A day of good weather & good wine!

First off, I hope the link to the pictures worked & you are enjoying them!! Don't worry, I don't expect you to look at them all! haha

Today was an interesting day! We traveled to Brens, about 45minutes to an hour away. Here, we met 6 students who are studying to be in the wine business. First, let me talk about their campus. It is a technical school and there are 3 main divisions: social sciences, agriculture, and the wines. Students spend two years getting their degree there and they spend about 2 weeks in the classroom and then 2 weeks in a job placement and they repeat this throughout the remainder of the year. Compared to our 30some thousand a year, they pay around 5thousand, if that!! They couldn't believe our numbers!! Also, I was able to see one of the "dorm rooms." They are basically VERY tiny cabins that consist of a tiny kicthen/living room combined, a tiny bathroom and two tiny bedrooms. I couldn't believe it! I won't take the size of a room in St. Joan for granted!! haha

Anyways, we had lunch with the students from Brens and we were put into groups. Owen, Leah and I were paired with two very nice students. One spoke pretty good English, but the other struggled a bit. We were able to communicate pretty well though. After lunch they took us to visit a vineyard in the Gaillac region, this is a major wine region in France. The specific one we went to was called Sarrabelle. It is owned by two brothers who took it over in 2000 and they are the 8th generation to do so. They have about 80 acres of vines. It was neat to hear about the process and see some of the equipment used. We saw huge tanks that the wine is processed in, the grape smashing machine ha, and the barrels the wine is stored in until it's ready. It was pretty interesting. After the tour, we had a bit of a wine tasting. We tried about 6 or 7 wines. The students that took us were pros at this and we had NO idea what to do. First you have to smell the wine, then swish it around in your mouth like mouthwash so it reaches all of the pallets on your tounge & then you can spit it or swallow it. We mostly spit because we were trying a good bit of wines. I tasted some I like and some I don't like. haha I'm more of a white wine person I believe!

Tomorrow is another day with the Brens students and we have wine testing as a group here followed by a large dinner; how appropriate because it's my birthday tomorrow:) The big 2-1 and I"m going to be wine tasting! Who knows, maybe I'll drink it then so I celebrate the right way:) haha just kidding, mom!