Sunday in Beaujolais - Part 2

We are so fortunate to be here in France at this time. There are still lots of family-owned businesses around, especially wonderful restaurants, farmers’ stalls, and wineries. They provide a variety and a touch of personal style and service that cannot be found in ordinary businesses. Unfortunately, economics are taking their toll – one must work long, hard hours for what is becoming relatively little monetary return. It is no-one’s fault – it’s simply that one can make a lot more money doing other things. Those who continue in this type of business are passionate about what they do – you can see it in everything they do – products, service, caring about their work and their customers. At the same time they want their customers to care about them and their work. That is increasingly rare with the pace of life these days. Two-earner families are becoming the norm in France, too. But, we saw the perfect example of a family-owned business. The passion, the products, the service, the conviviality were matchless. This is part of what we came to France hoping to experience.

Bruno Loyat welcoming us.

After everyone arrived at Pierre and Marie-Claude’s country home, we set off for the home and winery of Bruno and Roselyne Loyat. M. Loyat welcomed us and explained what was to come (essentially, good wines with food to accompany it).

He definitely enjoys this part of his business and seemed to be enjoying himself as much as we were. Mme. Loyat prepared the food to compliment each wine, and it was wonderful!






We started with a sort of gingerbread with pate on it and a Cremant (sparkling wine). (There was fresh bread with throughout, of course.) Then we moved on to an apple and blood-sausage tart with salad. From there we went on to charcuterie: sausages, potatoes, and cabbage. Then came the cheeses. And, then a very rich, chocolate tart.

Bruno Loyat serving wine and telling us about it.

Again, each course had its own wine(s) with lots of descriptions and repartee from M. Loyat. We finished off with Marc and some kind of a distilled plum drink. I had never tasted Marc before, although I had heard it was pretty lethal. (Marc is made by distilling what’s leftover in the tanks after the wine has been removed – it is basically brandy.) It was definitely impressive stuff; I couldn’t finish my glass! But, it couldn’t hold a candle to the plum drink-one sip of that was all I could handle. We were all joking about the dangers of smoking while drinking these.




Those of us who were interested were able to purchase bottles of wine, then it was back to Marie-Claude and Pierre’s country home to close everything up and off to home. It was about 7:00 PM when we got home. Quite the adventure!