WWOOF and more

Early Sunday morning, Katie and I took the train to Castillion, which is about a 50 minutes East of Bordeaux. We had contacted a local organic winery to see if we could provide them with free labor in exchange for knowledge about making wine and growing grapes. They are part of a group known as WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms). Basically, the idea is to work on the farm 4-6 hours/day in exchange for food and housing. Cool idea! Katie and I are interested in doing this over the summer: travel around France, learn more about growing grapes and winemaking, as well as organic farming methods for when we eventually have our own garden.

Chateau Brandeau

The owners, Antony "Fearn" King & Andrea Gray with their dogs. They were very nice and welcoming to us.

The tasks that we had helped with today were moving firewood for the furnace inside as well as transporting baby lambs into the vinyard. Pictured above is the vineyard and their sheep/lambs. Afterwards, Fearn showed us their vineyard and their vine pruning method and process that we will probably help with in the future. He also told us about different regulations that they must follow to put the Côte de Castillon and the agriculture biologique label on the bottle. Next, we headed to the celler where we talked about the tools for winemaking, the process and more.

Needless to say we were hungry after all of this. Andrea had been working on an amazing meal inside includeing roasted duck, sauteed vegetables, and a walnut and blue cheese salad. We actually helped break the walnuts from their shell for the salad. They had collected the walnuts from a forest near their house. Needless to say it was all good. Pictured above is the duck on the left and desert of pinnapple upside down cake on the right.

With lunch, we had some of their 2005 Chateau Brandeau, a mix of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes.

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Upon returning home Katie and I headed downtown to get some Christmas shopping done. Here are some random pictures.

This place must be good!! Look at that line to get in. Every night that Katie and I are out and about we see the same size line waiting to get in the doors.

Picture of the Marché de Noël. Little huts with vendors.

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After a long day, we headed home to make some dinner.

Proof that butter, garlic and parsley can make anything taste good. Here is escargot packed with this combination. You can buy them in the freezer section of the supermarket. Just put it in the oven for 10 minutes and they are ready to be eaten.

Délices de saumon aux noix de Saint Jacques