The French Winophiles are back in 2018. We’ve added a few new faces, organized around Fresh themes, and decided to dig deeper into topics that excite us!
The wines of Saint Jacques D’Albas in Minervois. Credit: Jill Barth
One of those regions is Occitanie – formerly Languedoc-Rousillion – and the AOPs of this rich and extensive region of southern France. January brings us to Minervois and Corbières and many of our participants take inspiration from the famous French dish cassoulet, which celebrates its very own special day on January 9th.
We’ll explore regional culture, wine, environment, food, and travel scope with our writers. Join us on Saturday, January 20th at 10 am CST for a live Twitter chat under the hashtag #Winophiles.
Rosé from Saint Jacques D’Albas in Minervois. Credit: Jill Barth
HOW TO JOIN US
If you are a wine writer or blogger, this is your invitation to join in!
- Contact me to tell me you’re in: Include blog URL, Twitter handle, and any other social media details. If you know your blog post title, include that…but you can also send that a bit closer to the event. We’d just like to get a sense of who’s participating and give some shout-outs and links as we go. Contact me here.
- Send your post title to me by Wednesday, January 17th to be included in the preview post. I will prepare a preview post shortly after getting the titles, linking to your blogs. Your title should include “#Winophiles.”
- Publish your post between 12:01 a.m-8:00 a.m. EDT on Saturday, January 20th. You can always schedule your post in advance if you will be tied up that morning.
- Include links to the other #Winophiles participants in your post and a description of what the event is about. I’ll provide the HTML code that you can easily put in your initial post — which will link to people’s general blog URL — then the updated code for the permanent links to everyone’s #Winophiles posts.
- Get social! After the posts go live, please visit your fellow bloggers’ posts to comment and share. We have a Facebook group for participating bloggers to connect and share, too. If you need an invitation please let me know.
- Sponsored posts are OK if clearly disclosed. Please be sure to disclose if your post is sponsored or if you are describing wine or other products for which you have received a free sample.
Winophiles in 2018
Our tentative (because we reverse the right to be free and easy) schedule for the year is as follows. Expect guest hosts, surprise guests, lots of food, and top-notch photography.
January: Minervois and Corbieres
February:L’Amour (French Wines with some version of “Love” in the name, on the label, or reminiscent of romance)
March: Rhône Valley (part 1)
April: Picpoul
May: Natural Wine from France
June: Alsace
July: Rosé from France
August: Grower Champagne
September: Co-op Wines (French wines made by a cave or cooperative)
October: Rhône Valley (part 2)
November: Crémant Wines from France
December: Luxury Wines from France
L'OCCASION 
Minervois wines are definitely under-appreciated!
Here’s an historical note about the town of Minerve. During the Albigensian Crusade, which wiped out the Cathars, the crusader Simon de Montfort laid siege to the town of Minerve. It was pretty much impregnable at the time (1210) so Montfort created a huge catapult to launch boulders and breach the city walls. He even gave the catapult a name: Malvoisin (bad neighbor.)
Montfort may have been a nasty fellow but he had a sense of humor.
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So compelling- interesting history. I saw Cathar cheese (with the cross) at les halles in Narbone.
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