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| Saint-Emilion is a beautiful little town. |
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| Map of Bordeaux wine area. |
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| Theatricality of the wine-growing chateau. |
‘Having more than one grape variety is one way of making corrections. I am opposed to artifices which allow repentance. I like the idea that a grape variety is a key, the unique key that opens up a terroir and allows it to reach its truth and mystery.’ *
Burgundy is the French wine par excellence, it corresponds to the French idea of what a good wine should be. Bordeaux is often seen as ‘foreign’, characterized by order and balance. It represents measure, symmetry and domestication of nature. Bordeaux appellations makes no allusion to the ‘terroir’. It is the owner who marks the quality of the vintage, producing wines in accordance with the reputation of the chateau. Cosmopolitan, international and quality viticulture: shared belief in progress and investment. But there is also a certain form of theatricality in the wine-growing chateau, invented by the Bordelaise to market their wine.
If Bordeaux is the product of a human-will, this opposes burgundy’s ideal of a prevailing terroir, openness to nature, mystery or spontaneousness. Invented and sculpted by man the Bordeaux vineyards are a real garden at the cost of draining and moving soil. Burgundy presents itself as a vineyard of its unchanging terroirs. Bordeaux is a blended wine, Burgundy is married to its Pinot Noir. Bordeaux pragmatism of vs. Burgundy idealism?
Almost every classified cru has changed hands since the original 1855 classification. Since the turn of the century tycoons, investors, moguls and the world wide nouveau riche have descended on the Bordeaux vineyards. An excellent bourgeois or grand cru has become more of a commodity.
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| The Cité du Vin. |
Fortunately, Bordeaux wine is not limited these snobbish hundred or so ‘star labels’. Those represent only 4,000 out of a total of 115,000 ha. Surrounding the city there are over 7,000 chateaux vineyards. Together, they produce more than 10,000 different Bordeaux wines. And if you widen your scope you will find the vineyards extending into the Côtes de Duras and Côtes du Marmandais. And particularly the ‘rive droit’ bordering Bergerac wine area, with its appelations Montravel, Rosette and Pécharmant that can take on Saint-Émilion, and its Monbazillac equaling Sauternes.
In Bordeaux, the wine merchants (cellar men) offer you thousands of references, red, rosés, whites, crémants. There are some 250 guided tours of the city, its vineyards and its wine. If this is what you are looking for, the website of the tourist office (https://www.bordeaux-tourisme.com) is a good place to start. Bordeaux world is famous for it’s wine production, but there are no vineyards or wine makers in the city itself, two ‘wine destinations in the city stand-out.
The Cité du Vin
Bordeaux has gone through a remarkable transformation since the days it was known as ‘the black pearl of the Aquitaine’. Under mayor (and former Prime Minister) Juppé decades old dossiers on public transport, markets and infrastructure started to move. But Bordeaux was also in need for modern statement architecture to mark its maritime entrance. A High-tech ‘cathedral of glass and metal, curved and rounded, where with the help of innovative technologies, visitors will be able to discover ancestral savoir-faire’, ‘a place to celebrate wine, its culture, its economy, its traditions, and the men and women who produce it.’ The architects were given the explicit instruction not to construct a traditional wine cellar or wine barrel, the building ‘evokes the swirling of wine in a glass’. Reserve 2 hours to visit and end at the roof terrace to sample a glass of wine.
Musée du Vin et du Négoce de Bordeaux
Close to the Les Hangars (Médoc) river ferry stop this museum is everything the Cité du Vin does not like to be. Old equipment representing 2000 years of wine production in the region, housed in the building of the royal broker of Louis XV. Discover three centuries of history and fame in the vaulted cellars built in 1720. The Museum offers; Self-guided tour with tasting of 2 Bordeaux wines(€ 10.00), Wine workshops (€ 40.00) and a 3-hour guided tour: Bordeaux city center + Tasting of 4 wines (€49.00).
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| Guided tours of the vineyards and its wine. |
To visit the surrounding vineyards the tourist office in Bordeaux offers half day and full day tours, they include visits to chateaux, vineyards and villages like Saint-Émilion to taste the famous Bordeaux wines.
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| No other wine is associated with its ‘city’ the way Saint-Émilion is. |
‘Saint-Émilion is maybe too much: too immaculate, too typical, too glorious, too opulent, too touristy. Saint-Emilion is a beautiful city ... The only thing one can find fault it with is its lack of mystery.’**
The quote above is from 1989… today Saint-Émilion has become the ‘bucket-list’ destination of the global globetrotter class. Do not worry if you not like french food, you will find tapas- and sushi-bars, and if you do not like wine, the ‘Irish pub’ will pour you a pint of Guinness. Asian women in school-girl coseplay-outfits…
No other wine is associated with its ‘city’ the way Saint-Émilion is, perfectly placed for the 80’s tourism – product promotion trend it is slowly becoming self-defeating. Tourists attracting tourist services and facilities, which in turn attract more tourists.
Ligne du Médoc
For the independent traveler train line 42 Bordeaux – Macau – Point de Grave (Ligne du Médoc) travels through the Médoc vineyards with stations in Pauillac and Margaux.
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| Excursions to the vineyards. |
“Wine Marathon” for all you Marathon enthusiasts and tasteful people!!!
'The world's most idiotic Marathon (according to the UK telegraph): ”Who could possibly have thought it a good idea to combine a 26.2-mile run with a feast of oysters, cheese, entrecôte and foie gras, all washed down with up to 23 glasses of wine? Well, the French, of course.'
The Marathon du Medoc (www.marathondumedoc.com/en/) runs through the vineyards every September, registration opens in March!
References
*) Burgundy winemaker quoted in Kaufmann, 1992. As published in: Tentative d’autocritique Bordeaux-Bourgogne. In: Kauffmann J-P, 2014. Voyage à Bordeaux.
**) Voyage to Bordeaux, 1989. In: Kauffmann J-P, 2014. Voyage à Bordeaux
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