to the south of us. Close by, some of the most highly renowned wines of this region are produced, and so it must have seemed excellent sense , when some restaurant owners from Montpellier , purchased this domaine five years ago, and began to develop it. The restaurant was opened a year ago, and that is where we found ourselves one sunny day last week, with visiting family. Vines stretched in rows on either side of the approach, and that is where we parked as two large mechanical harvesters worked away close by.
The old stone buildings of the domaine have been beautifully developed. The inside is spacious and cool. Today the heat was less intense, and so we sat outside on the stone terrace, under a large parasol. We gazed north , past endless vineyards, to the mountains beyond, where we live.
Unlike in most French restaurants, we could only choose to drink wines from their own domaine, but we were certainly not disappointed. What made our visit even more exciting, was to watch as the vines were gathered, and taken to the chais where the grapes will ferment in large stainless steel tanks.
Workers were already there to unload the red grapes from the trailer.
After releasing some surplus liquid, the grapes tumble out. "Tasty" one worker declared as she picked out one to sample.
From there the grapes were pumped into the initial fermentation tanks . It felt good to be sampling the restaurant's own wines along with our meal.
