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Itinerary
| Sun, Oct 12 | La Maison Colline, Maison Galhaud, L'Envers du Décor |
| Mon, Oct 13 | Château Gaudet, Château Cardinal-Villemaurine, Sous la Robe |
| Tues, Oct 14 | Saint-Émilion Underground / Monolithic Church, Clos de la Barbanne, Château de Ferrand, Château Clarisse |
| Wed, Oct 15 | La Maison Colline |
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| Through a stone gate into Saint-Émilion. |
Saint-Émilion is only about an hour's drive from Bordeaux so we kicked around in the morning to time our arrival for an afternoon check-in at the B&B La Maison Colline. Saint-Émilion is an old town that seems entirely made of stone. The narrow, stone streets are lined with stone walls and stone buildings.
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| Down and up the hill, Saint-Émilion is full of stone houses. |
We followed the given instructions for where to park. We weren't sure we were in the right place (hmmm, seems to be a theme of our travels) but there were many, many other cars parked so we did our best.
In fact, it was the ending of the La Fête des Vendanges. We probably picked a good time to come to miss the bulk of the crowds. In the morning, we would return to move the car to a less risky-looking spot.
We lugged our things through an old city gate and down the street to our lodging. Our host - I will anonymize him as Gaston since his name doesn't appear on the website or business card - met us and helped us get settled in to the "Bordeaux" room, one of three available. We were at the top of the house, up a normal staircase and then a steep, narrow one that reminded me of one in the first house I ever bought.
We gathered at the kitchen table where Gaston poured us a glasses of wine and gave us a tourist map of Saint-Émilion and marked it up as we talked, highlighting places that seemed interesting to us.
We were still carrying around our little cooler bag with the strong Cabrales cheese and some other items, and he let me stash it in the refrigerator. We shared some of a bottle of wine that we had brought, already opened, from Bordeaux. We offered to share the cheese but Gaston declined, saying he couldn't stand bleu cheeses. This, as they say in Reddit stories, will be important later.
We were only here for a couple days, and we didn't want to waste any time. We already had an evening wine tasting scheduled at Maison Galhaud. This was a recommendation from the sommelier at Wine Lab in Blacksburg, Virginia.
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| To get to the Galhaud tasting room, we descended this ramp through the stone tunnel. There was not a lot of signage to indicate that we were supposed to be there. The wine storage extends into quarried tunnels. |
I mentioned that the town was made of stone. But it is also built on stone. To get to the wine tasting room, we descended into a tunnel carved under the building. We later learned how these tunnels were left after quarrying the limestone that makes up so much of Bordeaux.
The tunnels are everywhere, and there is no such thing as "owning" a tunnel, for example under your building. You have the right to use whatever tunnels you can access through your property, regardless of other properties they might cross. Sometimes they may collapse and after that the section is not rebuilt but is deemed unsafe for future use.
When we arrived at Galhaud, a table of ladies was finishing up. After that, we were the only people there and we got a good education from the attendant (who I think was not the winemaker there but was a winemaker). We sampled several wines and got into a discussion about the terroir of the many small, mapped AOC regions. The conversation was casual and easy and quite enjoyable.
We decided that we might like wines from Pomerol. And why wouldn't we? These are the more rare and expensive wines of the region. I think he poured us a taste of one, and because they also had other wines available, we came away with a bottle. I think we also took a bottle of a Galhaud wine as well.
For dinner we had a reservation at L'Envers du D'Écor. We climbed the steep streets to reach it, taking advantage of the golden evening sun for a few pictures. I don't recall what we ate. Looking at the menu online didn't jog my memory, but I have a positive feeling about it. We did take a picture of the wine bottle, so this might be one to look for again sometime.
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| Remains of 13th century Domican convent walls. |
I didn't yet say much about our room. After dinner, we returned to watch our local football team and relax. The room had a sitting area with a table so we had some space to hang out.
The bed was in an alcove under the eaves and I was a little afraid of bonking my head if (haha, who am I kidding? when) I got up in the middle of the night. I am shorter so I took the inside side of the bed. To ready for bed, we took turns in the teeny, tiny bathroom.
I might sound like I am being negative, but everything was fine. The building is old, with uneven floors and odd walls. But it is authentic. The room was dark and quiet, and the bed was not great but comfy enough. It was priced affordably and over our stay we really enjoyed chatting with Gaston and learning about the town and the culture.
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| Some scenes from around town, including the King's Fountain laundry washing pool. |
| Garden in front of Château Cardinal-Villemaurine. |
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Our goal for this day was to see the town and visit wineries that we could walk to. But first we needed to get some breakfast.
Our lodging was a B&B but you had to request breakfast and there was a nominal fee. We had not reserved it, as we like to get up and out and try new places. But it turns out that there is not a lot available.
Observation: While the wine industry is of course huge in France, wine tourism is not developed the same way as in the US. It exists, of course, but without the commercial veneer you have much more the sense that you are in a working area. In exchange for that experience, you might find some amenities limited.
Climbing back up to the top of the town, we stepped into Glacier des Vignobles, an ice cream shop and bakery. We got our coffee and tea plus some croissants. But we were in the mood for a hot breakfast. I was trying to ask at the counter about it. I was relying on high school French plus a little Duolingo refresher.
The best I could come up with was basically, "Where can I eat an egg?" But the lady at the counter understood and directed us to the hotel down the street. We went to check it out and I think it either was not open or was more expensive and involved than we wanted.
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| Scenes from a wine shop in town. |
| The bold mirrored sculpture by Jean-François André lured us into the art show. |
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We made a lap around town, taking in city walls and gates, the convent, churches, and views of the surrounding countryside. At the north end of town, we arrived for our appointment at Château Gaudet.
Along the Rue Gaudet, one of the main streets of the town, we found an art show held in the historic building Salle des Domincains, now an event space. Artists were there showing their works, or creating works in progress. Each had a unique and impressive style.
We also stopped into a wine shop just to see what they had. Lots of labels, of course, some we visited, some we had heard of, and plenty that were new to us. We resisted buying, as we were nearing the end of our trip and already had the limit of what we could either drink or carry home.
We were greeted and shown in to a garden courtyard where we joined two other American couples who were traveling together. After a bit, the winemaker appeared to host us on a tour and tasting.
According to the website, the family has been making wines there for seven generations. I don't recall if we picked up any new knowledge from the tour, but I do remember a couple tidbits from the tasting.
One of our host's comments was to ensure the wine glass is perfectly clean. This is a fair point. While glasses generally look clean, in my experience, they can still have a bit of dishwasher taste to them.
He also talked about assessing a wine, for example, in a restaurant. We had learned to smell the cork, smell the wine, look at the color, etc. And I don't remember exactly how we got on this topic, maybe talking about terroir, wine variance, and what constitutes a flaw. But I distinctly can hear him saying the way to tell the server or somm that you think the wine might not be good was to say "Are you sure, sir?"
We did not buy any bottles here and our visit was ended brusquely. Our host was needed for the next tour, who were already seated in the garden where we had started. He made us feel like a burden, but I can also sympathize. I expect that a lot of wine makers also must become experts in hospitality, which can be uninteresting and unpleasant.
Observation: As I was reviewing photos to write this, I found a picture of some subtle street art. Just then I realized that there was no graffiti anywhere in town. Bordeaux also, while it had plenty of steet art - and some of it possibly guerilla - had relatively little tagging and graffiti as well.
We did have another tasting booked, but we had some time to kill and we were a bit hungry. We found Fromagerie La Moineaudière, a meat and cheese shop that also made sandwiches. We joined the line and admired the contents of the coolers and deli cases while we waited our turn.
We got sandwiches with Bayonne ham, the French Basque counterpart of Italy's prosciutto or Spain's jamón Ibérico. We took them back to our lodging to eat.
The house has a little courtyard patio with a table and a couple chairs, so we asked if we could eat outside. The answer was yes, but then we felt bad because Gaston then set everything up nicely for us, with a tablecloth and chair cushions. It was much more than we expected.
Photographic evidence also shows that we enjoyed glasses of Moulin-Galhaud during our break as well.
Our afternoon wine tasting was back on the north end of town, at Château Cardinal-Villemaurine. The winemaking family here are relative newcomers to the scene, having acquired the winery in 2018.
We had a very nice tour with Christine. From her, we got a more in-depth understanding of the level of regulation of vineyard management required to produce wine with these AOC appellations.
All the grapes must be grown at the site of the winery (I believe I recall this). We already knew about restrictions on watering and fertilizer use. But there are also rules impacting planting density and pruning and the average age of the vines (again, I think she told us these things). For context, older vines generally produce the highest quality but lowest quantity of fruit, so careful thought goes into the decision to rip them out and replace them.
The wines here are made in new and old styles. The facility is lovely and was impeccably clean. We had a great tour through her caves.
And, this was one of the few places where we bought wine and had it shipped home. Hmmm, wonder if we have a bottle of it left right now...
For the evening, we tried to catch some golden hour photographs of the town. We climbed up a bit of a ridge on the western side of town, and turned east to capture the King's Tower and the church spire.
We walked some more, through winding, hilly streets of houses and garages cut directly into the stone hillside. I don't think we saw any people on our walk.
We headed toward Sous la Robe (sorry, that's an instagram link), a wine bar we had learned of, possibly from our B&B host. It's very small but packed with a great selection of bottles to sample and a knowledgeable keeper pouring them.
He found us several wines that he thought we would like, and he was right! He also introduced us to Clos de la Barbanne, operated by an American expat. We made note of this for our next day's plan to drive out of town for some tastings.
| The monolithic church spire rises over the town in the evening light. |
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| Garage carved into the stone cliffs. | |
| Wine lineup at Sous la Robe. |
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| Doors to the monolithic church. This is not the tour entry, however.. |
For this day we had some events scheduled for the afternoon, but we had some time to spend in town for the morning. The previous day, we had gotten tickets to the "underground" tour at the Monolithic Church.
We had been through several wine caves under various wineries in town. But this place makes you see the scale of the quarrying work that was done here. The tour is on private property and photos are not allowed through all parts.
The tour starts with a visit to the Chapelle de la Trinité, adjacent to the monolithic church. Constructed before the 14th century, the building endured uses as a church of course, but also as a factory and a furnace for barrel making (and maybe a barracks?).
Then we walked across the courtyard and entered the monolithic church. From the 11th century, this was carved from the limestone cliff the town is built against. The spaces were extracted, leaving thin columns that today have some bracing. There were some workers inside setting up for a private event or maybe for a photography shoot.
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| Remains of the King's Tower. |
The chapel and church are privately owned and photography is not allowed. You can find some photos on the official sites, however.
We had an appointment for a wine blending class about 10 minutes drive from town. We showed up a little early, to start on time. But no one seemed to be there.
Se we regrouped and made a call over to Clos de la Barbanne to see if we could come. This was a winemaker we had learned of the previous evening at Sous la Robe. They told us we could come on over for a tasting, so we did.
We were greeted by Patrick, an ex-techie from California who now geeks out on right-bank Bordeaux wine making. We had a great chat while we tasted his offerings. Right-bank wines are more merlot-centric and we have not explored these as much, typically preferring cabernet sauvignon. But we liked these and ordered bottles to be shipped home.
We were still talking when we got a call from the blending class, wondering where we were. So we high-tailed it back over there. Luckily it was just minutes away. Perhaps they had been having lunch when we came for our appointment. I don't remember what the initial mix-up was.
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| Wine barrels and urn at Château de Ferrand. |
Thus started our tour and blending class at Château de Ferrand. Our host, Alex, greeted us graciously and we spent some time outside at the vineyard edge discussing viticulture and terroir.
Then we went indoors for the private (surprisingly) class. Alex set us up with our supplies of two merlots, an older one and a younger one, and a young cabernet franc. We tasted them separately as he told us the characteristics to notice in each wine. Then we set to blending them. They interact in interesting ways - the blending does not necessarily result in a merging the characteristics, but sometimes a new, unexpected result.
Blending, to us, is hard. We thought the older merlot, which seemed the best on its own, should be the primary component of the finished wine. But this didn't turn out to be true. I think neither of us came up with the wine we would have most wanted.
One thing I would like to learn, and maybe no one can teach except experience, is how to taste a wine and know how much time it would need to age in bottle to improve or be "ready." It's impossible to taste the original and the aged side by side, or to remember how one tasted when the next bottle of it is opened years later.
There are so many variables in wine making. Even if you took grapes from the exact same vines, the difference in weather makes them not the same. There there is ripeness at harvest, blending of the juices, time in skin contact, time in oak, age and char of the barrels, other fermenting materials, temperature, residual sugar, then blending, and more.
So many knobs to turn. No wonder this is such a fascinating avocation and hobby! I'd say this was one of the highlights of the trip.
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| I can't image driving delivery on the steep and narrow streets. Maybe most orders are for farther out of town. |
Our final winery experience of the trip was to be at Château Clarisse in nearby Puisseguin. Through the website, we had signed up and paid for a barrel tasting. Despite our late start in the blending class, we were able to arrive on time for this appointment. Yet they were surprised by our arrival and did not have anyone there to give a tasting in English.
However, they were kindly accommodating and we got along well enough. We did not have the barrel tasting but we did get to sample the wines, which were nice. At the end, they located our reservation and tried to refund the different in price. I think we just applied the difference to a bottle purchase and called it a day.
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| Farewell to La Maison Colline and Saint-Émilion. |
For our final morning in Saint-Émilion, we had requested to have the breakfast part of the B&B. Gaston joined us and we had a final conversation before we headed back to Bordeaux. We had enjoyed several afternoon chats and glasses of wine throughout our stay.
We very much enjoyed our stay and Gaston's company. So I regret to admit that I forgot my cooler bag and stinky Cabrales cheese - that he hates - in his refrigerator when we left!
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| Vineyard at the edge of town. |
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