Sunday, July 4, 2021

Wine & Food of Le Tour 2121, Stage 9: Cluses to Tignes

Where are we? In the Haut Savoie
Cluses: Le Tour tells me that: The Silicon Valley of screw-cutting and mechatronics In the 18th century, watchmaking was introduced into the valley to supply the firms in Geneva. Know-how developed, including in the mountain villages, and the Royal School of Watchmaking was created in Cluses in 1848 (now the Charles Poncet High School). Faced with the needs of industry, the manufacture of small micromechanical parts in series developed: screw-cutting was born. This activity consists of manufacturing turned metal parts from metal bars or wire. The outlets are mainly the automobile industry, aeronautics and dental equipment. Cluses and the Arve Valley have thus become the economic lung of Haute-Savoie, with world leader companies in their activity, one of the most famous of which is SOMFY (Société d'Outillage et Mécanique du Faucigny), whose headquarters are in Cluses. 8,000 screw-cutting professionals and 40,000 indirect jobs. The capital of Faucigny is also the headquarters of the Mont Blanc Industrie cluster (screw-cutting and mechatronics) which brings together companies with a total turnover of nearly 6 billion.

Tignes: From the local tourist site: Center of family life, the Tignarde house takes up a way of living that can be found in Val d'Isère but also in Haute Maurienne.

With a thick wall, small windows and a wide larch door, it often has a floor, part of which is occupied by the barn and the other by the bedroom. This bedroom gives access to a balcony which is usually located above the main door.
We find in these houses both Tignards and domestic animals which constitute a source of heat.The arrangements are often similar from house to house. Thus, part of the ground floor separated by a partition which rises halfway up, is reserved for animals. The cows look at the wall and have only gone out twice a day to go to the watering hole, while any hens present enjoy greater freedom of movement and have their perch above the space reserved for the cows. Nearby is the hay cupboard supplied twice a day and which is used to feed the animals.

The main part reserved for the inhabitants (lo boôu) has a dining and kitchen area in which we find the four-pot stove (ooûla) and the large larch table. The bedroom is made up of fold-away beds which are fairly high beds, fixed and closed with a curtain. Under these beds, there is a space for the sheep, which eat arsenal once a day. As a manger, the arsenal also serves as a bench and plays an extremely important role in family life: it is on it that we take a nap and it is around it that the evenings are organized.

From the outside, we access the boôu by a corridor where on each side are the kitchen and the summer living room, and on the other hand, the gynoeceum, room reserved for the girls of the family who can sometimes accommodate sick people or mothers in childbirth. The floor is also divided into two parts: on one side, a bedroom containing several beds often facing south, and on the other, the barn with a space arranged for the grain to be threshed. Sometimes the house has an annex where it is possible to store equipment and accommodate more rustic animals with a stronger smell (mule, goat, billy goat and pig). A small attic occupies the first floor where food is stored (cereals, flour, rice, bread, ham, carcasses). 


Le Tour Specialties
Cluses: the Clusiflette
Tignes: persillé de Tignes (cheese), Dentelle

Christian Prudhomme says:We had promised that we would rapidly return to Tignes to erase the frustration of the missed rendez-vous of 2019. The Tour will respect its word by going up the Col du Pré for the second time and of course the majestic Cormet de Roselend before heading up the long final ascent that sneaks up under the dam all the way to the Val Claret.


The stage: Not starting the day, Van der Poel and Roglic. Not terribly surprising, but some thought they would wait until the rest day. Given today's profile though, one can see why they might skip the last day.
Not only was it another day in the mountains, but it was a cold and wet day in the mountains. Also, the break did not form easily, with several non-Cavendish green jersey candidates racing for points. Maximum points went to Colbrelli.
After that sprint point, there was a small group, including Alaphilippe, in front of a rather large breakaway group. They would be caught and the lead group went up to 43! Jumping from the group, Colbrelli, who was caught. Next to try, Fraile, Woods and Quintana. They would be joined by Guerreiro. Next to try, Poels. He would end up solo in the lead, defending his polka dot jersey. He would be chased by Quintana for kom points, almost a photo finish! Poels would just take maximum points.
That competition:
1. Wout Poels (Bahrain Victorious), 33
2. Michael Woods (Israel Start-Up Nation), 29
3. Nairo Quintana (Arkéa-Samsic), 24
4. Matej Mohoric (Bahrain Victorious), 11
5. Dylan Teuns (Bahrain Victorious), 10

Meanwhile, Cav watch started early, with news that his group was already ten minutes back. So far, they had thirteen together.
Le Tour social media team has been cow watching, which fit in well with the Podium Cafe mention of the lovely cows producing Beaufort cheese:
With seventy five kilometers to go, there were five riders united at the head of the race: Hamilton, O'Connor, Woods, Higuita and Quintana. Poels was 20'' behind, the Alaphilippe group at 2', the yellow jersey group was at 6'45''.
Poels would make it back to the front group, but then would be dropped again.
Two abandonments: Merlier and Peters. Slipping from the yellow jersey group with a wave goodbye, Van Aert.
Sixty four kilometers to go and Quintana was solo in the lead.
Along the road, an almost full wardrobe change for Alaphilppe. He and the rest of the bunch, were clearly freezing.
With fifty six kilometers to go, Ben O'Connor had ridden into the virtual yellow jersey.
Give a thought to the poor grupetto, which was 20:43 down.
Yikes, a quick look at the peloton and we saw McNulty fly off the road.
At the front of the race, Quintana and Higuita had a thirty second gap over O'Connor. O'Connor was, however, back in virtual yellow on the road and would get back on terms with the duo with twenty five kilometers to go.
Abandonment, De Buyst.
Surprising, Quintana suddenly dropped.
Seventeen kilometers to go and O'Connor went solo.
Good news from behind: Remaining in the yellow jersey group were: Tadej Pogacar, Rui Costa, Davide Formolo, Rafal Majka (UAE Team Emirates), Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma), Geraint Thomas, Richard Carapaz, Jonathan Castroviejo (Ineos Grenadiers), Enric Mas (Movistar Team), Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo), Wilco Kelderman (Bora-Hansgrohe), David Gaudu, Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ), Rigoberto Urán, Jonas Rutsch (EF Education-Nippo), Benoît Cosnefroy, Aurélien Paret Peintre (Ag2r-Citröen), Pello Bilbao, Dylan Teuns (Bahrain Victorious), Alexey Lutsenko, Ion Izagirre (Astana).
Twelve kilometers to go and O'Connor had two minutes over Higuita.
Eventually, Pogacar would attack, after following Carapaz. 
Ahead, stage win for O'Connor, while Pogacar would continue to gain time.
Cattaneo in second and Colbrelli, a shocking third.



An important update:



The wine: Cellier de la Baraterie Mondeuse 2018
From the importer: Cellier de la Baraterie is the domain of Julien Viana, a talented young farmer and winemaker from the heart of the Savoie wine region. In 2014, he took over for Serge Bouchez, a well-established winemaker in the village of Cruet, where Julien grew up. Julien is not from a winemaking family, and Bouchez had no children or relatives to continue his domain after his retirement, and so at just twenty years old, after finishing his winemaking studies in Beaujolais, he returned to Savoie and began with a one-hectare vineyard.
Today, Julien cultivates ten hectares on the Combe de Savoie not just in Cruet, but also in the villages of St. Jean de la Porte and Arbin. Five hectares are dedicated to his wines, and five are cultivated for other winemakers, all organic. His production covers the classic grapes and appellations of the region: Jacquère, Altesse and Malvoisie for the white wines, with Mondeuse and Gamay for the reds.
A farmer first and foremost, Julien is strongly committed to a natural, sustainable and organic approach to agriculture. This philosophy guides the work in the cellar, where it is all about the fruit. Indigenous yeast, natural fermentation and neutral aging in stainless steel tanks, occasional used oak barrels for some of the white wines, and a very minimal sulfite dosages at the bottling stage result in clean and stable wines that deeply express the grapes and their terroir in their aromas and in the mouth.


The food: Could I find this? No. Am i really curious? Yes.
Persillé (marbled cheese) of Tignes
Appreciated by Charlemagne, who is said to have discovered it at the bishop's in Moutiers and brought it back to Aachen, the "persillé de Tignes" is a cheese made from goat's and cow's milk which almost disappeared, since only one farm still produces it today. It is cylindrical in shape, about ten centimetres high, with a brown rind. Its chalky, white texture is a tribute to goat's milk, which unlike cow's milk, does not russet.
Today, with its hundred or so goats and fifteen or so cows, only one producer, Paulette Marmottan, continues the tradition. The cheese was almost drowned with the village of Tignes when the hydroelectric dam was built.
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