Bordeaux Part 3/3

Planning trips is stressful. As I was researching where to go and what to do it was hard to decide where to start and figure out what to do. However I knew early on that St. Emilion would either be a good place to stay or at the very least a good place to visit. I found a tour guide who is also a wine grower in St. Emilion and she offered a variety of tours, from an organic wine tour, to a wine/food pairing class, to a tour of the city including visiting some wineries. I finally decided on the tour of the Medoc knowing Dad would really want to see that part. Having a completely wine focused day I settled on the St. Emilion tour which I knew would be right up Mom's alley. While the day in the Medoc was amazing, I think the day in St. Emilion was the favorite all around. If anyone wants to plan a trip in Bordeaux, call me I have good recommendations!

We met Caroline, our tour guide, outside the tourist office and she started the day at the top of the church tower to provide the best views of the region and the city while giving us a little historical background. This was a very charming city (better than the city of Bordeaux) and home to the largest underground monolithic church in Europe. Monolithic=carved entirely out of one piece of stone, rather than being built up with many stones. the Church tower was built later above the monolithic church. Unfortunately, no photos were allowed underground, but it was impressive.

In the Medoc there is the 1855 Napoleonic Classification which so kindly overlooked every other region in Bordeaux. Some areas remain unclassified while others have come up with classifications of their own. In St. Emilion the first classification was made in 1955, and it is reviewed and updated every ten years. The classifications here are a bit easier to determine. There are the 1st (Premiere) Grand Cru Classes. These are divided in two groups A and B. There are only two wineries in group A (one being Cheval Blanc from Sideways) and another 13 or so in group B. Then there are the Grand Cru Classes. There are about 45 wineries or so. So when you have a Grand Cru Classe from St. Emilion you are drinking wine from one of the top 60 wineries (and there are hundreds of wineries, so you are doing pretty good). Below that is Grand Cru, also not bad. Given that these are updated more frequently it seems to make a little more sense and be a better guarantee of quality, although there is a certain degree of politics that goes into the rankings here as in anywhere.

Leaving the clocktower, he headed to the cellars of Chateau Gaudet. You would never imagine the nondescript door in the middle of the city opened up to a wonderful old home with a lovely garden and extensive wine cellars. The Gaudet winery has been in the same family since the 1860s and is named for the lawyer who lived here during the French Revolution. Being somewhat of a target, he hid in his cellars below the city until he was eventually beheaded and guillotined. Today the cellars are crammed with wine bottles in every corner and include the private collection of the owner, although he preferred we didn't take pictures of that area. The walls of the cellars even have a drawing that has been dated to the revolutionary period in France.

The wineries of St. Emilion typically make up only a tenth of the acreage of the huge Chateaux of the Medoc. While most of the vineyards of the Medoc are owned by investors and corporations, a great deal of the wineries in St. Emilion are small and family owned, many for centuries. The properties are thus a bit more rustic, and the methods used a bit more traditional and small scale, but it only adds to the charm.

We tasted the 2005 as well at the 2007 vintages of the Chateau Gaudet. The winery is a Grand Cru Classe, so among the top 60 wineries in the appellation. Both wines were lovely, and for a much better price than any of the wines of the Medoc. Like the others we tasted, the 2007 was smooth enough to drink already, while the 2005 will age very well. I bought a bottle of the 2003 vintage, but I don't plan to drink it too soon...

Several other people toured this winery with us, and being the small world that it is I met a girl who is moving to Portland about a month after me, so she gave me her number. Funny how you meet people in the most random places. She was there with a coworker, they work for Trek Tours and are following the Tour de France this year, so Dad was very excited to talk to them about it. (We are going to a stage on Sunday and another on Tuesday).

After a very nice lunch we went outside the city to visit another Chateau, this time another organic vineyard. Our tour guide Caroline (herself a biodynamic grower) had actually never been to this winery. We had probably the nicest tour of the trip here at Chateau Coutet. Xavier (grower and winemaker) greeted us outside and we walked all over the vineyards. He talked all about the history, the land, the methods, the family. This vineyard has been in his family for over 400 years. It has never in its history been sprayed with herbicides or pesticides, a truly rare thing to find. Because of this, the land still has flowers from the Roman period, which have died nearly everywhere else as they are sensitive to the pesticides. He himself did not takeover the Chateau until recently (I think its been about ten years?). As me mentioned, due to the politics of the system, his winery was downgraded from a Grand Cru Classe to a Grand Cru in the 1985 classification. He feels this is mostly in part to the fact that the Chateau itself has not been well kept up, and there is a certain image to uphold to maintain classification. He has made it his goal to restore the Chateau to the Grand Cru Classe in the 2016 classification.

As we walked around the property, we ate organic apricots from his tree, viewed his favorite hunting spot, and he showed us an old well he recently discovered on his property that was built by the Romans. He also pointed out the land of his neighbors (who regularly spray their grapes) and showed us the difference in the earth beneath the conventional vs organic vines. He discussed the different soils of his terroir as he is located on a hill and the soils change from the foot of the hill to the plateau above. Each plot of land has a name, and his property has beautiful trees which he feels contributes to the terroir and will not cut down despite the fact that another grower might simply get rid of them to plant more vines.

We tasted his 2006 vintage - it took him awhile to find the corkscrew because his daughter had a birthday party the night before! Being demoted from Grand Cru Classe meant his prices were even better despite the fact that the wine was of high quality, so I also got a bottle here of the 2005 vintage (which Xavier said was an excellent choice) but again I think it is one to hold on to for awhile. I read the review from Wine Spectator (90 pts) which said it could be aged 50-75 years, but I don't think I'll wait quite that long...

Our guide Caroline left us with a bottle of her wine from 2006, and we enjoyed a beautiful evening in St. Emilion. We had dinner in the square and toured the underground church before heading back to the Chateau Bellevue where we stayed. All in all, it was a great trip, with good food and good wine. Stressful planning aside, it paid off. I don't think we could have asked for a better weekend. I'm ready to go back already......

A few more photos: