Wednesday, July 13, 2022

Wine and Food of the Tour de France 2022 Stage 11: Albertville to Col du Granon Serre Chevalier

Where are we? In the Alps. 

Albertville:  The host city of the 1992 Winter Olympics. The local tourist site tells me that: Since its foundation, Albertville situated at the crossing point of four alpine valleys the Combe de Savoy, the Tarentaise, the Val d’Arly and the Beaufortain; has always been a place of cultural exchange and meetings.
Since its creation in 1836 by King Charles-Albert, who united the city of Conflans and the borough of l’Hopital, Albertville developed through commercial exchange between France, Italy and Switzerland. It harnessed the water course and installed thriving industries (paper mills, tanneries, hydroelectricity…) and became the administrative centre for the entire district. In the second half of the 20th Century as winter sports took off and agricultural thrived, Albertville consolidated its position as a prosperous alpine town.

Le Tour specialties: diots (sausages), polenta. Region of Beaufort cheese, Tome des Bauges, Savoy wines (white & red) from the vineyards of Albertville

Col du Granon Serre Chevalier: Le Tour tells me that Serre Chevalier is a year-round multi-activity playground located at the gateway to the Ecrins National Park in an unspoilt natural setting. In this valley in the heart of the giants, you can practice cycling in all its forms: road cycling to tackle the mythical Granon, Lautaret, Galibier or Izoard passes, but also mountain biking in the BikePark with its many areas for all levels. The largest Pumptrack in the Southern Alps is also in Serre Chevalier Chantemerle.
Serre Chevalier is also a land of white water, with the Guisane (rafting, etc.), and stands out in winter as one of the largest ski areas in France.

Le Tour specialties:  cabbage sausage, cabbage pie, trout, larch liqueur



Christian Prudhomme says: None of the contenders for the yellow jersey can afford a slip-up today. The climbs are tightly packed, starting with the Montvernier hairpins, then continuing with the crossing of the Télégraphe and Galibier passes. After passing through Serre-Chevalier, 10 kilometres of climbing at an average of more than 9% remain to reach the 2,413-metre Col du Granon, which was the Tour’s highest finishing point for 25 years.

The stage: It was time for some climbing and excellent scenery. 
Again, a large breakwaway: Christophe Laporte, Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma), Mikaël Chérel (AG2R-Citroën), Nils Politt, Max Schachman (Bora-Hansgrohe), Andrea Bagioli, Mattia Cattaneo (Quick Step), Simon Geschke, Ion Izagirre (Cofidis), Kamil Gradek, Dylan Teuns (Bahrain Victorious), Mathieu van der Poel, Guillaume Van Keirsbulck (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Jonas Rutsch (EF), Warren Barguil (Arkéa-Samsic), Mads Pedersen, Tony Gallopin (Trek-Segafredo), Maciej Bodnar, Pierre Latour (TotalEnergies), Krists Neilands (Israel-Premier Tech).
With 87 kilometers to go, the 19 remaining riders in the breakaway group had 6 minutes over the main peloton.
As they continued on both the yellow jersey and lead groups would shrink, with big names dropping from both. Abandoning the race, van der Poel.
It became very hard to keep track of riders.
With Barguil still out front, the yellow jersey group was small. Related, Wout van Aert is an amazing teammate.   This was still to come.
As he started the final climb, Barguil had just over 2 minutes on the closest chasers. The yellow jersey group was almost 4 minutes behind. 
On the attack, Quintana with no reaction from the other gc riders. He's pass the former breakway riders to be second on the road.
Also attacking from the yellow jersey group, Bardet.
Barguil looked to be truly suffering.  Indeed, he would be passed. 
Next to launch, Vingegaard. He was getting a gap and Pogacar looked to be unable to respond. Pogacar would be out of virtual yellow as Vingegaard took the solo lead at the front of the race. This was remarkable. With 2 kilometers to go, Vingegaard had 1:30 over Pogacar, who had been passed by several riders. He had been known to struggle in the heat, but this was very unexpected. 
Taking the stage win and yellow, Vingegaard. Next in Quintana followed by Bardet and Thomas. Pogacar finally came in almost 3 minutes down.
Tomorrow will be very interesting.

















GC






The wine: Domaine Giachino Monfarina 2020 - from Copake Wine Works Jacquere - crisp white from a very under the radar soon-to-be culty producer
An importer tells me: On November 24th, 1248, the north face of Mt. Granier let loose and 500 million cubic meters of limestone spilled into the valley, completely destroying 5 villages, severely damaging 2 more and killing hundreds of people. This massive landslide is an ancient tragedy with a modern day silver lining. The rockfall created an amazing terroir for vines. A number of centuries later (yet still centuries ago), the Giachino family began farming vines on this terroir to supplement the cereals, nuts and fruits they were farming in the Grésivaudan plain. In 1988, Frédéric took over these 1.5HA of vines and dedicated himself to wine production. Over the years the farming evolved until becoming completely organic in 2006, the same year his brother David joined the domaine. Biodynamics soon followed. They initially worked with the familiar varieties of Jacquère, Mondeuse, Gamay and Altesse. But the thinking here evolved as well, likely due to the friendship with Michel Grisard, who advocated for older varieties of the region. Soon Giachino began working with Persan, Etraire de la Duy, Mondeuse Blanche, Verdesse, etc.

The food: Beaufort Cheese
Fromages.com tells me that: Beaufort has been celebrated since the Roman era. It takes about 500 litres (130 gallons) of milk to make a 40-45 kg  wheel of Beaufort. The cheese is made from the milk given by the mahogany-coloured Beaufort cows, called the Tarines or Tarentaises. This ancient mountain breed originally came from the Indo-Asian continent. Beaufort cheeses come in three versions, Beaufort, Beaufort d'été (summer Beaufort),and Beaufort d'Alpage which is made in the mountain chalets and is the most tasty. Ripening takes at least four months in humid (92%) cellars with the temperature below 15° . The cheeses are constantly wiped and rubbed with brine. Young cheeses have a mild fruity, sweet taste then the taste become stronger and complex. The pate of the winter cheese is white, whereas the summer cheeses are a pale yellow, due to the cows munching on the alpine flowers.
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