Oct 9, 2025
A priority for John to visit this region was wine tasting so we made a $24 Viator reservation in Châteauneuf-du-Pape at Botte Vin Museum Provence, France at 2pm. We rented a car from Sixt in the suburbs of Avignon near the mega Marche/shopping center for $100 to get there. We took the tram from Avignon central out to the Cap Sud stop which was very pleasant/clean and uncroweded. With only the 2pm scheduled, we stopped at the first cooperative we spotted; we were in Vacqueyras. Our server was patient, knowledgeable and fun to visit with as we learned about the region, grapes, soils and different ways our wines had been created. Not only the grape varietals but the where they are fermented impacts the product. Can't say I can taste the concrete or stainless steel, but the oak certainly adds to the flavor and smoothness.
RhoneA Artisans Vignerons in Vacqueyras
We tried several of these free tastings and bottles very reasonably priced. We were surprised to discover that we enjoyed the muscat emphasizing an open palette when learning.
Wines we tried in Vacqueyras
Watching time for our 2pm tour and tasting, we headed to Gigondas and stopped at the place we saw Rick Steves taste on his Provence YouTube. We made the mistake of thinking we knew what kinds of wines we liked and were served nothing memorable and purchased one that I suspect we're going to love when we're not comparing to other recent tastes.
I'd like to commend my driver and husband John who tossed much more than he drank today.
We lunched at Marceau Restaurant in Gigondas. A bit heavy on pork fat I'm afraid and of course fantastically delicious.
Marceau Restaurant in Gigondas pork chiffonnade and pork chop
Time to dash to Chateauneuf-du-Pape for our 2pm Botte Vin Museum tour and tasting, about a 30 min drive. The drive is gorgeous, seeing the grape leaves displays the full array of fall colors. Never could stop the car when we saw the brilliant crimson that would only be one plant, the rest were yellows and oranges of every shade.
Despite growing up an hour from Napa and having taken countless tours, I found the Botte tour offered lots of new information. I appreciated how they have learned to value the Mistral winds to dry the vines and protect them from disease. In Chateauneuf-du-Pape, the soil or lack thereof because it's totally rocky produces the distinctive wines from the region. There are crazy lopsided bottle shapes as well, indicating their special vintages along with a coating of something rough and in the case of the one we tasted below, sparkles of gold in with the sandpaper texture.
We sampled the sparkly, curvy $200/bottle as part of our Viator tour and tasting.
From Botte, we walked next door to Domaine de Beauregard and enjoyed our tasting there
It was nearly 4pm and John offered to return to Gigondas to try to get closer to Les Dentelles the jagged spine of a mountain peak we saw earlier in the day from the road. See my blog post
Since were were already in Gigondas, there was a coop open until 7pm so we stopped in at
Gigondas Lacave
It was a quick 30 min drive return to Avignon. Then there was refueling, returning car rental, tram ride from suburbs and walk inside the old city to our flat.
Just a pretty final photo from our day
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