Unnatural states
The natural state of grape juice is vinegar. Humans stop this from happening. Bordeaux is where humans mastered the art of doing so.
The natural state of Bordeaux (the left bank, at least) is of a hostile, stagnating wetland. Humans claimed it from the sea. Bordeaux is where we learned to make fine wine from nothing but swamps.
And so a Bordeaux wine tour proves not just invigorating gastronomically – this should come as no surprise – but also because it reminds us that we’re a damned clever lot. A Bordeaux wine tour makes you proud to be a human.
In fact it makes you rather proud to be English – as it turns out that by a quirk of history we built most of Bordeaux, more on that later.
Of course this is not widely broadcast, it was a Canadian that let it slip and our French hosts had to be cajoled to ‘fess up.
Amelie, our guide at the stunning Château du Tertre eventually caved…
“Ze Chateau was built in 1143 by a Monsieur Pierre Michel, and as you can see from this architecture…”
“Excuse me, but last night we were told Bordeaux was built by the English, is that true?”
“Umm, err. But of course, this is what I said.”
“When you said Pierre Michel, did you really mean Peter Mitchell?”
“Oui, Pierre Mitchell.”
“I see.”
From this point we could all be very proud of what our descendants achieved and continued to allow Amelie to show us around Peter’s big house, as the Bordeaux Wine Tour continued.
She explained – Aquitaine, the region of which Bordeaux is capital, was a province of England under the Plantagenets for over four hundred years. In that time we developed viticulture into big business constructing the largest harbour in the medieval world to improve trade links, we brought in Dutch engineers to raise the Médoc and we built many of the Châteaux that still stand today.
We were finally turfed out in the 15th century; a modest column in Bordeaux’s main square on the banks of La Garonne is testament to that. The French are rightly proud of what they continue to achieve in this small and magical corner of the world.
This pride manifests itself in an excitement to show you how it is done, and it is infectious. Our Bordeaux wine tour featured a list of stars perfectly casted and directed by Adam. They all expounded the history, process and enjoyment of wine in such ways that you could not help but be inspired. Also, the booze helped.
At Chateau Tertre Amelie explained that Bordeaux wine can only be made from four varieties of grape – Cabernet Sauvignon (sharpness and acidity), Merlot (fruit and roundness), Cabernet Franc (body) and Petit Verdot (mystery). If any other grape is included they can’t even call it Bordeaux.
She challenged us to guess the proportions of each grape in three wines. With her guidance we got on the green with most of them.
A word on the secretive Petit Verdot. It ripens very fast and very late. But when it is good, it is exceptional. 2000, 2005 and 2009 all had high proportions (still only 10% or so) of this mysterious vitis. Even when it does ripen in time nobody can ever know what flavour it will bring, anything from black pepper to old boots. As a result it is often left out completely, but they continue to produce it, never knowing what it might bring but trusting blindly that it will be fantastic this year…
A trip into through Margaux followed, past the famous Château. Adam showed us another which boasted a cricket pitch, what a place for a cricket tour.
Our destination was lunch at Le Lion D’Or in Arcins. Le Lion D’Or is not to be missed. It is what (positive I might add) stereotypes are made of – the garrulous chef, the effortless service, the rustic charm of a restaurant that had been operating the same way for decades. With the cabinets around the dining room filled with the local producers’ own, ready for when they ate there. By the end of lunch our table was a nest of empty bottles, all rather decent and all produced within a few miles of where we sat.
But onwards, rather grudgingly (oh just one more canelé), to Château Pichon-Longueville in Pauillac.
Pauillac is the star of the Médoc region, the blockbuster. The great names of Lafite, Latour and Mouton Rothschild are found here, and yet Pichon has more than held its own against such prestigious wineries. It produces some of the most elegant and profound wine in the area, a testament to the dedication of the families who have owned the Château over the centuries.
We were welcomed into an empty visitors centre by the Estate Manager Nicolas, it was not until we left that we discovered he’d come in just for our party on a Saturday when they are usually closed to the public.
The fairy tale splendour of the main house is retained without any sign of industry – the entire production facility is built under the lake. Swiss laser guided grape picking machines next to gleaming Italian bottling plants, Pichon-Longueville is pure Bond villain’s lair, all that is missing is Pussy Galore…
Nicolas honed our skills taking us back through the vintages, settling on his favourite for quaffing ‘maintenant’ – the 2006. The spittoons had a day off.
Bordeaux is a fantastic place. It has a history and a purpose unmatched anywhere in the world. It is however enormous, and that we floated from one unique experience to another in great comfort was only down to the local knowledge and hard work of the SmoothRed team. I could not recommend them more highly.
And so the final revelation – the natural state of Man is to be half-full of fine wine, whisked from lunch to dinner, never seeing a bill.We have already planned our return to our natural state, this time to Rioja in November 2013.
Oliver Mott – December 2012 – Bordeaux Wine Tour