Saturday, July 16, 2022

Wine and Food of the Tour de France 2022 Stage 14: Saint Étienne to Mende


Where are we? The Loire, Haute-Loire and Lozère! 

Mende: The official French travel site tells me that:  Situated between le Puy en Velay and Conques, the sacred heritage of Mende offers visitors important contemporary pilgrims sites, architecture, history, heritage and traditions that beg to be shared. Converted to Christianity very early on, Mende owes its rapid expansion to the pilgrimage tradition that developed around the place where Saint Privat was martyred. It then became the seat of the bishops of Gévaudan, who from the 12th century held a great deal of temporal power. In the 14th century, on the initiative of Pope Urban V, the current cathedral was built on the tomb of Saint Privat. From Saint Privat to Urban V, including a whole population whose lives were structured by ancient cultural practices, and in particular the white penitents who were the most striking example of these traditions, a number of men left their holy mark on the city. Oratories, crosses and black Madonnas line the streets of the town.
Le Tour Specialties: herb sausages, croquants de Mende, aligot, cheese (Pélardon), honey


Christian Prudhomme says: The route never climbs very high, but the physical demands on the riders will be almost unceasing as they race from Saint-Étienne to Mende. This trek through the departments of Loire, Haute-Loire and Lozère will push the most robust riders into action. Then, on the Jalabert Montée de la Croix Neuve leading up to the airfield above Mende, there’s likely to be two battles: the first between the breakaway riders and the second for the overall favourites.

The stage: A day that had breakaway written all over it. Some early attacks from  Pogacar made forming the break even more complicated than usual.
But eventually, we had a break and it was large: Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates), Daniel Martínez (Ineos Grenadiers), Benoît Cosnefroy (Ag2r-Citröen), Felix Grossschartner, Lennard Kämna and Patrick Konrad (Bora-Hansgrohe), Gregor Mühlberger (Movistar), Simon Geschke (Cofidis), Luis Leon Sanchez (Bahrain Victorious), Stefan Küng and Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ), Louis Meintjes (Intermarché-Wanty Gobert), Alberto Bettiol, Neilson Powless and Rigoberto Urán (EF Education-EasyPost), Andreas Kron (Lotto-Soudal), Bauke Mollema and Quinn Simmons (Trek-Segafredo), Jakob Fuglsang, Krists Neilands and Michael Woods (Israel-Premier Tech), Michael Matthews (BikeExchange-Jayco) and Franck Bonnamour (B&B Hotels-KTM).
With 100 kilometers to go, the gap was 9:30.
That gap would grow. Sixty four kilometers to go and it was around 11 minutes.
Eventually, Matthews would attack from the break. That would kick off a series of counter attacks. We would end up with a quartet.
Alas, a mechanical for Kron.
On they went, with the chase group getting close enough to challenge, but as predicted, Matthews held on for the win. Really great ride from him.
Meanwhile, Pogacar would attack again from the yellow jersey group, forcing the pace and dropping riders behind. Two races in one today, indeed. Vingegaard and Pogacar were together, with everyone else struggling to hold their pace. There was a large gap to Thomas.


Stage:

GC:


The wine: Yves Cuilleron, Condrieu La Petite Côte 2019 from Copake Wine Works
Christy made me laugh with this comment: HALF BOTTLE b/c do you really need a full bottle? Does anyone really need a full bottle?
The producer tells me: An expressive and seductive wine. The nose evokes a basket of fruits gilded by the sun, apricot, quince, peach and citrus fruits. Some sweet notes of flowers (lilac, rose and violet) and honey make the whole set even more charming. The mouth is gourmand and fresh, a beautiful spicy power and a bitterness thirst quenches the final reflecting us the image of this vintage.

A bit more about Condrieu from Vins-Rhone: Tucked right up in the north of the Rhône Valley on the river’s right bank we find Condrieu, an appellation celebrated for its legendary white wines.These are made from Viognier grapes, planted on narrow terraces, here in their spiritual homeland. The true Condrieu aficionado will know to move away from the village centre, and will explore the winding maze of hillside vineyards in search of the grapes of this famously aromatic, golden wine. The AOC area measures some 200 hectares and has become a global standard, particularly in the US.

The food: Aligot
Potatoes, cheese, butter, why not? As tasty as we found it, our pictures were lousy. You can see a few images, along with a recipe at SeriousEats.

The tourist website provided an easy recipe:
Serves 6 :Ingredients
* 1 kg of floury potatoes
* 100 g of butter
* 250 g of creme fraiche
* 400 g of tome fraîche de Laguiole
* clove of garlic
* Salt pepper
Cook
Prepare a classic mash potatoes, add to this purée the butter and the creme fraiche. Season with salt, pepper and a hint of garlic.
Heat up the mash and add the cheese cut in small strips, then stir slowly with a wooden spoon. (This takes a little while and is very good arm exercise!)
When the mixture becomes stringy the Aligot is ready!
Serve with sausages or a pork or beef roast.
Enjoy!
Tip: take the cheese out of the fridge early enough, the stirring will be much easier.

 

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