Wine country

Today was amazing! Day two in Bordeaux and now we were off to the Saint Émilion region. After a solid night of sleep and a great breakfast our guide came to pick us up at the hotel for a private tour. Our first stop was this spectacular little village called Saint Emilio. Carved into the limestone plateau, this quaint village housed some impressive history. It’s main church was originally built in the 5th century and underwent centuries of war, revolution, hardship, and prosperity.  This was apparent in the stonework of the church itself from beheaded and chiseled statues to bullet riddled walls to various turn of the century architectural components seemingly haphazardly thrown together.  This was the France I’d envisioned; small ancient stone and wooden villages overlooking vast fields of grapevines ripe and ready for harvest and dotted with elegant chateaus.  It was also the first day of school so this enchanted village felt like a lively and bustling day for any Frenchman.  Our guide was great and let us in on the scandals involving the wine tier system and when corruption of the vineyards.  Before setting out to our first tasting we explored a caved wine cellar brimming with recently and not so recently bottled wine.  The caves were dark, damp, and cool with bottles that appeared hundreds of years old. Though most were only a few years old but the conditions in the cave led to their withered appearance. 

Next we visited our first vineyard. We were a little disappointed that they don’t take us to multiple wine tasting but apparently that is the culture and they would rather you experience their vineyards in a more comprehensive way in order to truly appreciate their wines. Also, their tours are spectacular! They have props, 4D experiences, interactive machinery and all of this is presented in a very casual and engaging manner.  Château Fleur Cardinale was our first stop and FINALLY! Spectacular wines! Emily and I nearly fell out of our chairs when we tasted these wines. The actual tasting room was designed by the family to make the tasting a relaxing and enjoyable environment and we soaked up the vinyl records, comfortable couches, and eclectic art work as we were swooned by the luscious libations. We bought 4 bottles!! After the village tour and the vineyard tour it was time for lunch. Our guide made reservations for a glorious restaurant atop a winery deep in wine country.   Emily and I know our fish and the fish dish on this tasting menu knocked our socks off. So there we sat, a beautiful sunny day, amazing French food, local French wines, a 360° view of vineyards, and endless smiles.  Every dish at lunch was delectable. Following lunch we continued in to our second vineyard. Again, the wine was inspiring. We picked up a few more bottles. We may have taken a quick and pleasant nap in the way back to our hotel in the warm van with full bellies and heads swimming in wine nirvana.  Next we headed out to explore Bordeaux sampling wines here and there. We even got to help some damsels in distress. Two young women approached me afraid that a weird man had been following and bothering them. I told them to walk with us a ways as I stared down the weirdo who walked away. A few blocks later they felt safe and thanked us and moved on. We, in turn, stumbled in to a local wine shop and convenced the owner to give us a tasting. We laughed and talked about our trip and sampled some interesting wines. More bottles purchased and more exploring of the city was had as we killed time towards dinner. 

 Wow. Dinner. I can safely say that 4 of my top 10 best lifetime meals out have occurred on this trip. Tonight’s dinner was no exception.  The setting: a cute boutique restaurant set in a French renovated ‘brownstone’ with elegant plastered ceilings, violently red painted walls, hardwood floors, and marble table tops, La Table de Montaigne, was as impressively decorated as delicious. It was a very intimate setting in our room with only two other tables.   We had 6 courses of mind blowing cuisine and paired with 6 wines and 2 champagnes. Emily reported on the way home, “I was drunk 3 separate times today..” the staff was great and I think they liked us because they could tell we were dramatically savoring every morsel. After dinner we rolled ourselves back ti the hotel to pack for our early flight tomorrow. Nice here we come!!