Day 18 - June 15, Bordeaux
Our boat docked in Bordeaux on Monday, June 15, and we got a day before we had to disembark on Tuesday so Debbie and Sandy booked an all-day wine tour, and Jose joined us. It was a most delightful day.
We met our guide, Miguel from Dominican Republic, at 11 am, and got into a van for an hour-long drive to our first of three wine tastings. There are two wine regions here: the left bank and the right bank. Each has different soils and different climates that produce different grapes. It’s complicated.
The wine regions on the left bank of the Gironde estuary are bordered by large coniferous forest land that have a tempering effect on the maritime climate of the area. The area has gravel-rich soil and is comprised of three prestigious sub-regions: the Medoc, Graves and Sauternes. The soils of the Medoc and Graves are varied and essentially made up of gravelly earth (which is how Graves got its name; in French, graves means gravel. The main grape variety grown on the Left Bank is Cabernet Sauvignon, which brings tannins, strength, acidity, color and black fruit aromas to the wine.
I am a big fan of Cabernet Sauvignon behind Malbec, which I thought was primarily a South American grape BUT interesting fact: Malbec is native to Cahors in southwest France and was one of the most widely planted grapes in France. Even today, regulations for Cahors wines require a minimum content of 70% Malbec.
The Great French Wine Blight in the mid-19th century was a blight of grape phylloxera, an insect pest of grapevines worldwide (originally native to eastern North America), that destroyed many of the vineyards in France and laid waste to the wine industry. Then came the Great Frost of 1956 that devastated vast areas of European vineyards. The Great Frost of 1956 was catastrophic for vines as temperatures plunged from 77 F in the daytime to 0 F at night. The frost wiped out most of the vineyards on both banks of Bordeaux and its surrounding areas overnight. Malbec was replanted in Cahors and continued to be popular in that area, but its poor resistance to weather, diseases and pests meant it was not the varietal of choice in other areas.
Anywho, we went to wineries on the Right Bank where the soil is varied and is partly clay. The reigning grape in this region is Merlot, and the wines are known for being more supple, balanced and accessible when they’re young. The Right Bank is home to smaller properties and are largely still owned by winemakers and their families.
The first winery we visited was Chateau Montlabert, a chateau with a wine heritage dating to 1750. It has passed through the hands of several owners and is very modern. Since 2011, Château Montlabert has been managing its vineyard through an agro-ecological approach, cultivating its plots with the utmost precision and care. It has adopted innovative and technological solutions, addressing oenological and environmental considerations. It’s quite modern, as you can see in the photos.
After getting a tour of the production facility with its huge tanks and barrels, we were provided a most luscious lunch (packaged in a round wood box, tied with pink satin ribbon!}: a couple of crepes, a wonderful jar of hazelnut chocolate spread, two mini sandwiches, crusty dinner roll, ham, sausage, cheese, a soft-boiled egg, couscous with pomegranate seeds, ham Dijon sandwich and fruits: a fig, apricot, oranges, blueberries – and one macaron (without coconut!). The entire lunch box was sprinkled with edible flowers. It was a very classy touch.
From there we drove less than a mile into the commune (village) of Saint-Emilion. It is a charming medieval city located in the heart of the famous Bordeaux wine area. It has a legend about it, of course, that is interesting: a monk from Brittany fled from Vannes, his hometown, to seek refuge in one of the natural caves in a place called Ascum bas (former name of the village) in the 8th century. His name was Emilion. Living the life of a hermit he accomplished a few miracles and rapidly became famous in the region and even far beyond its borders. Soon he had many disciples, and with their help, he evangelized the place and made it become a great religious center. Even after his death his followers carried on his legacy and even called the town after him: Saint-Emilion.
Saint-Emilion has great soil diversity, thus a diversity of wines, due to both a complex geology (sands, clay, limestone…) and a microclimate that is perfectly suitable for winemaking.
We meandered through the village before ending up in a tasting room (air conditioned, thank goodness!) where we sat among bottles of wine that had prices on them from 85 Euros to somewhere north of 15,000 Euros. Yep, really expensive (but I’m sure good) wine. The sommelier offered us six wine tastings.
Our final stop of the day was at Chateau Guadet in the heart of the village. Our “guide” was Vincent Lignac, and he was quite the character. Vincent is the son of Guy-Petrus Lignac, who made an appearance while we were there. Guy-Petrus spent two years at the oenology institute and had a career in the industry before returning to the family estate in 2000 with his wife Catherine. He started with the basics, the vineyard, and guided it toward organic farming as early as 2008. His father had always worked this Grand Cru Classé using traditional methods (plowing and Bordeaux mixture), so the path was already laid out for him. Guy-Petrus is very involved in village life; he is president of the Saint-Emilion tourist office and vice-president of the history and archaeology society.
Vincent earned an Advanced Vocational Diploma before spending two years in Walla Walla, Washington, almost as much time in Chile and Spain then five years in Australia working in wine estates. He returned to his roots in 2009. Vincent began biodynamic farming, which is the most rigorous and advanced in its respect for the vine and its ecosystem.
We got a tour of the chateau, which was specifically built for winemaking. We saw the production area, the barrels of fermenting wine and Beth got to see the underground wine cellar. She had to go backward down a ladder of about 30 steps; something I wasn’t going to do. Anywho, she reports that there were literally thousands of bottles of wine categorized by vintage year going back to 1880s. It went on for probably nine or ten cave-like rooms. She had to duck to get through the passageways. Vincent did not allow any photos.
She, Sandy and Jose emerged into the wine tasting room where Debbie and I joined them to taste three vintage years of the same wine, which was interesting because Vincent knew exactly what weather was in each year so we compared them. The year in which they had lots of sunshine was the best vintage year.
They sell mostly to individuals, and the wine list I viewed started at 76 Euros a bottle up to 228 Euros.
We returned to the boat to eat our last supper; we made reservations at one of the specialty restaurants, Prime C, that hosts a selection of New York Strip to Ribeye. June, the sommelier who conducted our previous wine tasting on the boat, suggested a nice Rose to go with the supper. It was delish.
Didn’t party much, returned to our room to pack because we had to disembark before 9 am the next morning.
What a fun trip! Thank you for sharing.
ReplyDeleteThat lunch box!!
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