Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
I'm sure all of you know myself and Alich love good red wine! So we took the train down to Bordeaux (the heart of French red wine), with one aim: to taste and learn more about these wines.
We stayed in Christophe's home through Airbnb, it was so nice to stay with a local once again. Bordeaux is a beautiful town on the banks of the Garone river, the town is being cleaned up and geared for tourists since their new governor took over. The mode of transport in town is trams and we absolutely loved it! It is not underground, so you get to see the city but its is never stuck in traffic like the busses!
On the day we arrived, we learnt that is was The Medoc and Haute-Medoc wine regions' open door weekend, so we immediately took the bus to the only chateau we could reach without having our own car, Chateau Le Taillan. It was a beautiful old winery run by the family for many decades. We did the tour, but all was in French!! The lovely wine tasting afterwards made up for it! Back in town the state fair was on the go, many rides games and lovely "kermis kosse"! We rode the ferris wheel but was a bit scared of the roller coasters, it looked a bit old and rusty!! Anyway we had some 'spook asem' and 'toffie appels'!
The next day we arranged a guided tour (and made sure it was in English!) to Saint Emillion, a very well-known wine region of Bordeaux, it is also a beautiful old medieval town! We learnt a lot on this tour and was every cent worth it!
As the French say: why not complicate things? Well you definitely need a course or tour to try and understand french wine. Here is a short crash course: French wine is labeled on were it comes from and not according to which grape/blend. Every region is known for a certain character wine. Bordeaux wines is a blend between cabernet sauvignon, merlot, petit verdot and cabernet franc. There are over 14000 chateaus in the region of Bordeaux. This is now were it gets complicated: each chateau/wine makery then gets graded according to standard over the past 10 years. Premier grand cru being the best (and most expensive), then grand cru and then just Bordeaux. The wine year also plays a very important part in French wine as they may not water the vines, thus each year differs a lot. But enough now about the wine club lecture! What about the drinking?!!
Our first stop in St Emilion was at a wine boutique where we tried wines of 6 different wine regions and loved them all! We also bought 2 bottels for the cellar but will only be ready in 5 years time. (Sorry vriende, julle sal maar moet wag!) Our next stop was at Chateau Aubersac. A small estate with wonderful wine. The tourguide was also the owner. She gave us a tour in the vineyard and explained the wine making process. They really go for the quality rather than quantity. We tasted 3 wines, each with different cheeses. Afterwards she poured us some more wine and we chatted while finishing the cheeses. It is that personal touch that made the experience so special.
The afternoon we took another bus to visit Chateau Pope Clamente. This was really an awesome castle/winery. Once belonging to a Pope Clamente, it is the only chateau with a small church inside the cellar. Inside the cellar there is bottles and bottles of vintage wines busy aging. Here it is not uncommon to see a 1990 year or even older. And they promise it will still be great! All under perfect storing conditions. These come at a very expensive price though. At the tasting we tasted some of the best French wine, really full bodied big wines! After all these tastings it was time for a good dinner! ( good food, good wine and the best company!) It was an amazing privilege to taste and drink french wine in Bordeaux. May we age one day just as well as these good wines!
Every bottle of Champagne is a reason to celebrate! So after Bordeaux, we took the fast train up to Reims in the Champagne district . Champagne is a province in France and for a champagne to be called 'Champagne' it must come from the province of Champagne!
We stayed at Aymeric's home stay. A very friendly guy but with a unfriendly cat. It would just stare at you ready to pounce (it acutely tried to scratch me but I was to quick for its paw!) That afternoon we booked a tour to go and taste and see the region. Our tour guide spoke some poor english but we managed to figure out what this lovely bubbly drink is all about. First we stopped to see and help prune the vineyards as it was it was almost spring. It is a beautiful countryside with small towns in between the vineyards. Our first tasting was at a small family run champagne house. They only have 7 hectares of grapes and do the pressing, first and second fermentation, bottling and aging on the family residence. The daughter gave us the tasting and it was really great! Our next tasting was also family run but a little bigger, 16 hectares. While we were there they were busy with bottling for the second fermentation. Alecha's new dream job is optimizing the bottlenecks of the champagne making process! Here we tasted all the rose champers. One was made by adding some red wine and the other by mixing the wine with the grape skins.
That evening we booked a small smart restaurant, number 1 on Tripadvisor: L'Alambic. We would never have found this place were it not for Tripadvisor. It went down small steps into what looks like a typical champagne cave. We ate some of the best French cuisine ever. Alecha had the famous 'foie gras' and I had some pigeon (made medium rare). This was really one of our best meals of the trip!
Time for another wine club lecture! Not all bubbly drinks are champagne, in South Africa we have the sweet JC LE Roux which is sweet wine with co2 injected into it to cause the bubbles, we also have mcc( method cap classic) like Pongraz which is also a dry wine almost made like champagne but not matured as long. They basically take the grapes and then ferment them to make 'wine' known as the first fermentation. This wine is then put into the bottle with yeast cells and a cap is put on the bottle. The yeast ferments and in the process more alcohol and bubbles form. This produce a dry wine as all the sugar is fermented into alcohol. This is then stored for a minimum of 2 years. In Champagne they have chalky soil and underneath the surface, in each cellar they have chalk tunnels where they store these bottles, this is also known as caves. Because it is so deep the temperature is always constant around 12 degrees. Once ready, the bottle is turned each day 180' around and 5' up. Till the bottle lies on its head (in a special rack) then the top part is frozen and all the yeast cells lying on the bottom is removed and the cork is inserted. Then its time to Cheers!!
We did 3 big champagne houses during our stay: Mumm, Pommery and Moet Chandon. As Champagne is a drink of luxury and celebration these big Champagne houses each has its own style of marketing success and wealth. This you can see when you visit the cellars. At each of these houses you have to do the tour and only then get to taste. That's why we know this story above by heart! At Mumm we had a lovely tasting as we were the only people there. Mumm is also the Formula 1 champagne! Can't believe they spray out half the bottle, it is really expensive and tastes like more!! Pommery had a lovely cellar and caves, the first owner madam Pommery decided to decorate these caves with art work! Really amazing. At Moet and Chandon, well, we were just amazed at the size, they have 28km of tunnels/caves where they store the bottels for at least 3 years. You will get lost inside all those tunnels. Here we tried the famous Dom Perignon.
"I only drink champagne when I'm happy and when I'm sad.
Sometimes I drink it when I'm alone.
When I have company I consider it obligatory.
I trifle with it if I'm not in a hurry and drink it when I am, otherwise I never touch the stuff unless I am thirsty."
― Madame Bollinger
- comments