The second night we had dinner at the festival at the special restaurant with a guest chef every night.The chef was Gaetan Gentil and his restaurant is PRaiRiaL https://www.prairial-restaurant.fr/in Lyon. It has been awarded 1 Michelin star.We paid 90 Euros each and that include 6 wines, appetizers and dinner.The first course was french caviar with Champagne. The next course was asparagus done many ways - puree, ice cream, whole etc. The main course was sea bass. The next course was 2 cheeses- Bonde de Gatine - goat and tomette de brebis -cow. The next course was dessert which was strawberries many different ways - whole, sorbet, freeze dried etc.Chocolates from Cadiot Badie https://cadiot-badie.com/ finished the meal.
We started with a glass of Champagne from Thienot http://www.thienot.com/ in Reims.The wines were Chateau Prieure Lichine -Margaux- 2009 and 2015. Both were excellent. Prieure Lichine is a winery that has made significant improvements lately. Its wines are achieving raves from critics. The 2015 is about $47 in the US. We were also served Chateau de Jurque Sec, Emotion 2010 and Chateau de Jurque, Tendresse 2015. These wines were pretty obscure but very good white wines. The Tendresse is a dessert wine that was served with the appetizer. I asked about this and was told that people are ordering dessert wines so they are trying serve them earlier in the meal.
The next day we went to the train station and rented a car for our drive to San Sebastian. I always suggest buying insurance for the car when out of the US. The road to San Sebastian was a major highway with many tolls. It was about a 3 hour drive. We arrived in San Sebastian in the afternoon and it was rainy and cloudy and cool. We later found out that San Sebastian has terrible weather. San Sebastian is in the Basque region of Spain. They have their own language and culture.
San Sebastian is a small city on the Bay of Biscay in the North Atlantic. It has a beautiful bay with a nice beach in the center of the town. We stayed in a small hotel in the center of town near the the old city. Legazpi Doce Rooms http://legazpidoce.com/en It was very nice and the location was great. It cost about $180 per night. I made the reservations through Expedia. I have found Expedia to be very reliable with good prices.The hotel has a very small entrance and was very hard to find. It is small and modern inside and old building. Our room was a corner room with 2 windows. The staff was very nice and we received reduced rate parking in a local underground lot.
The hotel is centrally located and was 2 blocks from the old city. The old city is very small and is lined with Pintxos bars. Pintxos are Basque tapas or small plates. Pintxos (literally, toothpick food) is Basque for tapas. Pintxos is pronounced like "peen-chos". In Basque, the "tx" combination is like in English the "ch" of cheese, pronounced a bit more strong.I had read a great deal about San Sebastian and the food there. It is supposed to be food heaven. For some reason I decided to sign up for a Pintxos tour the first night we were there. We arranged with Mimo San Sebastian for a Pintxos tour. https://sansebastian.mimofood.com/en Mimo so all about food. they have cooking classes, tours, etc. It was quite expensive, about 130 Euros per person. We met with 2 guides and their were 8 Americans and 1 Austrian on the tour. Believe me San Sebastian and Bilbao have been discovered by American foodies.
The other people on the tour were great and we had a good time but we should have done it ourselves. The guides ordered all of the food and wine. The food was good, wine was so-so but we really did not need someone to direct our Pintxos eating for the night. I would recommend going at it by your self. The Old City is four parallel blocks with about 5 cross blocks. There are lots of bars with Pintxos. My theory about eating in non chef owned restaurants is that you never know who is cooking. The Pintxos bars of San Sebastian are so curated and reviewed that the tourist to office tells you the good ones.
Try any bar that looks good. We did that the next day for lunch and we were fine. We picked out our food on the bar and paid the guy behind the bar and then sat down at an open table. Really tough!
View of the bay.
Domaine Drouhin Louise 2012 Pinot Noir - crazy expensive $100 but one of the best Pinot Noirs that we have tasted.
Roses -- We are being overwhelmed by roses these days. I am not a big fan as most are innocuous and boring. I tend to like bigger roses with lots of flavor. Tablas Creek makes 2
Rosé
2017 Tablas Creek Dianthus Paso Robles Mourvedre Blend, Mourvedre
7/14/2018 - I LIKE THIS WINE: 88 points
Big for a rose, lots of flavor, medium bodied- heavy for a rose, the wine never clicked, it is good stuff, well made but does not have that yummy factor,drank with swordfish, will drink again as I have a few more bottles, TC wines are interesting with unusual grapes but don’t always hit the right notes, the critics adore the wines.
Rosé
2017 Tablas Creek Patelin de Tablas Rosé Paso Robles Red Rhone Blend
6/15/2018 - I LIKE THIS WINE: 88 points
Orangey pink color, good acid , decent fruit, drank easily, drank with black sea bass, structured, might drink again.
I also found a winery at the Union Square farmers market in NYC -- Anthony Road from the Finger Lakes http://www.anthonyroadwine.com/in upstate NY. We bought a Rose of Cabernet Franc 2017 which was very good and $10. Bargains still exist.
My(my wife does all of the work) garden, is overflowing with eggplant, tomatoes, zucchini, onions, potatoes and peppers.
Enjoy.
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