Up with the morning, and gone with the grogginess. Gabrielle and Thomas set the table in their living room for breakfast. Our hosts for the weekend, Gabrielle a psychologist and Thomas a rocket scientist (literally!), were so incredibly kind. They were engaging and interesting, and had an ideal French life. We ate formally....on a breakfast on a card table in a living room. LOVED IT!! It was clear the importance of eating as a unit, and this was a quality about the two I wanted to remember. They drank their coffee from a french press, that funny enough, isn’t actually from France. The French typically drink espresso, and this is such a fine grain of ground, that it actually slips through the metal mesh of the press so it’s similar to drinking sludge.
I enjoy sludge coffee (the thicker, stronger, more coffee’esqe’ the better). There was a white bag in the middle of the table, and I wondered what breakfast held. Being a guest in someone’s house makes you subject to certain stipulations. Primarily, they are kind enough to try and impress you, so you better be kind enough to fully receive their impressions, which may include eating something that might not be your first choice (duck liver, for instance). Silly me, of course not for breakfast. Thomas had snuck out in the early morning, and went to the best pastry bakery near their home. We had fresh croissants, both chocolate filled and regular, that’s richness melted in your mouth. Crunch on the outside and soft on the inside, this might have been the best croissant I’d ever had.
The night before Erik had mentioned wanting to visit an English bookstore. Gabrielle must’ve remembered that, because it was now incorporated into our daily plan.. which included, WINE TASTING AT CASTLES. This was WAY out of our budget by about 100 euro a tasting, so when we found out that certain wineries were doing promotion and advertising castle, vineyard, and wine making tours, we were ALL in. I could hardly sit still. The one thing I didn’t think we’d be able to do in Bordeaux was now a reality… I couldn’t get over that this was my life!! And momentarily, thought the hours would last forever in between the present and our arrival at my palace in a parallel life.
Thomas and Gabrielle took us to a fresh market near their house where they picked up meat and vegetables. I was busy taking pictures - I got over being the ‘tourist’ a long time ago- and Thomas was ordering meat. I was taking pictures of this near make shift butchery, as it was just set up there on a daily basis. Thomas laughed in French, and said yes, she’s American. The butcher spoke to me in Frenglish, and requested I come back behind the counter. I think my smile hit my ears. I’D LOVE TO! He gave me his apron, his knife, and told Erik to take our picture. So here I am, irony and all, posing with a French butcher over his freshly slaughtered pigs. I’m telling you, the French are wonderful people. After this, Thomas told me how lucky I was, and that isn’t an ordinary event. I felt lucky, for just a moment, I was on the other side of the market, in a life that was so different from my own.
We went to the English book store, which surprised me how much I missed browsing through books in a language I understood. Everything seemed to scream, Take me! Pick me! Read me!, but I figured that with the conversion rate and the fact the books were new, it would probably be a luxury I couldn’t justify. I was wrong! Point 84 for the French. I found a book! A book I’ve been wanting to read for MONTHS. Not only that, it’s a French book, and a classic. How unbelievably fitting that I would find The Count of Monte Cristo in France, in an English bookstore, for FOUR euro. Yup, bought. Mine. SCORE.
Lunch was served at Gabrielle and Thomas’ around 2. We assembled the card table, the water bottle (they all serve their water out of wine shaped bottles, you don’t just fill your water in the sink) and got our plates ready. We had a French appetizer of ham mixed with fraguea(?) (fattened duck liver) and a fresh loaf of bread from the bakery I mentioned earlier. The liver is kind of hard for me to swallow, but again rule number one of being a guest. Receive all impressions with grace.. so down the tube went the fattened duck liver. Hard swallow, and a smile. I should mention that I am 100% for trying foods of a different culture. I fully understand its importance, and actually enjoy it. However, the liver had a certain consistency that was so rich it kind of coated the roof of your mouth and the back of your esophagus. Because the fargua was so rich in fats, it was nearly impermeable to liquids.. making any amount of water drinking for rinsing purpose entirely futile.
We made it to the first castle around 3 p.m. This castle was actually right in the city of Bordeaux, which didn’t exaclty fit my mental imagery of castles accompanied by vast landscapes of countryside. We were given a tour of this specific Chateau (castle) in French, with Gabrielle and Thomas translating. They showed us their fermenting process, as well as the older vines and newer ones. The wine tried was quite good. If this was the only stop we would’ve made, I think content would’ve been an understatement. However, our castle touring was far from over. We went to another castle about 5 miles further out, and this one was real. It had a lot more countryside and the property was HUGE. The castle sat with 3 pillars in all its glory on the edge of the property, while stone buildings lined the front like a fence. This was the ‘for the kings’ winey, and we were well aware of the going rate of even a bottling tour (98 euro). The whole place was kept with such care. The shrubs were all equally cut and shaped, with perfect symmetry in every direction. The first part of the tour started in front of the Chateau, where the guide explained that the property had been around since 1250. A small stain glass pavilion sat on the edge of the property near the Chateau. She explained that the new owner, who had over 34 wineries world wide, bought this pavilion and had it brought to the property. It was created by the same person who made the Eiffel tower. DEAD SERIOUS. We then went into the churning room. There were 20 barrels 8 feet tall by 6 feet wide. At this praticular winery they MANUALLY ‘stomped’ the grapes in these barells each needing a different temperature. They created over 15,000 bottles of white a year, and around 150,000 of reds. The names of the wine, including their handlers, were written on the barrels to ensure consistency and quality among each batch. We went upstairs where we were able to see the long convection tables where people hand picked through the grapes. Next was the fermenting room, which was unreal. There were hundreds of barells, all labeled in a very hot room. The room was temperature contolled, in addition to each of the barells having their own exact temperature. I could go on and on about all of the interesting things we learned about wines, and the importance of tradition.
But, I know the good part as well as anyone else, the tasting. We were able to try two different reds. One was from a 2007 57euro bottle, which I actually perfered. It was their most famous bottle, as well as their best seller. This praticular vineyard sold their wine internatinoally and hearing the statistics gave me a ‘taste’ of what I was tasting. For the grand finale, they pulled out their top tier red. For 189 euro, you too can own a car payment in a bottle. I will say it tasted AMAZING, and while my wine tasting pallet isn’t advanced enough to tell you all of the different tastes, I do know I had a great 20 dollar swish of wine. What really blew my mind was the spit bucket, that people ACTUALLY USED. How in the world can you spit out a wine that costs 20 dollars a taste?!?!?!? You must be out of your mind!!!!
Did you know?
% of sulfates equates to size of headache morning after
You are suppose to breath in as you taste
ALWAYS smell the wine before swirling, it is a unique scent that can ONLY be smelt prior to ‘oxygenizing’ the wine with a swirl..
‘Click’ your tongue during the taste while inhaling, it is suppose to pronounce the natural flavors of the wine
When a barell is used more than once, it changes the taste of the wine
Days of sun is the ultimate determinant of a given year of wine
2009 will be a phenomenal year for Bordeaux wine due to the very dry summer they had
As we were driving away I couldn’t believe the experience I just had. I had never anticipated being able to do something like this, and was truly grateful. Gabrielle and Thomas really outdid themselves. When we got back to their place Thomas had his friend Julienne over. We all ate dinner around the coffee table and talked wine. While I am not, and never was, a wine connoisseur, for one day I was able to be an active participant in the truest Bordeaux pastime, and boy did it leave a good taste in my mouth.
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