It's all vine with me

Chablis IS wine.

Indeed, besides Champagne and Bordeaux I would guess that Chablis is probably the most well-known French wine in the world.

I would even go so far to say that every major restaurant that has a proper wine list (proper being more than five selections of white wines) would offer Chablis as one of those five.

So how can I visit a region, whose wine is more famous than the village where it came from and not mention the wine?

At the beginning of February I was lucky enough to attend the Saint-Vincent Tournante du Chablisien or the Touring of Saint Vincent in Chablis.

This festival honours the patron saint of wine producers. It started in 1966 and happens the first weekend in February in one of the 20 villages which make up Chablis.

No one really knows why St Vincent became the patron saint of wine. Some say it is simply because the first three letters of his name, vin mean wine. Others believe it has to do with his martyrdom. He was tortured and his body was crushed like grapes.

However, the story I like best is that he stopped by the vineyards to talk to the men working there. While he was conversing his donkey started nibbling on the vines. The next harvest the workers noticed that the vines the donkey ate produced more fruit. So from then on, the workers in the vineyard started pruning their vines.

This year’s Saint Vincent Festival was actually being held in the small town of Chablis. It’s easy to get there by taxi from one of the train stations in Auxerre or Migennes.

Thrillingly, about a kilometre outside Chablis, I suddenly noticed how the flowers seemed to be in full bloom. In fact, the closer we got to the village, the more vibrant the colours became. Bright yellow mums flowered in pine trees; window boxes were overflowing with red and pink dahlias. Purple lilies floated in the river Serein.

But bizarrely, these weren’t real, they were made of paper. Thousands of them, decorating the streets, archways, houses and walls of Chablis.

The effect was astonishing, bringing spring to a mid-winter festival.

Paper flower parrots hung from the trees and pink flamingos lined the river, dipping their beaks in to drink.

Cécile Mathiaud, who works for the Burgundy wine board, explained: “More than 400 volunteers work on the festival. They started making flowers in May 2009. There are over 100,000 paper flowers in and around Chablis...”

Well, the festival was about to start, and like most festivals honouring a saint, it begins with Mass.

Speakers had been wired up throughout the village to broadcast the service.

And guess what? Communion was taken with Chablis instead of traditional red wine.

Plus, at the end of the service, baskets of brioche are passed out to the gathering crowd inside and outside the church. Like the loaves and the fishes, there was plenty for everyone.

The end of the service is marked when the Piliers Chablisiens Brotherhood proceed out of the church with a banner and a small statue of St Vincent.

Local dignitaries then join the procession.

Representatives from other villages follow them, all carrying their local statues, and march through the streets, under the colourful bunting, preceded by a brass band and drawing groups of dancers after them.

It ends in the town square where a giant model of the earth boasts a bottle of Chablis being poured over it.

The Piliers Chablisiens Brotherhood, a society that promotes the wine, the area of Chablis and its traditions, climb a platform and finally open the festival.

Instead of wearing chains and robes as our Lord Mayors do, they wear silver tastevins (small saucers used for tasting wine) around their neck. And most importantly, they disclosed the secret to a good life – “You must have some Chablis in your blood, skin, head and stomach.”

Quite right too.

And with that, the Cuvee St Vincent (the traditional wine of the festival) is opened, poured and drunk down in one gulp to the chorus of a traditional drinking song.

Just five euros gets each visitor a glass, generally worn around the neck, which can be refilled for free at any of the stands pouring the Cuvee St Vincent.

Along with the wine, food is bountiful. I started with escargots, tasty snails covered in butter and garlic and baked in a pastry shell, before moving on to the Tartiflette Chablisienne from the restaurant Au Vrai Chablis in the village centre (filling enough to soak up the Chablis I was drinking).

More than 20,000 bottles of cuvee were made for the festival and I would hazard a guess most were drunk that day.

Of course I couldn’t visit Chablis and drink the wine with out seeing the vines. And when in France, why not travel in a classic French manner . . . a Citroen 2CV.

My guide and owner of a gorgeous blue 2CV was Eric Szablowski, a true virtuoso of Chablis.

He explained not only the history, but also the heart of the wine. Standing in a grand cru vineyard he took some of the earth in his hands.

“This is the reason,” he said, as he held up a small-fossilised oyster shell. “This is what gives Chablis its distinctive flavour. It is Kimmeridgien, but even with these shells, we couldn’t have the wine without the men to work the vines. The people put their blood into this land.”

Well, the passion is obvious.

But whether you go to Chablis for the festival, to taste the Grand Crus or simply to wander through the vines, the region’s delight for life is contagious.

For as they say – “Life is too short to drink bad wine!”