Every Monday, discover new wines, regions, and ways to understand this fermenting sea.
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Munching Vidal Blanc on Keuka Lake, New York
Tag Archives: merlot
St-Émilion Part 1: Bordeaux and Merlot’s Vinous Sea
This Monday’s EU Austerity Drinking Tour sends us to St-Émilion: right bank home to Bordeaux’s greatest, Merlot-based reds.
After some credit card, train-related malarkey, we leave the city of Bordeaux and cross into Entre-Deux-Mers.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWoq7cUdgAA&w=560&h=315%5DThat flatland is Entre-Deux-Mers (not Pomerol…dummy). As its name implies, it is the land “between two seas”: the Garonne and Dordogne Rivers. It’s a great region for value Bordeaux. But our aim is Saint-Émilion, hanging over the Dordogne’s right bank.
Soon, châteaux actually start looking like Châteaux and not somewhat homely barns.
Landed, we leave the train with a few other tourists. One road points to town. Our march uphill begins. Continue reading
Graves Open Doors 4: The Final Frontier: Château de Roquetaillade la Grange
This installment of Monday’s EU Austerity Drinking Tour finds us sick, drunk, and headed to the fourth and last winery in Graves in southeast Bordeaux.
To recap: a free van picked us up for “Portes Ouvertes dans les Graves” (Open Doors in Graves) in the sleepy town of Langon (below):
We tried Bordeaux’s just-fermented varietals at Château Pont de Brion (here), ate rotten grapes at Château La Croix (here), and met a red-only, family run, micro-winery at Château Caillivet (here).
Well-smashed, our white tin chariot takes us to Bordeaux’s Southern-most winery: Château de Roquetaillade la Grange:
GravesMapTight
Luckily, we didn’t walk.
Soft hills roll with vine rows. This is the highest vineyard in Graves: roughly 100 meters above sea-level. Not a mountain, but unlike la Croix’s river-side, rotting grapes (tricky, but perfect for dessert wine), dry breezes and more drainage keep Roquetaillade’s vines happy. With all this rain, that matters.
Also unlike the rest of Langon, this “Château” has a château: Continue reading
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Tagged Bordeaux, Château de Roquetaillade la Grange, Destemmer, France, Graves, merlot, Portes Ouvertes, Roquetaillade, Sauternes, Semillon, Starship Enterprise
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Graves Open Doors 3: Château Caillivet in Bordeaux
Today continues our exploration of Graves: Bordeaux’s diverse, left-bank, value region that struggles in the shadow of famed and pricier Haut-Médoc. A white van has toured us around the village of Langon, visiting its wineries for free (this is an EU Austerity Drinking Tour after all).
We leave “Château” la Croix’s rustic charm. A new driver asks for our next winery. The local girls say something. I blankly agree. But my wife’s glare cuts me down.
“They don’t like you”, she growls. “I know. But it doesn’t really matter which winery we go to.” “Yes, but you choose one, they don’t want us around”. “Fine”. Angry, tipsy, and both of us sick and stuffy we continue to whisper/fight. Continue reading
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Tagged Bordeaux, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chateau Caillivet, Château la Croix, France, Haut-Médoc, Langon, Medoc, merlot, Oak, wine
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Mähler-Besse “Cheval Noir” Grand Vin, Saint-Émilion, Bordeaux, France 2009
It is Thursday. Work-weariness be damned. I could use a drink.
Since we reached Bordeaux with Monday’s EU Austerity Drinking Tour, nostalgic, I decide to crack open a Bordelaise stateside. Tonight’s entry derives from Saint-Emilion: famed sub-region on the Dordogne River’s right bank.
The world drinks and grows Merlot because of Saint-Émilion. Veins remain in its chalky cliffs, cut by Roman vine roots nearly two millennia ago. Sideways may have tarnished the grape and drunk Cheval Blanc from a paper cup. But wines from Saint-Émilion steadfastly remain the most expensive and collected worldwide.
Tonight, we drink 2009’s Cheval Noir (no relation to the famed Blanc). Continue reading
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Tagged Bordeaux, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cheval Blanc, Cheval Noir, Mähler-Besse, merlot, Negociant, Petrus, Saint-Émilion, Sideways
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Open Doors in Graves: Château Pont de Brion Bordeaux Deconstructed
Day 93 of EU Austerity Drinking finds us sick, stuck in bed, in Bordeaux, and worst of all, completely sober.
But “Portes Ouvertes dans les Graves” is happening. Basically, free buses will carry us from one free winery tour and tasting to the next, until we have soaked in all that Graves has to offer.
So I drag my flu-riddled wife out of bed. We miss the first train, after hacking and coughing our way to the station. We catch our breath, and hop on the next. While we chug out of Bordeaux, here’s some context.
Graves is a subregion of Bordeaux. It covers vineyards that surround the city and run South along the Garonne River’s left bank. Continue reading
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Tagged Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Château Pont de Brion Bordeaux, gravel, Graves, merlot, Petit Verdot, Sauvignon blanc, Semillon, wine
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WAYWARD WINE 