A Lesson in Classic Wine Making and Tasting 7/28/08

Wallet: Day 22
Shorts and T-Shirt

I woke up to crashing lightning and thunder from outside. Bordeaux is so humid they regularly have the lightning and thunder storms Boston is known for. We clearly were not heading to the beach so we got ready for a day of wine tasting.

Our drive out to the Chateaus was substantially more comfortable considering we had slightly bigger car and no luggage. The drive winded through what seemed like endless vineyards, it was incredible. We stopped by an amazing Chateau and took a few pictures. The landscape of this area of France is truly amazing.

We made it to a small town called Saint-Emilion, made up of cobble stone streets and more wine stores than you could count. The narrow streets reminded me of pictures I have seen of Italy, something I will hopefully get a chance to see later in this trip.

We ate lunch in the town where Coco looked through a tourism book and spotted a Chateau about 20 minutes away. The picture in the book made it look like massive castle. Coco called and reserved us spots on the tour a few hours away. Once done with lunch, we made our way to Chateau de La Riviere. The setting of this Chateau was nothing short of epic, sitting atop a hill, overlooking the vineyards where the grapes come from. It has all the making of a castle, complete with towers. We started the tour and learn that the Chateau has 6 acres of wine cellars beneath the castle. The guide led us down to the old stone quarry where over 1 million bottles are stored, dating back all the way to 1962. They have barrels ad bottles ranging up to 15 liters! The bottles were MASSIVE. The cool and moist atmosphere down in the quarry led to some mushroom growth on the bottles. The guide informed us that it doesn’t affect the wine but it was a little unnerving.

Next, of course, was the wine tasting. We tried the incredible wines they produced right there and felt the need to buy a few bottles for ourselves. Just as we were set to leave the rain and lightning began. It was amazing to watch the lightning in the valley from atop the hill. On our way home, everyone passed out except Coco, she was stuck driving. We got home and we were all treated to another amazing meal consisting of rabbit and fresh mashed potatoes. No one had any leftovers on their plates. We took a few more 5 liter jugs of wine out and polished them off. The champagne got bought out around 4 AM. What a crazy night it became, full of amazing laughs. So hopefully, it is off to the beach tomorrow.