Dégustation

When it comes to mapping out wine tasting in the Bordeaux region, to say it's overwhelming is an understatement. There are hundreds of wineries in each region. For our sanity, we had to take a laid back approach and do a couple wineries in each region in between all our other Bordeaux adventures.

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

Oh Bordeaux!

We arrived in the city of Bordeaux at night on a holiday Monday to quiet, deserted streets. It made for a romantic first introduction to the city. We were staying in the Chartrons neighbourhood just east of the city centre. With a history of being the original major hub of Bordeaux's wine trade, now the area is home to start-up businesses, antique shops, and artists. Every building had the air of a wine cellar (including our very musty, but cool hotel). We weaved through some of the dead streets and found the main square bustling with families enjoying evening al fresco dining. We shared charcuterie and an awesome bottle of wine at a Basque-style restaurant called Le Grat. The poor young server was running mad off his feet but was in good spirits.





We woke the next morning to some sun...finally! We took advantage and enjoyed a run along the Garonne. The city is definitely alive during the day with a bustling downtown. Practically every other storefront is a wine shop but would you expect anything else in Bordeaux? There is also the longest pedestrian street in Europe, Rue Sainte Catherine, jammed with shops and people. We spent the afternoon in a beautiful public garden with a bottle of wine and some sandwiches studying our wine materials to learn about the appellations, grape varieties and wines we had to look forward to in the week ahead of us.









We found dinner at a seafood restaurant along the river, and paired it with a 2-for-1 rose wine special. If only they served 2-for-1 bottles of wine at home! That would be trouble.


Tizac-de-Curton
Oh Bordeaux wine country...where to start?! After two days in the city of Bordeaux we rented a car and headed to our B&B in the heart of wine country. There is so much to share about this adventure when we get home, but for now, here are some of the many highlights.



Domaine L'Amourette
We stayed at a chambres d'hote called Domaine L'Amourette in Tizac-de-Curton, a small village just outside St. Emilion in the Entre-Deux-Mers region. Our warm host, Alexandra, had recently moved from Paris with her husband Arnauld to Tizac-de-Curton to renovate and run L'amourette. The original house was built around the 14th century, and had sat abandoned for 40 years. Alex and Arnaud have spent the last year and a half turning it into a charming, stylish and welcoming place to stay. We loved this place! Alex provided everything we could have possibly needed...a friendly welcome, breakfast with homemade cakes and jam, two very friendly dogs to play with and countless recommendations on what to do and where to eat in the area. Following Alex's advice was the best thing we could have done as all of her tips provided memorable and authentic experiences.











St. Emilion
St. Emilion is the ancient village at the heart of St. Emilion wine region. It's named after a monk who settled there in the 8th century, although initial vines were planted by the Romans in the 2nd century. It sits on top of a hill overlooking vineyards as far as the eye can see, and is home to about 2000 residents (most of whom work in the village or the vineyards), and a continuous influx of tourists. You can understand why with its cobble-stoned streets, central clock tower, church ruins, beautiful old buidlings, 200km of underground pathways and caves, gardens, and of course, tons of wine.









My favourite experience in the village was enjoying a bottle of Cremant de Bordeaux (sparkling wine), settled in the gardens and church ruins of an old cloistre called Cloitre des Cordeliers (thanks Alex for that suggestion!). We also did a tour of the underground caves: the cave of Saint Emilion himself and a monolithic church.






This is where you put your empties

Night Market in Castillon la Bataille
On another great recommendation from Alex we drove into Castillon la Bataille to a night market for dinner. Four Thursdays in July and August several local food and wine producers set up stalls along the Dordogne River, a DJ sets up, and the town comes out for a night of festivities. We were lucky to catch the market on its last night and it was packed. Given our love of duck we headed straight for the duck man. Our order: Fresh grilled duck breast topped with grilled foie gras. I repeat: Fresh grilled duck breast topped with grilled foie gras. This was no ordinary market :) We enjoyed our plate of duck and salad with a 4EUR bottle of rose at sunset on our own little cement picnic table along the Dordogne River. It doesn't get any better than that! For dessert (how we had room I don't know), we shared a cup of fresh raspberries topped with whipped cream. We saddled up with the locals at one of the big long tables in the centre of the market, ordered another bottle of wine and spoke really bad French with some new friends who spoke even less English. Turns out my French gets better (and worse!) the more I drink. This was one of our favourite nights in this region and we'll remember our friends in Castillon la Bataille for years to come.


Hmm, such a difficult choice













Bassin D'Arcachon
The weather had been getting increasingly hot and stifling so on a Saturday we headed to the Ocean to Arcachon. What should have been an hour's drive took much longer in traffic...everyone else was headed to the beach too. Arcachon was a nice (touristy) spot, with street markets, bistros lining the beachfront, and plenty of beach for sunbathers. We took a 30-min ferry in some choppy water to Cap Ferret to check it out, see the oyster farms, and try a few at a tasting hut.






Only thing on the menu is wine, beer, shrimp and oysters... c'est tout!

On our way out of Arcachon we drove south a bit to check out the other beaches. They were less busy and more beautiful and we wished we'd spent the day there. We stopped at Les Dunes de Pyla which are these massive sand dunes sandwiched between forest and sea. We climbed up to the top for the magnificant view.







Blasimon
With the weather maintaining at about 38 degrees we sought refuge at a local 'lake' Alex told us about that was 10 minutes from Tizac-de-Curton. This place was the neatest little phenomenon. It was a man made little lake, with a beach and sandy bottom and by mid-afternoon it was jammed with locals also looking to cool off. We couldn't stand more than 15 minutes at a time on the beach before we had to dip in the water. There were kids everywhere, lots of splashing and man-wrestling in the water, topless grandmas loving up the sun and water. It was a memorable afternoon. There was a little concession/beach bar too, but not with the typical burgers, hot dogs and ice cream menu we'd see back home. The menu, in addition to sandwiches, frites, and icecream, served duck confit, melon and jamon, escargots etc., along with wine and beer. I thought it was quintessentially french and perfect that duck confit made it onto a tiny beach hut's menu. Blasimon was a great little gem in the middle of nowhere, and saved us from the ridiculous heat that day!



Aperitifs at the Church
Right next to L'Amourette was a small old church and cemetery with an awesome view of the neighbouring valley of vineyards in Entre-Deux-Mers. On evenings we were home for sunset we'd enjoy apertifs here, a glass of rose for me and Mitchell with a Ricard. Sigh...so beautiful. We still have many amazing places on our travel itinerary ahead, but I know Tizac-de-Curton will always have a special place in my heart.






Mitchell under the walnut tree

Quiche with Alex
On our last night in Tizac-de-Curton Alex invited us to join her for dinner. She taught me how to make a traditional quiche with lardons, egg and cheese, and then a second quiche with her favourite ingredients of tuna, tomatoes and feta. It was so nice to spend our last evening with Alex who had helped make our week in Bordeaux so special. I hope some day her travelling adventures will bring her and her family to Vancouver for a visit.




Mitchell and his new French friend, Monsieur Pastis




Rachel and Vador having a moment


All that adventure and we haven't even started talking about wine yet. More to come soon!