When I went to Bordeaux, I had some very specific destinations in mind. I've been drinking wine from Bordeaux for more than 10 years, and I have a really good idea of what I like and what I don't. The first part of my trip was spent visiting those Chateaux that I have always wanted to see: Margaux, Brane Cantenac, Lynch Bages, Lascombes, etc. The second part of the trip was spent exploring the city of Bordeaux.
The last leg of my trip was supposed to be spent in St. Emilion, but rental car issues (thanks again, Hertz) made that difficult. Instead I decided to explore regions that I wasn't as familiar with; to do that I turned to the Office de Tourisme de Bordeaux. The Office de Tourisme de Bordeaux has a number of vineyard tours including one out to Blaye and Bourg. It was reasonably priced at 30 Euros and it gave me an opportunity to see part of the region that I other i probably would have missed.
Obviously touring a chateau with 40 other people is not nearly as personal as the one-on-one or one-on-handful tours I did at the chateaux in the Medoc, but it was worth the trade-off to explore new regions.
Cotes de Blaye is just north of Cotes de Bourg (well, north and west) on the right bank. Vines have been planted here since the Greeks and Romans first settled the land, wine has been made in this region for thousands of years.
Cotes de Blaye is also home to the Citdel of Blaye, which is extremely imposing, even from a distance.
On the tour we visited Chateau Perenne a Bernard Magrez property. If you take a look at the 4th picture one of the first things you'll notice is all the grass between the vines. Unlike the more gravelly terroir of the Medoc, this part of Cotes de Blaye is mostly limestone.
Harvest and sorting are done by hand. Depending the quality of the fruit fermentation is either done in steel or or oak vats (the best of the fruit is isolated, fermented in oak, and used to make the equivalent of a reserve wine) and then barrel aged. There are 57 hectares under vine (for red vines) with an average age of 30 years. The wine is 85% Merlot, 13% Cabernet Sauvignon, 1% Cabernet Franc and 1% Malbec.
1 comments:
St. Emillion is cool, but seeing somewhere less known would have been cool too!
What's that white stuff on the ground in that one pic? Are those rocks? Very cool!
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