Bordeaux ... The wine trail

Here’s my first French lesson: Bordeaux = Red Wine!

The search for the wine was on. A slow start to the morning eventuated on us deciding upon a trip to the village of Saint Emilion to the East of Bordeaux in the heart of wine country. Saint Emilion is a large supplier of  wine to the Bordeaux region meaning that the product is generally a blen of Merlot with Cabernet Franc (about 80:20 ratio), whereas Cabernet Sauvignon comes from slightly further north in the Merdoc region.

Mulder visits the wineries

Picnic in the gardens

2pm came and went and the winery still wasn’t open so we decided to try our luck at another. Luck was in so it seemed and we arrived at the OPEN Chateau Ps de Lane – the Donkey’s Hoof print, where we  had our first taste of Bordeaux produce.

From here we moved onwards to Castulion Cotes de Bordeaux where we enjoyed a selection of cheeses with the various wines. BONUS: our host also gave us some advice for San Fermin as she was born and grew up on the French-Spain border.

Wine and cheese at Castulion Cotes de Bordeaux

TWith this knowledge in hand we continued to admire the French countrysidepassing through the cobblestoned streets of the centre of the town of Saint Emilion. A very cute town on the top of a small hill – pretty much the only one in a very flat area.



Chateau de Chalet



The next stop was Chateau de Chatelet – a small family owned vineyard with and impressive underground cellar – their wines were VERY expensive.

Wine cellar/cave

Dave showing off his wine tasting skills - PS he was driving and had to spit a lot of it out :(

Next on the list was the Chateau Saint –Esprit another small vineyard where we were taken through the winemaking process by the owner’s mother. She explained that her son, Jerome, had been a lawyer but had bought the Chateau as a “seachange” and never looked back. Dave and I bought a bottle of their 2009 vintage – “An excellent year” we were told as the weather conditions were very favourable. 2003 was a very dry year and hence the resulting wine was very strong and full bodied, while 1998 was very wet and resulted in a lighter easier to drink wine. So hopefully drinking the 2009 bottle on our 40^th’s in 13 years will be Juuuuust right – scary thought i know!

Kangaroos in France? The boys find a long lost friend

We went to one last winery and by this stage we were quite exhausted- when we looked at our watches we realised it was 6pm – no wonder! So we headed back to Bordeaux to cook up a feast at the hotel with... you guessed it wine and cheese! (Definitely the theme of the trip so far).