Tuesday, September 20
Today we were up bright and early to meet Eric at 8:45, who we had booked to be our tour guide for half a day and to show us around the St. Emilion area for some wine tasting of the famous Bordeaux area wines. Unfortunately we were early and he was late, so we stood around for 30 minutes until he turned up! However the 1 hour drive into the countryside was beautiful and as we got into the wine growing area it reminded us a bit of the Yarra Valley near where we live.
We visited Petrus winery just to see it, as apparently their wines are the most expensive in France and they don't do wine tastings, but at least we've seen the grapes the wine is made from! Eric drove to St. Emilion and parked the car as no cars are allowed in the old town - as we walked through it we could see why. The streets were cobblestones and some were quite steep, and they were very narrow. Nearly every shop was a wine cave, followed by restaurants, but it was very quaint. He also put us through a "smell" test to prepare us for our wine tasting.
Our first stop was Valandraud winery, where the owner first started making wine in his garage, and he still does, as well as using it as the tasting room. His wines are so good they now have a Cru classification, and the best ones are very expensive. We tried a range of reds and they were very good, as were the 2 whites we tried.
The next stop was Le Chatelet winery, and it is a boutique winery which only sells to a few restaurants as well as private buyers. Each vintage is quite small, and some of the vintages we tried had yielded under 1000 bottles for that vintage. The caves the wines were stored in were built in Roman times and had a great atmosphere. The whole experience here was very memorable.
We then returned to Bordeaux where we had lunch before doing some more shopping, and then returned to our apartment to start packing again for our next stop in France. After dinner we went to see Bordeaux at night - this will be on a separate post.
Today we were up bright and early to meet Eric at 8:45, who we had booked to be our tour guide for half a day and to show us around the St. Emilion area for some wine tasting of the famous Bordeaux area wines. Unfortunately we were early and he was late, so we stood around for 30 minutes until he turned up! However the 1 hour drive into the countryside was beautiful and as we got into the wine growing area it reminded us a bit of the Yarra Valley near where we live.
We visited Petrus winery just to see it, as apparently their wines are the most expensive in France and they don't do wine tastings, but at least we've seen the grapes the wine is made from! Eric drove to St. Emilion and parked the car as no cars are allowed in the old town - as we walked through it we could see why. The streets were cobblestones and some were quite steep, and they were very narrow. Nearly every shop was a wine cave, followed by restaurants, but it was very quaint. He also put us through a "smell" test to prepare us for our wine tasting.
Our first stop was Valandraud winery, where the owner first started making wine in his garage, and he still does, as well as using it as the tasting room. His wines are so good they now have a Cru classification, and the best ones are very expensive. We tried a range of reds and they were very good, as were the 2 whites we tried.
The next stop was Le Chatelet winery, and it is a boutique winery which only sells to a few restaurants as well as private buyers. Each vintage is quite small, and some of the vintages we tried had yielded under 1000 bottles for that vintage. The caves the wines were stored in were built in Roman times and had a great atmosphere. The whole experience here was very memorable.
We then returned to Bordeaux where we had lunch before doing some more shopping, and then returned to our apartment to start packing again for our next stop in France. After dinner we went to see Bordeaux at night - this will be on a separate post.
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