Around here they are always "apero-diners", and finger food does the trick, but lots of it. (Often with the dreaded "cake salé") But maybe that's an Ile de France thing. I've never been invited to anybody's house just for an apero here, nor when I lived near Grenoble. But the food is usually so late you are completely sozzled before you get anything to eat!
'Drinks served at apéros are restricted to apéritifs'
'If you are serving foie gras, you will need to have on hand, Montbazillac or a Sauterne.'
Blimey! You clearly move in exalted circles. All my French mates will happily drink whatever is proffered at apero 'o'clock and drink anything other than Listerine with their foie gras. I obviously hang out with a load of plebs :)
Would madam like ice with that?
Catharine, desert wines aren't that expensive. If stay away from the château bottled, you can find good bargains. As for foie gras, the duck version is also to be found at reasonable prices, and the paté is cheaper. I know the Yanks and Brits have panic attacks, at the mention of FG, but duck FG doesn't involve force feeding: docks can't be force fed. If you're going to have apéros, then do it properly, don't be cheap skates. It isn't as if one does it every week. As any good cook knows, drinking strong spirits before wine, completely kills the taste of the wine, that is why at apéros, apéritifs are served: that is the main reason for their existence.
Unfortunately I do have to be a cheap skate due to circumstances which is why I'm loving some of these ideas as they sound delicious and visually attractive while not breaking the old, empty bank.
ps ducks are most definitely force fed to make foie gras.
Dessert wines? I'd add a Jurançon to that list.
Catherine: you could just pop and pick some up at the cave at Belloc (Salies). Great excuse for a tasting!
Dessert wines? I'd add a Jurançon to that list.
Catherine: you could just pop and pick some up at the cave at Belloc (Salies). Great excuse for a tasting!
Talking about tasting, I happened upon three lovely "tastevin" (tat a van) in a friend's brocante, the other day. I'm looking forward to attending a tasting, with my cup hanging from a chain round my neck, and doing it properly, while all the wine groupies use those tall glasses, used by the TV people.
Valerie, you'll find it isn't expensive to provide a small amount of paté and a bottle of a desert wine.
A lot of expat people shun desert wines, because they think of wine as a social drink. They don't understand that it has a place in the world of food, which when used properly, is a pure delight.
Sounds like a plan!
Vincent - I didn't mean for a minute that they were necessarily expensive (I presonally can't stand the stuff but that is by the by) - just that one doesn't need to be anything like so formal.
Maybe it's a generational thing or maybe it's because I live in the south west where aperos are nightly, never mind weekly, from May onwards (hence why south of Bordeaux everyone's liver is shot to pieces....!), either which way, in my (fairly extensive) apero ing, I've been offered everything from a packet of peanuts onwards. Beer is par for the course and generally what most people especially the men, go for. Wine, white or rose is standard for us ladies. And, shock, horror, ooh, I have more than a few friends who prefer a glass of red! No need to buy an entire drinks cabinet! And finally, Lidl have recently upped their wine game and are now doing some excellent cheap wines. Just watch the prices as they also have some really expensive ones and as ever in Lidl, the pricing isn't always clear and the 2.99 white is often right next to the 22.99 white! Hope this helps.
Talking about lidl, they stock that lovely Italian wine, Montepulciano d' Abruzzo. it was once voted best wine by M&S, some years ago. €1.99. I recommend it! (My great great grandfather founded a wine business in 1826, which was sold in 1990).
I do agree about Lidl wines. We tried the Montepulciano although i was suspicious as it was so cheap for this wine but it was very pleasant if not exactly distinguished - but for €1.99! In Cyprus we generally buy all our wine from Lidl but in France we buy nearly all locally direct from the growers.
I, generally, don't like sweet white wine but Beaumes de Venis is wonderful with pudding. If this isn't too nuts I always think it tastes purple. When I worked on the docks in Marseilles (back in the days when horses pulled trams) we drank it with anything!
Good "stickys" shouldn't be confused with the cheap sweet wines of former times (stil regreattably available but I guess for those who like them OK). Try a good Monbazillac (not expensive) or, if you want to push the boat out, on eof the decent Sauternes or Barsac andyou may change your mind. Good "sweet" wines don't actually taste sweet if they are well balanced by acidity.
I read Montepulciano and was immediately thrown back in time to when I travelled there to stay with an Italian priest whom I had met in Africa. He didn't speak English, I don't speak Italian but we somehow muddled through a week with a mix of basic Latin and German.
I first came across M d' A in an irish supermarket for £IR 4.99 in 1995, and thought it was a bargain (Irish duty on wine is horrendous!!) and immediately fell in love with it. Shortly after that, I was in the UK and saw it in M&S with a big write-up. I'm in Eire at the moment and saw it in Lidl for €5.59 !
When an indian restaurant in Angoulême sponsored my radio programme, they told me about the indian wines from the Nandy Hills, near Bangalore, and have promised a bottle, as some of them are highly rated.
About 20 years ago; Tesco UK used to have a very nice wine from Brazil, but I've not seen it anywhere since. Has anyone else sampled it?
Zut alors! J'oublié de mentionner Dubonnet !!
Oh dear, how could you forget that, you rascal (tee hee). I think they will need to go without that as the liquid bill already must be approaching 100, unless I substitute that for whisky.
Would you have diddly diddly music playing quietly in the background so it's only audible if there's a lull in conversation?
Ah yes to be sure. The diddly diddly music is essential.
Valerie, I can't see how costs could be so high. For a "soirée" it could be so, as they are a party. Apéros don't involve multitudes, unless it involves a commercial promo. They are a personal thing, and about a max of eight people. Get a couple of bottles of the €1.16 sparkling wine from Le Clerc. It has a proper name on the bottle! I don't know why Lidl changed their name to "Alliance". Champion used to have one called "Sire de Baupré"! For Kir, you don't need expensive stuff.
Get "sirop de cassise", it's cheaper and doesn't get your guests pissed! I bottle of Dubonnet or Noilly Prat (Prat was an Englishman) A bottle of dry white for those who don't like the fizzy stuff.
I've never been to a french apéro, where there was any beer. In fact, at one, an English guest asked if there was any beer, and the host told him, in no uncertain tone, that this was an apéro and not a bar! He said he didn't drink wine, and was told again in NUT, that this was France.
I suppose it's a cultural gap, as being invited round for "drinks" isn't quite the same as a french apéro, which is, in fact, a preparation for a following meal, hence the times they are held: people go home and have their meal.
It's all very civilized and polite, which brings up the subject of music. For some strange reason, Brits, when in a social situation always seem to have to shout at each other, wa wa wa wa, until the room becomes a shouting match. At an apéro, just have some quiet classical music. Nothing that will distract the conversation or raise the decibel level.
If you are irish, then play some O'Carolan harp music, which is, in fact, "court music" and not diddly diddly, so it wont be a distraction.
Some Brassens or even Frères Jacques, in the background, will really delight the french guests. Trennet's a bit frantic! If you have any “Barbara”, that will please the french guests, as she was a “national treasure”.
Apéros are an aspect of "civilized" french life, and when they want to let go, they do that at the salle de fete with total abandon! No holds barred!