One thousand Corkscrews, La Citadelle and a Bunny from Bonnieux

03.06.11 One thousand Corkscrews, La Citadelle and a Bunny from Bonnieux

La Citadelle, Menebres in background. More pics here

Bonnieux, the pretty old Luberon village, wasn’t looking its best this afternoon as we strolled around about four o’clock. The rain had started to fall and it would get heavier later and Bonnieux didn’t look any more appealing than Kinsale in the same circumstances.

Still, there were a couple of highlights, mostly food related. We found a traiteur where we bought a hearty rabbit dish and also a baker where, aside from the staff of life, we helped ourselves to some gorgeous pastries. Dinner chez nous wasn’t bad at all.

Earlier we had driven from Ménerbes to Bonnieux and had noticed the cherry laden trees en route. Managed to buy a bagful of those red beauties to throw into the dinner mix, not with the bunny from Bonnieux!

Ménerbes is a high village, similar in some respects to Bonnieux, certainly if you are trying to get parking. Wouldn’t like to be around here in high season. There are some terrific views from Ménerbes and one of the places it overlooks is Domaine de la Citadelle  whose Cotes du Luberon wines  are imported to Ireland via The Wine Store.

Citadelle, aside from producing a range of decent wines, hosts a well known local attraction: the Corkscrew Museum. This faithful ally of the bottle has an ancient history and here, for four euro, you can see more than a 1000 items from the 17^th century to the present day, all brought together by Mr Yves Roussset-Rouard. Many variations on the theme, some very amusing indeed.

Thanks to the Tyrells of the Wine Store, many of us are familiar with the Citadel wines. Still it was great to sample at first hand the products of the vines stretching out in front of me and I particularly enjoyed the Les Artemes Rouge 2006 (11.50) along with Le Gouverneur Rouge also 2006 (18.50). Some of each are now awaiting space on the return trip. Let us be straight; they are guaranteed passage, something else may have to be jettisoned!