Lunch at Bec à Vin Restaurant in Uzès and tasting rosé wine at Domaine de la Mordorée in Tavel.

We headed to Uzès without reservations for lunch, which is a major no-no in my book. We and our friends Steve and Mary, love good food and wine and our lunches together are usually a highlight of the day and source of fond memories. So we try to reserve before we head out.

Upon arriving into the center of medieval Uzès, I checked to see which Uzès restos were rated by the Michelin inspectors. There were no Bib Gourmand restaurants, but there were several listed near the center of town and I quickly went by each to see if they were open and check out their menus.

Based on the menu, the restaurant's location and dining room, it was a pretty day but too cold to dine outdoors, I chose Bec à Vin Restaurant. It is located in a former 12th century stone Relais de Diligence (stagecoach station).

Bec à Vin Restaurant

Bec à Vin is owned by Greg Gunié and Chloé Malherbe, originally from Val d'Isère and St. Malo respectively. They opened the restaurant after completing extensive renovations on January 12, 2011.

Mary and Shirley at Bec à Vin Restaurant

The restaurant has a pretty garden for dining on warm, sunny days and several dining rooms with vaulted ceilings which can accommodate up to 50 diners.

Bec à Vin Restaurant

The food was delicious and plated in a very appetizing manner and included parsnip soup, quinoa salad with olives, red peppers, apples, kumquats and cilantro, trout from the Pyrenees with red lentils and garlic cream sauce, and beef fillet with roasted potatoes with green peppercorn sauce. But the most memorable part of our meal was a very tasty and for me, an unusual rosé wine for Tavel.

Domaine de la Mordorée Tavel

I love well made, chilled, crisp, dry rosé wines at any time of the year. Generally, I find Tavel wines to be too serious, heavy, not crisp and refreshing like those from Côtes de Provence, Coteaux d'Aix-en-Provence, or Bandol. So when I tasted the Domaine de la Mordorée rosé at lunch that day, I wanted to go to the winery. So off we went; conveniently it was on the way back to Sablet.

Domaine de la Mordorée

As I said, Domaine de la Mordorée is in Tavel, a wine-growing Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée, across the Rhône River from Châteauneuf-du-Pape AOC. The vineyards that produce the appellation's wines are located around the town of Tavel, just north of Avignon. Tavel wines are all rosé wines.

Entrance to Domaine de la Mordorée tasting room

Domaine de la Mordorée was founded in 1986 by Christophe Delorme and his father Francis with 12 acres in Tavel. His brother Fabrice joined the domaine in 1999 and now finds himself alone at the helm after the sudden death of his brother from a heart attack in June 2015 at age 52.

Domaine de la Mordorée tasting room

Domaine de la Mordorée was named after the woodcock that flies over the vineyards during the bird's migration. Mordorée is the name used locally for the woodcock, his father was a hunter. The name of the wine "La Reine des Bois" means Queen of the Woods.

Woodcock, it's poetical nickname in Franch is "La Mordorée"

During the years that followed its founding, the domaine acquired 135 acres of vineyards, on 38 different plots of land, in 8 different districts in Lirac, Châteauneuf du Pape, Côtes du Rhône, and of course Tavel As of 2013, all of the domaine vineyards have been certified organic.

Domaine de la Mordorée tasting room wall

Although I was not familiar with the wines of Domaine de la Mordorée, I found out they have an excellent reputation with wine writers for the wines from all of the AOCs where they have vineyards, not just Tavel. In Fact Robert Parker, named Domaine de la Mordorée "one of the world's greatest wine estates".

Another view of the Domaine de la Mordorée tasting room

I look forward to returning to taste their wines from Lirac and Châteauneuf du Pape and of course the new vintage of the domaine's rosé from Tavel.

Domaine de la Mordorée

Bec à Vin Restaurant
6 Rue Entre les Tours
30700 Uzès
Tel: 04 66 22 41 20
web: www.lebecavin.com

Have a great week.