This
morning our tour did actually start at 9:30 am. We headed to the
right bank this time and crossed the river to our first stop, the
Chateau de la Riviere in the Fronsac appellation. We parked a bit
away from the chateau and as you walked up the drive, you were hit
with several blasts of cold air coming from what looked like air
vents from within the hillside. This was by far my favorite winery
of all the ones we visited.
We walked up to what looked like a
castle and stepped into the courtyard on a beautiful, sunny, and
somewhat cool morning overlooking an amazing view complete with a
pool. I remember thinking to myself….”Holy Sh**, this place is
so gorgeous!”. We walked around for a bit admiring our
surroundings and taking picture after picture of this beautiful
place. They had a B&B and I'm sure there were numerous other
events including weddings held here too.
Pretty
soon, our tour guide arrived and right off the bat, you could tell
she was a real character by her flamboyant mannerisms. She met us
holding a very large flashlight and heavy coat. I figured we might
be going into the cellar but had no idea what we would be seeing.
Our tour guide explained about the property and the various owners of
the winery – the current owners were the Chinese. She pointed out
the original part of the winery and the additions which included the
current offices and the B&B. The Gargoyles sticking out the
balcony were replicas of the ones at the Notre Dame.
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| Shadow of the gargoyle below the turret above the white doors on the right |
She walked us
back down the driveway to a door that we had passed on the way up to
the Chateau.
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| Entrance to the wine cellar |
She unlocked it and we were hit with that same cold air
we had felt earlier. We stepped down into their cellar and our guide
explained that the series of tunnels built into this limestone
hillside was something like 20 km long used at one time by the french
resistance during the war. The temperature was a constant 50F
(chilly!). Our guide showed us row after row of bottles being stored
which ranged from the typical sized wine bottle all the way up to
their gigantic Nabuchodonosor, 15L bottles of wine. Their private
stock was impressive with bottles dating back to the very early
1900s.
We
wound our way through the tunnels which held both bottles and barrels
of wine. One could easily get lost in the tunnels. Our guide also
pointed out the markings made on the side of the caves with varying
dates and some artwork that served as proof that the French
resistance were hiding in these tunnels. The previous owner of the
winery had a large stone table and chairs built in the cellar for
entertaining. There was even a fireplace built into the tunnel to
keep guests warmer.
She led us up some stairs and we emerged from a
door that opened out into the central courtyard that we were just in.
That was the most amazing tour of a wine cellar we have ever seen.
We
were taken over to the showroom/tasting room where we picked up a
t-shirt for Seth and a drip stop as souvenirs. We tasted a few of
the wines and, quite honestly, as gorgeous and impressive as the
winery is, the wine was just ok. The prices for the B&B were
surprisingly reasonable – up to 287 Euros for 2 people in a suite.
(We had paid more than that per night at the Sofitel in London). Our
guide also introduced us to the “aroma wheel” which made tasting
wines and trying to identify the taste even harder. Their wine
prices ranged from 6-35 Euros per bottle.
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| Bed and Breakfast prices |
I
used the bathroom prior to departing and even thought the toilet
paper in the women's bathroom was so cute.
We toured briefly their
production area where all of the bottle sizes that the winery
produces was on display. We then walked over to the womens' “bath”
which was a bit of steep path (so as to be hidden from the eyes of
the men) and consisted of just a shallow pool of water for the ladies
to just walk around in.
Our
next stop was Chateau de Candale where we ate lunch at their
L'Atelier. Laura dropped us off and we had 2 hours to enjoy a
leisurely lunch. We opted for the chef's tasting menu and started
with a delicious olive tapenade. We also had a bottle of the
winery's red wine 2008. The first course was a mushroom soup with an
egg on top – it was creamy and good. For the 2nd
course I opted for the beef tartar which was completely different
than the ones I've had in the past – it had strawberries, roe, and
other little unidentifiable bits in it. I liked it because the
flavor was more subtle than traditional beef tartar but the portion
was huge. The guys had the sea bass which was also delicious.
Instead of dessert, I had the cheese course which was served with
truffled honey. Very yummy.
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| Olive tapenade |
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| Serving the mushroom soup |
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| Pouring the egg over the mushroom soup |
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| Mushroom soup with egg |
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| Beef Tartar |
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| Cheese course |
Our
next visit was to the Chateau Guadet which was interesting because we
were dropped off in the street to meet the tour guide and then were
taken down an alley and were ushered through a sliding garage door to
access the winery. It was a Grand Cru Classe winery but would never
get rated higher than that simply because they didn't have a parking
lot. Their production facility was teeny and they used concrete vats
– the first time we had seen this type. Their cellar was also a
tunnel but we had to climb down a ladder to get into it.
We toured
their cellar and emerged out the other end of their courtyard, left
the property, and walked for quite a ways to get to the tasting.
Along the way, we passed the town's church where there was a wedding in
progress.
The
roads were crazy small, steep, and of cobblestone. Pretty tough to
navigate if you have any mobility issues at all.
We were taken into
a liquor store where they actually used an automated wine dispensing
machine which we had seen on our cruise ships before. The first wine
we tried nobody liked and our guide told us he did this on purpose
pointing out that this particular wine had actually won 2nd
place in some sort of big contest. We tried about half a dozen other
wines and he commented on each and pointed out interesting facts
about them and then had us rank the ones we liked. We ended up
having a case of 12 bottles shipped home (95 Euros for shipping)
getting a couple of bottles of each of the favorites we picked. I
really liked this type of wine tasting – going head to head between
the different wineries.
As
a surprise, Laura bought us a box of authentic St Emilion Macarons
(I'd been commenting on going to a patisserie for a couple of days,
lol). That was really sweet of her to do and we ate one on the way
back to the ship. They were, by far, the best macaroons that I've
ever eaten – crunchy on the outside, soft in the middle with a
delicious almond flavor. Laura said that the recipe was from the
original nuns' recipe. Each macaroon was stuck to a little piece of
perforated paper. I would love to have the nuns' recipe!
I
really enjoyed the time we spent with Laura (Bordeaux Tours by
Elodie) – she was sweet, attentive, and very knowledgeable. The
chateaus that we visited were a really great representation of the
appellations that we visited – we got a taste of large ones as well
as small ones. A very enjoyable way to spend 2 days in Bordeaux –
an area that we would love to revisit.
Dinner
this evening was in Aqualina – the Italian specialty restaurant -
where we were treated to the caviar service by Wade and Charlie.
Their presentation was beautiful and we ate our caviar with tubes of
vodka. I was really trying to be as dairy free as possible for
diner so I had the risotto with duck confit which was a GIGANTIC
piece of duck and the flourless chocolate cake for dessert. Not only
was I running low on Lactaid supplements but just going crazy with
dairy day after day (even with Lactaid on board) was catching up to
me.
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