• Home
  • About
  • My Paris Flat
  • Purchase My Book
  • Wine Tastings
  • French Wine Tours
  • Contact

The Paris Experiment

Excerpt Thirty Five

Le Petit Dejeuner

13 Jun

Grand Tasting – Palais du Louvre
Paris, France

The Grand Tasting turned out to be both a success and a complete disaster. Success in the sense that we executed all of the tastings and no one in the tasting room had any wine spilled on them or any trays dropped in their lap. To the room of thirty plus wine experts, we must have seemed flawless in our work after executing the tasting hour after hour.

However, it was behind closed doors that seemed to really cause a nightmare and create the ultimate challenge of working with one another under pressure. Every twenty minutes ten trays with ten glasses of wine on each would need to be sent into the tasting room. There was a team leader on every tasting and if they did not lead the others well, it seemed to all fall apart at the seams. It turned into a battle of the Asian students against the French. I stayed out of the crossfire pretty much, so to speak, however the tension in the room was palpable.

“You really want me to just take the fucking glasses in there now?!” Jen, a feisty little bombshell from Korea, screamed at Sandrine, one of the French girls with a tray about to slip from her hands. 

“Yes, yes I do. I am leading this tasting!! Do it.” Sandrine yelled back. I was worried at this point that the tasters could hear this nonsense backstage. All of the rest of us just kept our heads down and continued pouring wine into glasses. What was astounding to me was that our professor just let everyone rip each other’s heads off screaming, and stayed calm and focused and continued to give direction. It seemed completely as if he had expected this behavior. My jaw dropped to the floor when Laurent asked Kimi, one of the girls from China, if she was stupid when he felt she was pouring too much wine into the glasses.  He glared at her like he was going to pull out a knife. I could not believe the way we were treating each other, and the proverbial we, as I had nothing to do with it, just witnessed. It was twelve hours of high tension, and there was no greater feeling when we had sent out the last ten trays of wine.

Professor Ramage was on edge and expected perfection from all of us. His name was behind this event to all of the serious wine professionals of France. He would shake his head in disgust if someone messed up. The stress was discerning.

Twelve hours later …

Finally, it was over. There were also a few really nice bottles of wine left, to which our professor poured us each a small glass. Everyone raised their glasses, however some people were still carrying around some animosity and the grins lining their faces were forced. I could only imagine how dinner that evening at Le Petit Sommelier would go, not to mention the upcoming Bordeaux trip…

1 Comment

« Excerpt Thirty Four
Champagne Billecart – Salmon, Sous Bois Cuvée »

Comments

  1. Evelyn Anderson says

    June 14, 2021 at 5:35 pm

    ❤️

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recent Posts

  • Charles Heidsieck Visit – Reims, France + Small Excerpt
  • Le Cordon Bleu Paris Past – Professor Ramage
  • Excerpt Fifty One
  • 48 Hours ~ Lyon, France
  • Daily Life à Paris

the_parisian_wine_girl

View

Jan 11

Open
Goûter Paris Events 🥂

the_parisian_wine_girl

View

Sep 14

Open
It’s PUBLISHED 📚🙌
My book. 

Available NOW! Amazon, Barnes&Noble plus many other major retailers. 
Worldwide ✨JUST released! 
You can also order it through my website link in bio ⬆️ it will take you directly to the order button (preorder!) 
Kindle Version also available 

My favorite chapter is 20… Dad don’t read Chapter 16 ⚠️❗️ 

A long journey and more than worth it.
Thank you to everyone who contributed to this project. 🙏 
a special shout out to:
my editor @jessicanhatch 
my literary manager @zoequinton_ 
& Amy Thomas @godiloveparis your knowledge and wisdom was the icing and inspired the final touches…
Never. Give. Up. #mydream 

I wrote this manuscript sitting in cafés in Paris (well and many mornings in my apartment candles burning at 6 am) and my hope is that it transports you there no matter where you are in this 🌎 

I took great pleasure in writing this, and have attempted to make it full of entertainment (real life in Paris) and hope you will find that you want to turn the page to see what happens next … highs and lows - it’s all in there. Intensity, passionate, thrilling. 
(plus very cool graphics throughout)

Let’s pull back the curtain shall we?! 

Sequel in the works 🇫🇷📚💛

#author #writer #paris #book #published #travelmemoirs #literary #france #inspiration #writing #cinematic #vision #passion #wine #love #travel #memoir #nonfiction #bookstagram #parisfrance #parisinspo #parisscenes #francophile #writers #firstbook 
#europe #expatlife #parislifestyle

the_parisian_wine_girl

View

Jul 17

Open
Bourgogne 🇫🇷 🍷

Aloxe-Corton 
I’m staring into the single vineyard producing the only Grand Cru terroir in Pinot Noir in all of Côte de Beaune

1,000 bottles a year produced only & also tasting this here 

“The plot around the castle” Le Clos du Château 

#grandcru #burgundy #bourgogne #wine #winetasting #winetours #france #frenchwine #pinotnoir #aloxecorton #vineyard #vigneron #vin #beaune #winetrips #ootd #burgundywine #summer

the_parisian_wine_girl

View

May 18

Open
Paris Perfect 🌷

#lematin #paris #parisfrance #france🇫🇷 #mornings #leweekend #piedaterre #petitdejeuner #peonies #spring #wildstrawberries #lavieenrose #chezmoi

the_parisian_wine_girl

View

Apr 12

Open
A flute or a coupe 🥂🖤

Last week I had the pleasure of a quintessential impressive French meal shared with the lovely Director of Maison Belle Époque Hèléne Caluch 
The food was exquisite and the perfect pairing for a vertical tasting of Perrier-Jouët Belle Époque Blanc de Blancs 2012,  Perrier-Jouët Belle Époque Brut 2013, and Perrier-Jouët Belle Époque Rosè 2012
 
The art and floral elements brought an undesirable beauty to this Maison that was captivating. Selecting my own champagne glass from the historic vintage collection of the House for “Aperitif Hour” well … 💕🥂

A huge Merci 🇫🇷

#private #exclusive #champagne #champagnelifestyle #perrierjouet #belleépoque #fizz #art #beauty #exquisite #france🇫🇷 #lifestyle #lunch #champagnetasting #champagnefrance 
#artnouveau #french #feminine #belle #inspired

the_parisian_wine_girl

View

Apr 10

Open
Champagne Week has begun 🥂

Printemps des Champagnes 

#tasting #business #importing #spring #growers #winemakers #vigneron #champagne #france #worklife #reimsfrance #meunier #wine #cheers #fizz #industry #printempsdeschampagnes #champagneweek
  • Home
  • About
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • My Paris Flat
  • Wine Tastings
  • French Wine Tours
  • Purchase My Book

Copyright © Lilac and Fourth
Website Design | Autumn Lane Paperie