Olive picking at Coujan

We had signed up for an olive day at Chateau Coujan along with our friends Jill and Terry who have a house nearby. We hadn't thought very much about the 'recolte des olives' until the morning of the event when we realized that it would probably be us picking the olives and we were a little late!

Chateau Coujan is a wine domain outside the next village, Murviel. We first visited in 2002 when we met the winemaker, François Guy, then in his 80s. He was a respected winemaker in the region who had done a lot to improve the quality of the wines in the region. The winemaker now is his daughter, Florence.

When we arrived at the domain, we were directed to the olive trees and given our instructions - the olives were to be eaten and so must be large, all green and not misshapen. The olive variety is Lucques, which is specific to the local area and is the type we eat every day, so that increased our enthusiasm. John found a ladder to reach the highest olives, while Jill, Terry and Pat formed a team of different heights, so that we could all pick on the same tree.

Unfortunately, this was the one day in a long time that we had rain and wet olives were not acceptable. At about 11.15, we stopped picking and went back to the chateau, all agreeing that we would have enjoyed a morning picking olives. The much needed rain was to last for the next 18 hours!

At the chateau, we were given a tour of the domain by Celine from the Murviel tourist office; we had been on a night walking tour of Paihles in the summer and had been very impressed by the presentation and how clearly she speaks. This time we were on for a real treat: we were to see inside the 12th century chapel which has been restored by the Guy family. There were people there who have worked at the domain for years have not seen inside the chapel.

The site on which the chateau is built dates back to roman and visigoth times. In the middle ages Coujan was an important hamlet as it was a tollgate for entry into the lands of Narbonne. Inside the chapel are roman mosaics which (according to François) were found when they were planting vines. The mosaics were moved to the chapel for safe keeping and were restored.





There is an african feel in the colour of the mosaics as they were indeed made by African artisans




There is also a very old graveyard (roman or visigoth) close to the chapel and one tomb can be seen next to the altar









Next we walked around the domain, visiting an inner court where the family live. The main building rests on a series of vaults used as stalls for markets and animals in the middle ages.









A renaissance window





These sculptures are in niches in the wall.







One of the old caves is now a museum of the domain's wines. This was where he had our first tasting with François Guy in 2002.





He remembered traveling to Murviel and Beziers in this carriage at the age of 8






Finally, we went inside to a warm fire and a wine tasting.





Then we when outside in the pouring rain, but undercover, where we ate a grillade and tasted more wines outside with the servers coming out to us under umbrellas, before warming up again in front of the fire while

Pat and John on tour