In pictures: Vinisud wine show

Held in Montpellier, the south of France didn’t fail to disappoint in weather terms, even if the wind did make it rather chilly despite the sunshine.

Anne Gros and her husband Jean-Paul Tollot were exhibiting their Minervois wines.

While Claude Deforges of Clos Cibonne was offering some rather different wines at the Provence pavilion with his rosé wines that are essentially white and intriguing reds made from local grape Tibouren.

Wines of Corsica had devised some striking and rather unnerving imagery for its stand.

But it also held one of the exhibition’s most interesting tastings, with a former World’s Best Sommelier, Olivier Poussier, showing off some older vintages of white, red and sweet Corsican wines. The white and sweet wines in particular were a true delight.

An amusing piece of sign language.

We’ll have what they’re having.

We also spied this clever packaging which turned out to be….

….bag in box wine from the Pays d’Oc.

Speaking of fuel, Domaine Paul Mas laid on a food van for hungry visitors.

And db was lucky enough to be invited to one of the Mas estates for dinner on the Monday evening – and getting to stay the night at the gîte too.

db was also invited by Vins de Pays d’Oc to one of France’s leading fine art museums, Musée Fabre in Montpellier, where we spotted this fine fellow – Alfred Bruyas, one of the museum’s foremost patrons in the late 19th century. We think he’d cut something of dash even today.

Moving on to artwork of a different kind, db was particularly struck by the rather terrifying decoration applied to these bottle banks.

Art was clearly very much a theme at Vinisud this year. Possibly the most arresting display was provided by Languedoc estate, Château Puech Haut. The estate recently made news when it unveiled a 300,000 litre barrel at its winery. However, it has been well-known for a number of years for its old barrels which artists both famous and lesser-known have been allowed to decorate. A large selection were at Vinisud and a few are shown on this and the following page.