Classification of wineries in Bordeaux is of huge importance and in large part determines the quality and value of your wine (and whether you can charge big $$$ for it). From what we learned, classification is determined much differently in each region.
St. Emilion
In St. Emilion classification is typically evaluated and determined every 10 years and the two signficant classifications are Premier Grand Cru Classé and Grand Cru. The last review was in 2006. There are about 15 of the prestigious Premier Grand Crus Classés in St. Emilion, and about 45 Grand Crus. There are hundreds of other wineries in this region that don't meet the criteria and are generally labelled Grand Vin de Bordeaux, St. Emilion. The wines from St. Emilion are blends of typically 75% merlot with the remaining portion a mix of either cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc or both.
Inspector Merlot
We stopped at two wineries in St. Emilion, both on the smaller side in terms of vineyards and wine production: Chateau Ambe Tour Pourret and Clos de Madeleine. The vintner of Chateau Ambe Tour Pourret gave us a very thorough tour of her vines, terroir and wine making process, complete with great visuals of the varying soil compositions in the region.
We tasted a delicious sampling of red bordeaux at family run Clos de Madeleine. This winery holds Grand Cru status, but prior to 1996 held Premier Grand Cru Classé status. They are one of the wineries pushing for an early 2012 (instead of 2016) re-classification in hopes that they'll regain their Premier Grand Cru Classé designation. Their wine definitely tasted up to snuff by us, but what do we know!?
Côte de Bourg & Côte de Blaye
In Côte de Bourg/Blaye wine producers are very much in the Bordeaux region and are not classified officially, but the area still produces some fantastic Bordeaux wines. We enjoyed a tasting of several at a Maison de Vins in Bourg one evening overlooking the Dordogne paired with a selection of goat cheeses from a local farmer (some pronouncing their authenticity with a goat hair or two...see photo). Our enthusiasm for the cheese backfired on us later that night...Mitchell still can't think about goat cheese without feeling a bit sick!
Entre-Deux-Mers
This is the wine region our place in Tizac-de-Curton was situated in. The area is famous for Bordeaux whites, but we drank lots of both white and red. Our first introduction to Entre-Deux-Mers wine was definitely the warmest and most memorable. Maryse at Chateau Mauros welcomed us with open arms and spent an hour with us, explaining her traditional wine-making process and family history (all in french!). We tasted our favourite white at Chateau Haut-Garriga en route home, although they had some fantastic reds as well. On another afternoon, forgetting our keys in our room and locked out, we passed the time tasting wine across the street at Chateau Le Clavier, the winery with the best view of vines in Tizac!
Us with Maryse
View from Chateau Le Clavier
Medoc
Our last winery visits were to the Medoc region that arguably produces some of the most famous and prestigious red wines in the world. While St. Emilion has its breathtaking valleys and scenery, Medoc has its fairytale Chateaux and gardens. The soils in Medoc are ideal for growing Cabernet Sauvignon grapes, so Bordeaux wine produced in the Medoc region are made up of mostly Cabernet Sauvignon blended with Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Petit Verdot, according to each individual winemaker. In this region, classification of wineries was established in 1855, ordered by Napolean as part of preparations for the world exhibition in Paris. In Medoc, your appelation (high elevation and proximity to the Gironde river) determine your classification. The prestigious Lafite-Rothschild's, Chateau Latour's etc. (there are 5 of them total) are deemed Premier Grand Cru Classé , and the classification extends to 5 levels of Grand Crus. Even most wineries in the 4th and 5th levels are very high quality.
To taste wine in the Medoc it's imperative to make appointments, of which we had none. We managed to drive by Chateau Beychevelle in time to join their 45 minute tour (but sadly, no tasting). A much larger and wealthier Chateau, Beychevelle holds 4th Grand Cru status and boasts technically advanced equipment and practical sell-outs in the 'futures' market (meaning, their year's wine production is 95% sold before it's even bottled!). Beychevelle is also known as the Versailles of the Medoc because of its magnificant gardens.
We put out a few phone calls to other Chateaux hoping to get a tasting appointment, but no luck, except for leaving a few voicemails. Somewhat discouraged, but not down, we'd learned by now in France when in doubt, do lunch! We drove to St. Estephe for lunch at Chateau Pomys and savoured a glass of their Bordeaux, with smoked duck and tomato salad to start, and fried mackerel for our main. Not a bad consolation :) During lunch we received a call back from Chateau Gruard Larose to say that they could fit us in at 3pm. Our day was looking up!
Turns out appointments are worth it! We had a private tour of the whole winemaking process and cellars from our guide,Georg. Georg was Austrian living in Medoc and working at this winery for the summer to improve his French. Back home his family runs a small hotel and they also produce authentic, fine schnapps. Chateau Gruard Larose is in the Saint-Julien appelation with 2nd Grand Cru classification and has a long history of producing high quality wines. The magnitude of production and the technological advances of this winery far surpassed anything we'd seen so far. Georg snuck us down to see the 'racking' process of the 2010 production, where they remove the aging wine from its barrels, take out the sediment from the bottom of the barrels, wash them and then replace the wine to continue the aging process.
They even raised the Canadian flag for our arrival
High tech system that manages all pumping of wine throughout the Chateau
We also toured their cellar of wine dating back to 1943, and then another special 'archival' cellar of wine from as far back at 1815!! Not drinkable now, but still ridiculously cool. We tasted two wines: a 2002 Sarget Gruard Larose and a 2001 Chateaux Gruard Larose. Both amazing. Back home, to enjoy that wine again would cost us about $100/bottle. An interesting coincidence we found out is that the owners are related to the owners of Osoyoos Larose in the Okanagan.
Rachel getting a lesson from Georg
Their best vintages :)
Their oldest bottles!
And no trip to the Medoc would be complete without a snap of Lafite Rothschild. To get a tasting appointment you need to book at least three months in advance!
Mark your calendars for next year and get running (and drinking!). The Marathon du Medoc is the French's wild and crazy way of making exercise enjoyable. 10,000 participants run a marathon with stops at all the famous Chateaux for tastings along the way, complete with outrageous costumes. We just missed it by a couple weeks!
After tasting so many amazing wines our palates are more confused than ever and even some 4 euro bottles of Bordeaux seem as delicious as the expensive ones. We look forward to honing (or further confusing) our skills in Italy!
Here's a link to more of our Bordeaux & wine country photos: More Photos
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