Bordeaux

In France, wine is serious business. In a country famous for its wine, Bordeaux remains perhaps the most celebrated wine region in the world.  We could not end our stay in France without paying a visit to Bordeaux. 
Note: Wine language is strange and at times arcane. I have included a brief Glossary of Terms at the end of this entry. A far more complete Glossary of Terms can be found here.

The city of Bordeaux is located in southwest France 60 km from the Atlantic Ocean and 200 km from Spain. The Gironde is a large river flowing north and west into the Atlantic. It divides the region into two main sections, the left bank which is between the river and ocean, and the right bank which is east of the Gironde and the Dordogne Rivers. The city of Bordeaux is on the Garrone River just before it becomes the Gironde River. The city is the center of the Bordeaux wine region.
     The most famous region of Bordeaux is the Médoc, the light green and adjacent orange regions on the map just to the left of the river at the north end of the peninsula. The most famous (and expensive) Bordeaux wines come from here. All Bordeaux wines are all blended. In the Médoc, the dominant grape is Cabernet Sauvignon.

The Right Bank wines tend to be more innovative. Recently, the Right Bank has emerged from the shadow of the historical dominance of the more famous Left Bank wines. The dominant grape on the Right Bank is Merlot. 

Fun fact:  During the late 19th century, most Bordeaux vineyards were ruined by an infestation of Phylloxera that also affected most of the vineyards in Europe. Phylloxera is an nearly microscopic insect that attacks the roots of the grape vines. Charles Valentine Riley who served as entomologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture until 1894, was also the first Curator for insects for the Smithsonian Institution. He made the observation that American grape vine roots were resistant to Phylloxera, having several defense mechanisms against Phylloxera that the Bordeaux grape vines lacked. Thanks to his efforts, the Bordeaux wine industry was saved by grafting the Bordeaux grape vines on to the roots of resistant American species. This practice continues to this day with virtually every grape vine in Bordeaux grafted to resistant American grape vine roots. So remember, French wine has California roots!

We (Jessica, Eric and Erica) arrived a few days before the annual spring tasting hosted by the Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux. Journalists from around the world are coming to Bordeaux to witness the tasting of the new 2014 vintage by judges who then predict whether the wines from the recent harvest are worth buying. Wines here are treated like pork bellies, sold as futures after this Spring tasting.  Reputations are created and destroyed by the event. The most famous Spring tasting occurred back in 1982 when the upstart American wine critic Robert Parker defied prevailing French predictions of a mediocre year by proclaiming 1982 would be the best vintage ever. Parker proved correct. Parker's opinion expressed through his numeric rating of wines carries enormous power in the Bordeaux wine industry. However, Parker retired in 2013 so there is much uncertainty riding on the 2014 tasting.

We came to learn more about the celebrated Bordeaux wines, and were assisted in our adventure by Xavier Gourdelle, our guide, who met us at the train station and spent the next day and a half driving us around and teaching us about the history of the region and wine-making. Our first day was spent in the Médoc region, also known as the Left Bank.

We began with a pleasant lunch in the Margeaux appellation where we had our first taste of Cannelés Bordelais.

Cannelés Bordelais

What do cannelés have to do with Bordeaux winemaking?
This: Egg whites are used to clarify the wine aging in oak barrels, leaving a lot of leftover egg yolks. What to do with them?  Add milk, flour, butter, sugar, some dark rum and vanilla et voilà!
       Cannelés Bordelais!  

We began our touring on the left bank in Médoc. To appreciate the wines of the Left Bank it helps to know something about the original appellation. The wines of Bordeaux were first classified in 1855 under Napoleon III as part of the exposition Universelle in Paris. Only the châteaux from the Médoc and Graves regions were included in the original classification. The only addition since 1855 was Château Mouton Rothschild. Baronne Philippe de Rothschild fought indefatigably to have his château added. He finally succeeded in 1961.
    Some of the most famous château names are Château Latour, Château Margaux, Château Haut-Brion and Château d’Yquem. Generally, the premier crus do not welcome visitors. Our guide Xavier told us that is because most of their wines are sold as futures before bottling. We suspect they are simply too snooty to spend time with riff-raff like us who would never spend 1,000 € for a bottle of wine. We did drive by and take a look.

Château Margaux

Our first visit was to Château Cantenac-Brown, a Troisieme Crus (Third Growths) of the five Grand Crus categories from the year 1855. The château is an English Tudor originally built about 200 years ago, and subsequently expanded.

Château Cantenac-Brown, aerial view

   In addition to its grand cru, the château produces a second wine under a different label which is meant to be enjoyed young.  Second wines are often dismissed as inferior, but we enjoyed the Brio as much as the also excellent Grand Cru label.  The Brio was fresh and aromatic; the grand cru more subtle, with a velvety mouthfeel and nice finish (see we are learning the jargon!).

Grand Cru Classe                                          Second wine

The wines are made primarily with the cabernet sauvignon grape which grows well in the sand and gravel soil. For all Bordeaux wines, the soil or terroir (pronounced “terre-wha-ah”) is very important. All the grapes in the wine must be grown on the specific parcel of land.  This gives the wine its “typicality".

The amount of time, care and love that goes into the production of a Bordeaux wine is extraordinary. The vines are pruned by hand, and kept low to the ground. Unripe grapes are cut off in a process called green harvesting to make the surviving grapes bigger and richer in sugar. The ones that grow and thrive are subject to uncertain weather conditions. A sudden hail storm can destroy a promising harvest. Strict regulations prevent the use of irrigation, shielding vines from violent storms, blending grapes from different years or from different châteaux. It is a precarious, uncertain business.

Most grapes are picked and sorted by hand. Some châteaux have invested in a new technology, an optical scanner and sorter that sorts the grapes by their sugar content.

Once sorted, de-stemmed and crushed, the grapes are placed into large fermentation vats made of stainless steel or concrete.  Within the tanks, there is a process called remontage where the grape juice is pumped over the thick cap of skins in order to extract tannins.  Machines pump the juice over the hard skins until they are submerged and break. Until recently, the temperature was controlled manually every few hours day and night, utilizing fire and ice. Workers have slept longer hours since thermostatically controlled heaters and coolers have been installed in the tanks.

After fermentation, the wine is transferred to oak barrels to age. The oak barrels are made in France, each costing about 1,000 € and holding 225 liters. They are typically used twice before they are re-purposed and replaced. The châteaux use different barrel makers and different toasting techniques to add to the complexity of the wine and choices for blending. The contents of each barrel is tasted frequently throughout the aging process, and decisions are made on that basis which barrels and which degree of toasting will be used for the various blends of wine produced. The wines we sampled were aged in the oak barrels 12 to 18 months before being blended.  

The big decisions the chateaux must make:

• How aggressively should the grapes be thinned and vines be pruned?
• When should the grapes be harvested?
• Which grapes should be kept?
• When is fermentation complete?
• What barrels should be used? How much toast?
• How should the wine be blended?
• And thousands of other decisions along the way  

Our final château visit on Friday was to Château Brainaire Ducru, St. Julien, one of the original Grand Cru Classé châteaux of 1855. The château produces Branaire-Ducre and Duluc de Branaire-Ducru, second wine.

That evening we joined Erica who had spent the day hiking around Bordeaux and later enjoying some very affordable wine tasting at the Bar à Vin à CIVB. We returned to the bar later that evening, but by then the line was too long to get in.


The next morning, Erica joined us. Xavier drove us to the Right Bank. Yesterday’s visit to the Left Bank Médoc region was mostly a tour of big name, famous châteaux, such as Latour, Margeaux and Rothschild. The landscape was flat with muted colors. In contrast, the Right Blank was hilly, terraced and verdant. Even on an overcast day, the landscape was breathtaking.

view from Saint-Émilion

view of Saint-Émilion

Our first stop was at Château de Ferrand in St. Émilion. Château de Ferrand has a history going back to the 17th century. It has only been owned by only two families. Château de Ferrand was purchased by the Bich family (think Bic pens) in 1978. Château de Ferrand is now owned by the daughter and her husband who is a member of the Chandon Moët family of champagne fame. Since the Bich family took over, the château has been completely renovated and modernized.

Xavier and our Château de Ferrand guide

In 1955 the wines of Saint-Émilion were classified. Unlike the Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855 covering the wines from the Médoc and Graves region, the Saint-Émilion list is updated every 10 years or so. In 2012 Château de Ferrand was elevated to Grand Cru Classé, Saint-Émilion. All of the money, thought and effort that have gone into improving the wines of this château have paid off. We were given a terrific tour by a charming young woman who described the history of the château. The 42 hectare (100 acre) vineyard is planted with 75% merlot, 15% cabernet franc and 10% cabernet sauvignon.  The terroir is mostly limestone and clay. The proof of the château’s commitment to producing the finest wine was evident in the wine tasting at the end. We all loved it! 

Xavier took us to the medieval town of Saint-Émilion, now a UNESCO heritage site. We enjoyed exploring this ancient city, named after St. Émilion, a recluse who lived in a limestone cave, founded a monastery and became a saint. Historically, Saint-Émilion has been a religious enclave rather than a wine center. We had a terrific lunch at Chai Pascal, a bistro frequented by locals.

Jessica and Erica
Saint-Émilion

After lunch, we paid a visit to Château Laniote, a small family-run Grand Cru Classé in Saint-Émilion that has been owned by the same family for two centuries. Owner Arnaud de la Fiolie greeted us and told us the chateau's history while entertaining us with magic tricks. We saw a short film that showed us how wines are made from planting to bottling. About half of the wines produced by Château Laniote are distributed through the Nicolas wine shops in France.

Château Laniote
label autographed by owner

Château Laniote

Our final stop was at Château du Tailhas, Pomerol where we had the good fortune to be shown around by the granddaughter of the owner. She had grown up around the vineyard. Wine making was in her blood. When asked for her favorite vintage, she said, "1989 because that was the year I was born."

Pomerol wine is made principally with the Merlot grape, often blended with Cabernet Franc. The concentration of clay in the soil of Pomerol is the most concentrated in the Bordeaux region, which is what makes the Merlot grape so rich and complex.

Although Pomerol wines are not classified, they are respected in the wine world, and its popularity has reached new heights. The most famous château is Pétrus, which makes one of the world's beloved wines. One bottle of Pétrus can cost 2,450€.

Our guide's enthusiasm was contagious. After sampling two vintages, we were in love with Pomerol.

So what did we learn about wine tasting from our visit to Bordeaux?

1. You are given a wine glass.
2. The glass is filled only about a quarter full to give the wine breathing room.
3. Hold the wine glass by the stem so you don’t warm the wine. Temperature is important.
4. Next, check the wine’s appearance and color by tilting it away from you towards a light source.  Is it clear or cloudy? (Cloudy is bad.)  Hold the wine over a white surface with light from above, and look at the color projected below. A young red should be deep purple and glossy. An aged wine is paler with an orange or brown hue.
5. Sniff the wine to get a first impression of its aroma.
6. Now, give the wine a good swirl in the glass to release the bouquet. Stick you nose inside the glass, and sniff again. What aromas do you smell? Is it floral, fruity, spicy, earthy?
7. Finally, take a small sip of the wine and swirl it around your mouth. How does it feel?  Buttery, silky, astringent? Does the flavor linger at the back of the throat? 
8. At this point, swallow the wine or if you’re going to be tasting a lot of wines, spitting is an option.
9. Say something nice about the wine to the châteaux representative (after all, they are giving you a free tour and tasting).

If you really love the wine,  buy a bottle to bring home with you.  We came back with two:  Château de Ferrand Saint-Emilion Grand Cru 2010, and Château Tailhas Pomerol 2001. 

GLOSSARY OF TERMS:

appellation	The action of giving a name to something or someone
appellation d'origine contrôlée (AOC)	French certification granted to certain French geographical indications for wines, cheeses, butters, and other agricultural products
château	A French mansion, frequently designating a place where wines are made
châteaux	Pleural of château
claret	Red Bordeaux wine in the United Kingdom
Dordogne River	The easterly river branch into the Gironde River
Garonne River	Home of the Port of Bordeaux. The westerly river branch into the Gironde River
grand cru	The top wines as determined in 1855 under Napoleon III. There are five categories of grand cru wines
Institut national de l'origine et de la qualité (INAO)	French agency that oversees appellation d'origine contrôlée (AOC)
Médoc	Left Bank of the Garrone River downstream from the city of Bordeaux, home to most of the premier cru
Phylloxera	Tiny insects that feed on and destroy the roots of the grapevines
premier cru	Literally translated, first growth - In Bordeaux, the superior grade of the five official classifications established in 1855
remontage	The process of pulling out wine from underneath the cap of grape skins and then pumping it back over the cap in order to stimulate maceration.
toasting	A controlled burn of the inside of the barrels used for aging the wine
Vinexpo	The world's main wine fair