Vinocamp

The third Vinocamp took place in Carcassonne over the weekend. The first and second took place in Paris and Burgundy and the next will be in Bordeaux so the Languedoc is in very good company with France's top wine regions.

The event has nothing to do with camping and everything to do with wine, and how to use social networking, the internet, websites and blogging to promote your wine business. It was a joy to welcome Louise Hurren, independent wine journalist and marketeer, and Wendy Gedney, provider of the most interesting and informative wine tours in the region, to 42rvh for the weekend. As well as being really good friends they are experts at what they do.

We enjoyed a very convivial dinner on Friday evening, with a surprisingly Portuguese flavour to it - Alentejo pork and clams (a recipe taught me by the great David Eyre) washed down with Esporao Reserva 2008 (a wine Debrah had discovered on BA during her recent New York trip). It was a match made in heaven - one can rarely go wrong with the local dish and the local wine paired together.

I sadly missed out on the main discussion forums during Saturday but was happy to be able to join the Outsiders tasting hosted by O'Vineyards on Sunday lunchtime. The Outsiders are a group of winemakers whose origins lie outside the region but who are all producing excellent examples of interesting, delicious, drinkable Languedoc wine - they all have great stories to tell and they are all marvellous examples of what can be achieved with passion and desire in this fabulous winemaking landscape. They make me want to buy some vines myself.

It was a pleasure to meet for the first time Caryl Panman from Ch Rives-Blanques, Ruth Simpson from Dom Sainte Rose and Jon and Rachel Hesford from Dom Trelour and old friends Katie Jones from Dom Jones and of course Ryan O'Connell and his parents Joe and Liz from O'Vineyards

Needless to say, I can't do justice to them all here in one blog so I will revisit in future episodes and give much more detail about the people, their vineyards and their wines.