Studies
show that happy animals provide better-tasting meat. Taking a cue from
that idea, Languedoc-Roussillon winemaker Jean-Charles Tastavy and
cattle farmer Claude Chaballier decided to experiment by giving beef
cattle some wine with their feed.
“The cows appreciated the menu and ate with enjoyment,” Tastavy said.
And now, the French cows are getting a daily oenological infusion –
of up to two bottles each. Tastavy explains they’ve scaled the cattle’s
wine intake based on authorities’ recommended drinking habits: “For a
person, we know it’s two or three glasses of wine a day. For a cow, that
means 1 to 1.5 liters per day,” Tastavy told the AFP.
But the wine wasn’t boosting just the cows’ spirits. The growers
found it also improved their taste. Michelin-starred chef Laurent
Pourcel had a taste of the “viande de luxe” – luxury beef – and hedges
that there’s a bustling market for it among a foodie crowd. It has a
“very special texture, beautiful, marbled and tender, which caramelizes
while cooking.”
The beef from these cows is quite a bit more expensive than other
beef, because the cost of feeding each cow tripled with the addition of
wine.
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