September 26, 2026 Breakfast - Croissant, Almond Croissant, and Yogurt with plums. Lunch - Ham Sandwich at Chateau Ott/Romasson. snack - Figs with goat cheese and honey and duck pate’ sandwiches, Dinner - La Gelys
Today we trekked north into the wine country of Bandol around Le Castelet again after a breakfast of warmed croissant and almond croissant and a bowl of yogurt and fresh yellow and green plums and a swim by Suzette at Portisolis Beach.
Sunrise
Breakfast
We first stopped at a health festival at Moulin de la Rogue winery where there were also health services offered on this Saturday such as yoga.
We went into the large tasting room with displays with technical data on the approximately fifty wines they produce. We tasted mainly a white and three roses, two of which won gold medals at the world wine competition in Brussels. We bought a bottle of one of the rose’ winners named Ardchets that we liked very much.
Since you should buy a bottle when you taste, we decided to expand our wine and olive oil collection for this trip to 14 bottles and asked for a six bottle carton to pack bottles in.
It was after 12:00 when then drove to Chateau Ott/Romasson on the other side of Le Castelet. Chateau Ott or should I say Roederer owns three vineyards in the area,
Wikipedia states:
Domaines Ott is owned by the Champagne Louis Roederer company, which purchased a majority stake in 2004.
Ownership* Details
- Majority Owner: Champagne Louis Roederer acquired the famed Provence wine estates in 2004.
- Family Involvement: Members of the founding Ott family, including Jean-François Ott, have stayed on to manage and direct winemaking operations across the estates.
- The Estates: The brand includes three distinct properties in France: Château de Selle, Clos Mireille, and Château Romassan.
We tasted whites, roses, and a red from each and finally an olive oil produced at Clos Mirabelle. Since we can buy Chateau Ott wines in the U.S. but not its excellent olive oil, we bought a bottle olive oil for 18€?
The tasting room closed at 1:00 but the attendant filled our glasses with the last of the bottle of red we tasted and we ate our ham sandwich and the lovely Nyon black olives we bought at Le Olivette Winery in the shade on the ancient patio of Chateau Romasson.
Then at 1:45 we drove to Chateau de la Noblesse that we visited in our first trip to Bandol 29 years ago. The daughter who is now the fifth generation of the family owning this estate, who is the proprietress and wine maker showed us to the ancient cave where we tasted their white, two roses, and three reds, a 2020, a 2021, and a 2022. All the reds were 95% Mourvèdre and 5% Grenache, the three reds tasted quite different. We liked the 2021 and bought a bottle and a 2023 rose. Then the daughter showed us to the bureau where the wines for sale were kept and let us taste their white balsamic vinegar made from Noblesse’s Mourvèdre grapes. It was fantastic, so we bought a bottle of it also. We asked the daughter to sign the label of each bottle as we had asked her father 29 years ago. Although small and not as modern, the wines of Noblesse are award winning wines also and its winery is rated 5.0. In fact the experience of visiting an old winery that remains unspifted up was really charming and helped us reminisce about our visit 29 years ago.
It was 2:45 when we drove back to the villa. We rested until 5:00, when Suzette made a snack of the four different fogs she bought at the market in St. Cyr two days ago cut open at the top and garnished with goat cheeses and honey. We opened the bottle of St. Estephe red we bought at the Intermarche several weeks ago and it was deliciously smooth. I also spread butter and duck pate on two slices of baguette and cut slices of pear..
The four different figs were slightly different in texture. We liked the creaminess of the larger dark purple fig, although the smaller two purple figs were interesting. Our least favorite was the large green fig, which is the kind we have in our yard. Suzette said she wanted to grow a dark red fig in our yard.
At 6:00 we dressed and walked down the staircase to the Center. Tonight was a music festival in Sanaray and we listened to the techno-rock music being played at the other end of the center near the parking lot as it permeated the entire downtown.
At 6:50 we arrived at the La Gelys for our 7:00 dinner reservation and were seated at the table Suzette had reserved several days ago. Sanaray was crowded this Saturday evening and the restaurant filled up quickly after 7:00. We split 6 Isgny oysters on the half shell with glasses of champagne.
Then we ordered an appetizer of a truffle and mushroom tart with a ball of burrata and a small arugula salad that was interesting because you could see and taste the bits of black truffle mixed in with the warm sautéed mushrooms on a crisp tart round. The earthiness of the truffles and mushroom were in interesting flavor juxtaposition to the creamy cold burrata when combined as Suzette did.
We ordered glasses of a Bandol white for the truffle appetizer and risotto main course. Menus in France can be confusing to an American because the word for appetizer in French is “Entree”. And the French word for main course is “Plat”.
We decided to split the truffle appetizer and 1/2 grilled African lobster and two large shrimp with creamy Roquefort and Parmesan flavored risotto for main course/plat.
The decision to split the risotto turned out to be perfect. We were served a large bowl with a generous amount of risotto at the bottom and stacked on top were the grilled half lobster and two grilled large shrimp. I removed the tail meat from the lobster and diced it into 1 inch cubes and peeled and cubed the two shrimp and threw them into the risotto and Suzette mixed the meat into the risotto and we each served ourselves spoonful of the most delicious grilled seafood risotto we have ever eaten; a perfect ending to a wonderful trip.
Tonight was the full harvest moon, which made a particularly pretty evening sky over the marina .
Le Gelys is located at the end of the center and the marina near the staircase to our village, so we took a leisurely walk back up to our village as we listened to the music being played at the other end of the center as it reverberated off the rock cliff we were climbing.
We went to bed at 9:30, but I awakened to loud music playing in the condos below our village at 1:15 that continued until I finished this blog entry at 3:30 a.m., although at 2:45 the volume was reduced significantly.
We decided that we liked everything about this trip and if my health held up, we would try to rent this villa in May of next year for a return visit to Sanaray sur Mer and perhaps several days in the Luberon wine region staying in La Fontaine du Vaucluse.
Bon Appetit
