Wiiiine!

Visited the Beaujolais wine region today :)

It is about 1 hour north of Lyon and produces some fantastic red (though I am not a red wine fan) and white wines. I bought a bottle of Rose and sparkling white for only 10 Euros.

Details:
Half a dozen students ended up completely drunk on the bus ride back to Lyon, it was that kind of trip.

First we visited a winery in the south of the Beaujolais region. This was in the morning and we mainly learned the details of wine making from the growing of the grape to the marketting of the bottle. I'm not going to go through that here, that's what wikipedia is for.

After tasting a few wines at the first winery, we boarded the bus, bound for the Beaujolais villages slightly north. Here we were welcomed by a very rubenesque gentleman. Once we saw this guy, we knew we were in for a good time. He gave us a few points on winemaking, and then to the good stuff. We were starving at this point, but first the ceremony.

Julien was selected at random to become a knight of the Beaujolais. This is an old tradition that is, essentially, the way to induct a new winemaker. Now it a cool way to get tourists to drink. That vessel he is holding is filled with wine, which he had to drink as we shouted Drink! in French. (Boi! Boi! Boi!)

After the ceremony we had a nice feast of different meats and cheeses and bread (vegetables too Mom) I doubt I had ever tried anything on my plate before. It was delicious. The long table we sat at also happened to have at least 12 bottles of several types of wine, this is the point in the story where several students, at 3 in the afternoon no less, get trashed on wine. It made for an interesting trip back.