More drinks new to you
 

Floc de Gascone(Floc means flower in Gascon)
served chilled, a combination of the local wine and Armagnac, drunk as an apertif.

Can we approximate this by making our own combination? What type of wine is to be used?

Is it sold as a pre-mixed combination - or is it like a tequila sunrise, or kir... you can buy it in a bar, but never in a store?

Thanks for teaching us something new...

Best wishes,

Rex

Rex, In Gascony it's mixed with the local wine.

Ummm... I understood that... but are there no names of these wines? - - and do you mean whites? reds? I do not know the wines of Gascony. You can't be suggesting that there is just one, are you?

You can get both red floc & white floc - Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauv' or even Merlot, will produce outstanding red floc when blended with the finest appellation armagnac (Condom or Fleurance for example.)

White floc is, if possible an even greater art, and uses Colombard (typically) or sometimes Gros Manseng or Ugni-blanc.
Most usually it is made to familly recipes in the home and is invariably drunk by the older generation.
It is only relatively recently that floc has been bottled on a medium/large scale for the tourist and export markets.

Very good stuff indeed - if your ever in the Gers and are invited into someone's home it is probably home made floc that you'll be offered to drink.

Dr D.

There's a website, www.floc-de-gascogne-fr. The website mentions both red and white, but says that the product is made from Armagnac and fresh grape juice. There's a similar product made from Cognac called Pineau des Charentes.

Apropos of Armagnac, see the Dining section of today's NY Times (free registration required):

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/18/dining/18WINE.html

Sorry, meant to write www.floc-de-gascogne.fr.

And the answer is, Rex, you can buy it in a bottle called Floc.

Thank you, Sheila... and I appreciate reading and learning about all this new info (to me).

ok here's another for the first time, an digestif called "Camarguise"comes in a bottle local to arles/Camargue area.
"Farigoule" this one from Provence, a thyme flavored digestif. I'm keeping a collection of these bottles on the top kitchen shelf.

When we were in Italy a couple years ago, we were served an aperatif from Sicily called Zibibo at a charming little restaurant in Chiusi which matched every course with a different wine. It was our second night in Italy, and we figured we'd be able to find it someplace during our 3 weeks. Ha. Never saw it again and have tried to find it back here via friends in the wine and restaurant trade with no success. sigh. It was quite wonderful.

uhoh what flavor was it? Like Suze and asuze is Gentian, and pastis is anis.

If you google zibiBBo you will find it. I did.

I just did, thanks. It's a muscat.
Will be great on melon.

When I moved to the west coast I was surprised the many old-timers ordered their draft beer 50/50 with tomato juice.

Was this common elsewhere?