The following post details Wed, Aug 27:
Today we had a private tour scheduled for the entire day. I had worked with a company for several weeks in July to schedule this day - a dedicated driver and guide for the day, visits to 3 Chateaus that were part of the 1855 Classification, a cheese pairing with one of the Chateau visits and a gourmet lunch in the Left Bank area. We were scheduled to visit Chateau Gruaud Larose in St. Julien, Chateau Pontet Canet in Pauillac and Chateau Prieure-Lichine in Margaux.
I went down to the lobby a little early to meet our driver/guide - Xavier. It wasn't clear if he there - there was someone talking to the front desk and a van sitting just outside the front door. Finally Xavier came over the introduced himself. Bridget arrived just minutes later. We headed out and loaded into the van. He asked about our stay and we mentioned our tours on Tuesday. Since we mentioned going to two Chateaus in Margaux, he asked if we were interested in trying a different winery for our third stop of the day - since Margaux was not a favorite for either of us, we thought that was a good idea. Xavier mentioned that since this was a private tour, then we could be flexible, but just needed to keep in mind the timing of some of the appointments.
Xavier was informative, reinforcing much of what we had learned the previous day...certainly good to hear it multiple times for memory retention. We did learn that Bordeaux translates to "nearby water" or "near the water" which is very appropriate given the proximity of not only La Garonne River, but also the Atlantic Ocean. At one point the entire Left Bank was under water - which is one reason that the soil is perfect for growing Cabernet Sauvignon.
We arrived at Chateau Gruaud Larose in St. Juilen - a beautiful property - and was quickly greeted by the wine guide - Beidet - who was from Belgium (and this is a complete guess on the spelling of her name). We started the tour and quickly agreed that Beidet was the best wine guide we have had to date. She took us into the tower which was the first structure built on the property. We climbed three stores to the top which gave a 360 degree view of the area.
One thing that is visible from the tower is the "weather cannon". I have never heard of this being used at a winery. According to Beidet, the location of the vineyards is very susceptable to hail. They have weather radar on the property and when any potential of hail is detected, then a signal is sent to the weather cannon. The cannon sends sound waves into the atmosphere to break up the hail clould. Since being installed in 2005, they have not had any hail damage. The Mendoza area I visited in Argentina also receives significant hail, but there the winemakers used large nets - such nets are not allowed by the appellation committees in France.
From the tower we went on to the sorting and crushing area which was very high-tech and had a "control center" that I have never seen before in a winery. Next was on to the tank room, then the barrel room and finally to the tasting area. The tank room was pretty typical; however, the barrel room was relatively new and had amazing ceilings and lighting. One of the winery workers was racking the wine (moving the contents of one barrel to another to remove sediments, leaves, etc) and then topping off the barrel (new French Oak barrels can absorb as much as 6 LITERS of wine), so the barrels are topped off every few weeks during the aging process. We had heard about this process in all the previous wineries, so seeing it was great. We also saw the process in action of cleaning the barrel, also part of the racking process - multiple rinses with water, steam, cold water, soap, more water and steam, then drying. The final step is to then burn a sulfide chip in the barrel to kill any remaining bacteria.
Once in the tasting area, we were seated at a small table next to a gorgeous fireplace. Beidet brought out our cheese pairing, numerous glasses and a few bottles of wine for tasting. We had the 2007 of their second label, the 2004 of the Grand Cru and then were surprised with a special treat, the 1993 of the Grand Cru (the winemaker had opened it the day before for tasting with many wine journalists from Spain). Beidet sat down with us and joined in the tasting and cheese nibbling. For most of the tasting we had the entire space to ourselves. Bridget ended up buying and shipping 12 bottles - I hope she saves a few to share with me! I really enjoyed the wines too, but thought the shipping was still too expensive.
The second label at Chateau Gruaud Larose:
From Chateau Gruaud Larose, we headed towards lunch. I don't remember the name of the restaurant, but our food was very good. I had Hake with a tomato, eggplant and onion ragout; Bridget had chicken and Xaiver had a hamburger (was surprised that he ate with us). However, it was nice with him being at the table - he spoke French to push the server along since we were a little tight on time....and certainly not enough time for the typical French service.
After lunch we continued on to Chateau Pontet Canet. Here we joined 6 other folks for a tour. We started with all getting on a very extended golf cart and driving out into the vineyard. This Chateau is the only Grand Cru (from the 1855 Classification) that is practicing Bio-organic farming. They are next door to Chateau Mouton Rothschild - so incredible soil and legacy in the Pauillac appellation. The bio-organic techniques were quite involved - obviously no pesticides or fertilizers, but they use horses to pull tools/machinery (the engine-driven machines are too heavy, packing the soil and eliminating the small creatures that live in the soil). In the fermentation process they only use naturally occurring yeasts from the vineyard, so their fermentation process takes about double the time of the other Chateaus. During the tasting, we tasted only one wine - their 2007 Grand Cru. Overall, it was good, but quite tannic. They had the best promotional booklet of any place visited with wonderful, small photographs of the property and Chateau.
Pictures from Chateau Pontet Canet:
From Chateau Pontet Canet, Xavier drove us past many of the Premier Crus that were nearby for several pictures - Chateau Lafite-Rothschild, Chateau Latour, Chateau Margaux, Chateau Palmer and Chateau Mouton Rothschild.
Chateau Lafite-Rothschild:
Chateau Latour - the actual Chateau is not visible from the road:
Our last stop of the day was the wild-card that we changed at the beginning of the day. Xavier selected Chateau Chasse-Spleen, primarily since they bottle a white wine which is very rare in the Left Bank area (since no appellation allows bottling of white wine with the appellation's name on the bottle, it was just labeled as "Bordeaux"). This winery was also not part of the original 1855 Classification process, so it is not officially considered a Grand Cru Chateau.
A quick note about the 1855 Classification since I've mentioned it several times - again, more information that I learned! The Classification was requested by Emperor Napoleon III to present the most famous Bordeaux wines at the Paris Universal exhibition. The follow the Emperor's request, the Bordeaux wine brokers ranked the wines into 5 levels according to the Chateaus' reputation and trading price of the time. What's interesting is that this Classification has never changed. Newer Chateaus have not been added; Chateaus are not re-evaluated; no Right Bank Chateaus are included...and even the original classification didn't include all wineries that existed at the time. Certainly the Premier Crus are all still amazing, command astounding prices per bottle (often 2,000 euros per bottle; approx $2,700 US) and always sell out before the wine is even bottled. However, Xavier pointed out that many 5th level Crus now command prices near the 2nd level Crus as do wines from Chateaus that are not in the Classification. The Right Bank has created their own Classification system and re-calibrates the rankings every 10 years. The Left Bank has seen the angst and debate that happens every 10 years in the Right Bank so have no desire to revisit the Classification.
Back to Chasse-Spleen...we pulled in and were greeted quickly by two guides. We were so over hearing about the wine making process that luckily the guide skipped much of it. Plus her English was difficult to understand. The Chateau had wonderful large pieces of modern art throughout the property as well as beautiful gardens. After two long days of tours at multiple Chateaus - the modern art was of much more interest! I'm appreciating the US approach much more of just a tasting room rather than a full tour experience at each winery.
The Chasse-Spleen property used to be one large Chateau, but in the early 1800's, the actual Chateau was literally divided in half between a brother and sister when their father died - sharing a common wall in the Chateau. The properties remained separate until just a few years ago. The Chateau has been re-joined, but the wines are still bottled under two separate labels.
The tasting room for Chasse-Spleen is in the barrel room...and again more modern art, this time incorporated as a painting into the ceiling and walls. There is only vantage point in the entire barrel room where you can "see" the piece. It is 9 Dancing Flags...it is quite confusing when you first walk in, but once you go to the corner vantage point, the piece jumps off the walls and appear 3-dimensional.
When you walk into the barrel room:
From the key vantage point:
We tasted four wines - their 2005 Grand Cru, the 2008 Second Label, the 2005 Grand Cru of the adjoining Chateau and the white blend. I liked all of these wines, but Bridget was rather indifferent about them. I ended up buying a bottle of the 2008 Second Label since it was only 23 euros - figured we could drink it in Madrid or Barcelona.
The drive back to Bordeaux was about 45 minutes and I surprisingly stayed awake the entire time - partly because I started working on my journal.
Back at the hotel, we both looked at e-mails and Facebook and around 6:30 decided to head out to a cafe and ultimately to find dinner. We weren't very successful in finding just a cafe to journal, but we did enjoy wandering around the main square, snapping a few pictures and found a Bistro just off the town square for dinner. We shared a Cote de Beef for two with sides of a salad, frites, scalloped potatoes and a bernasie sauce for the steak. The steak was very fatty and I spent at least half of my meal trimming my pieces. After dinner, we strolled back to the hotel, saying good night to our last night in France.
From the square:
I finally got my picture next to huge wine bottles that are located throughout the area:
No comments:
Post a Comment