The Bordeaux Wine Experience

 

Chateau Coulon Laurensac

We’re back! Jonathan and I returned Wednesday from a trip to Paris, Bordeaux and Barcelona. It was an amazing trip, and now we are both trying to catch up after being gone two weeks. I have many stories to share, wine recommendations and knowledge I acquired while visiting. I’m not really sure where to start!

 

Let me begin with our Bordeaux tour. Neither of us speaks French so we thought it wise to book a wine tour to see Bordeaux. Plus, visiting Châteaux in France require appointments; you can’t just show up for a tour and tasting. Traveling to the vineyards on the first day confirmed we had made the right decision. We would have been so lost with the amount of small roads and minute, unnoticeable turns one must take to travel through the various villages outside of Bordeaux. In some places it really is like taking a step back in time.

 

We chose The Bordeaux Wine Experience for our wine tour and it was first-class all the way. We selected this tour for several reasons. First, they provide a driver and English speaking guide that can act as your translator should you need him. However, at the Châteaux all of our guides spoke English. Secondly, they guarantee visits to classified growth wineries (I’ll explain more about this in a later post, its impressive!). Third, the tour includes staying at their Château, just 10 minutes from downtown Bordeaux, but is the quiet of the countryside. Finally, we’d be on a private tour. Jonathan and I were the only two people on every tour of each vineyard so it’s much more personal and you can ask all of your questions…which I did!

 

Visiting Bordeaux now, during the “off-season,” had several advantages as well. Granted the vines weren’t in full bloom and grapes weren’t hanging from the vines, but it was much easier to visit more prestigious vineyards. Jonathan and I are forever spoiled by what we tasted in Bordeaux, which for us was more important than seeing grapevines in bloom. On our first day, we visited Château Margaux (first growth), Château Lafite Rothschild (first growth) and Château Lynch Bages (fifth growth). A stellar line-up for day one! On day two, we toured Château Figeac (1^st grand Cru Class), Château Petit Village and Château Franc Mayne (Grand Cru Class). Also, visiting during the “off-season” is much cheaper than during their high season and less crowded.

 

Ronald and Margaret, the owners of Château Coulon Laurensac and The Bordeaux Wine Experience, are terrific hosts. They are very generous and accommodating, and enjoy talking about wine. I’d highly recommend this wine tour to anyone wanting to see Bordeaux. This was truly the experience of a lifetime, and I can only hope to go back someday. I have a much greater appreciation for the mysterious terroir, aged wines and the many sub-appellations that exist within each French region. I also discovered that rarely do the French make bad wine. We found several very inexpensive bottles that were fantastic. They know what they do best and they do it very well!