It was the Portes Ouvertes (open doors) weekend that we had been waiting for! The Médoc is known for some of the best wines of Bordeaux. Katie and I knew where we wanted to go first - Pauillac. The small sub-region of the Médoc has 4 out of the 5 Grand Cru Classé (first growths... aka top wines of Bordeaux, or if you ask the French, of the world (do they make wine outside of France?!?!)) from the 1855 classification of Médoc. Although none of the first growths had open doors, other classified growths were having tastings.
Our new investment and soon to be home for the summer. This is the ultralight tent that we picked up less than a week ago. The weekend was supposed to be beautiful, which it was, so we decided to try out the new tent and sleeping bags.
Did you buy tickets? Katie was pumped to camp.
The campsite was a little more city-style than Montana-style. They had boules (bocchi ball) that you could play so Katie and I played our first game here in France.
The game was called on account of hunger for dinner.
The next morning, we got up, had some breakfast, and started out on foot walking by some famous wineries near the campsite. Here is first growth Château Latour. The best vineyards in the Médoc are said to be the ones that you can see the river from. Latour definitely fits the bill.
Someday I will taste it... someday.
As Latour is next to the river, the next château inland is Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande. It basically shares the same plot of land as Latour. We had their second wine on Valentine's day (see April 14th blog) and absolutely loved it. (second wine means less expensive, supposedly less quality, but from a fantastic winery, it's an affordable way to get a sense of their style) I would like to taste their first wine and then their second to compare.
Just accross the street is Château Pichon Longueville. A château that looks like it is out of a fairy tale; my queen in front of it.
Me wishing I had put on some sunglasses.
The pond in front of Château Pichon Longueville and the entrance to the chai, I think
Man, I got a good looking wife.
Another side of the building at Château Pichon Longueville. Thought it was a cool design and made cooler with the vines.
The buds on the vine are just starting to bloom.
Outside of the Lynch-Bages vineyard.
Our first stop - Château Lynch-Bages, a 5th growth that we read has been making exceptional quality wine well above their 5th growth status.
Big Business - I think that this machine could finish in one hour what would take us all day at Chateau Ross, only bottling at Chateau Ross had some love and is a heck of a lot more fun!
The cellar room - The oak barrels smelled so good.
The old oak fermentation tanks that are no longer used but were kept for historical purposes.
Up above, here are the tops of the tanks pictured above in the fermentation room. They used gravity-flow system in the winemaking, which is supposedly more gentle on the grapes.
After the tour, it was time to taste.
2004 Lynch-Bages
Later we met up with Cindy and Philip. Due to some unexpected complications with crossing the Gironde River to get to the other side for a dinner/festival, we ended up taking a ferry! (who knew there wasn't a bridge? where there's a river, there's a bridge, right? Apparently Élodie knew, proving it pays to ask a local in advance....)
On the other side of the river there was a huge wine festival similar to Nashville's Taste of Tennessee....only this one took place in an old citadel/castle/fortress area...and only cost 4 € instead of 15 or more dollars.
the entrance
inside one of the four or five tasting rooms
they had an exhibit on barrel-making. here they are showing the toasting process.
local art
side view of the citadel...for real, this was amazing! i mean, really! we tasted wine here...
we reallz enjoyed their red that we tasted (and bought) and had their wine at the dinner/spectacle that evening
unfortunately, the dinner left much to be desired. the dessert, however, was rather fabulous.
Chateau Camensac.
very cool. all stone walls with black iron accents
verrrrry tasty wine
katie pretty much fell in love with this place, deciding our future winery would be modeled after this place!
leading to the chais of Lafite Rothschild, first growth of the Médoc. definitely NOT doing a tasting.
we took a little walk-around, just to enjoy the gardens
our last stop for the weekend. very tasty wine, very informative visit, overall, a great way to finish off our last Portes Ouvertes of the Bordeaux region
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