Bordeaux, Aquitaine, France
Monday, August 30, 2010
Ok so we get to
Cognac and realise that we do not have a clue about where to start the wine tastings, where the wine areas are, how to organise the tours, etc. I thought that driving down to bordeaux that we would drop into a few wineries along the way but because we didnt know where the wine region started and finished we wound up driving to bordeaux. Fortunately in bordeaux the tourist office pointed us in the right direction and set up some wine tastings for us for the next couple of days.
Bordeaux is a nice place but a bastard to get around in a car. The next day we headed off to St Emillion and Pommerol in the North east of Bordeaux. This was predominantly merlot based wine (80 to 90 %) with Cabernet Savingnon and Cabernet Frank as the rest. The next day we headed off to the North West of
Bordeaux to the Medoc and Pauliac where Chateu Lefitte & Mouton are. We couldnt get into these two as you have to book a fair way in advance but we got into another couple here and they mainly blend the same grapes but predominantñy Cabernet Sauvignon from 50 to 80 %. There are a truck load of rules in the wine areas (appelations) like you can´t irrigate the grapes. There must be a blend of at least two grapes. You can pretty much only use the oak barrels and blending to flavour the wines. Eggs are used to clarify it and sulphur to sterilise the equipment during the process.
