We Know Everything About Wine Now

Good day everyone, Winslow here to report on our time in wine city. To introduce you to Bordeaux : it is actually a rather small city with a population of around 225,000. It is located on the Garonne river, brown and murky due to clay, and once the most important port in France, called "Porte de la Lune"We (the moon port, due to its half-moon shape). Originally occupied by the Romans a super long time ago, it became an English city for a while, and the wine produced there was claimed by the English and shipped to them. The city’s buildings all look generally the same, all 18th century. There are plenty of squares and esplanades, beautiful fountains, a Gordon Ramsay restaurant (not sure who that is), as well as green spaces along the river. In fact, when we arrived, the sheer amount of people hanging out by the river was truly wow-worthy.

[the mirroir d'eau is probably the most-photographed spot in the city]

The first place we went was a so-called host’s place. He was an Englishman living in Bordeaux for 21 years, who occasionally for work hand-places the labels on top-of-the-line wine bottles. He was certainly an interesting fellow, charismatic I’d say, but also very respectful to the young one and I. Startlingly, as a warm Bordeaux greeting, he thought it his duty to tell us about the impending doom of the United States of America...that is a whole different story which you can ask the young one about personally. The second place we went, the dark news weighing on our minds, was the public garden. Definitely one of the good ones with a kid’s playground, snack bar, river with geese and ducks, and plaques that label the trees. The young one, tired and still depressed from our parting with Bourges and the boyfriend, hung the hammock. On our first full day we moved to the hostel. The young one’s unwarranted anxiety hung above us, as did the dark clouds that only covered half of the otherwise blue sky. I’m not sure why she has been so unmotivated, lacking energy and passion. It must be the abrupt changes and uncertainty in the future. Things I will never understand. The mood changed when she decided we would go to the wine museum. There are 2 wine museums in Bordeaux. One is supposed to be an architectural masterpiece that in actuality our Englishman host called "a giant shiny poo ".

[The Cité du Vin]

We just went inside briefly to feel the ambiance, as the young one decided it was too expensive and just glorified to be a money-sucker. The second museum is across the street from the hostel, in the Chartrons District where wine merchants actually lived. The museum is located in the former cellars of a wine merchant and was very informative.

The young one enjoyed learning how wine barrels are made and used, while I carefully followed the timeline of the development of the wine trade and the role of merchants. At the end the young one got to taste 2 different wines while the animator explained the geography of the vineyards in the region (i.e. white wines on the left bank and reds on the right according to the different soil and conditions). There was also a cool chart that divided up all the notes found in wines (i.e. fruits, flowers, smokiness, and lastly tastes like nail polish remover found in bad wines). This was all just the budding of our now profound wine knowledge!

[It was in the 18th century that Dutch merchants figured out how to age wine by sterilizing the barrels by burning sulphur. I'm sure all of you who have tasted wine have noticed the varying degrees of smokiness derived from the oak berrels]

On our way out the young one was doing her obligatory photo shoot when a man emerged from the building claiming to be the president of the museum, and requesting a photo with me! Apparently I am now the mascot of the Musée du Vin et du Négoce de Bordeaux! It is my understanding that it is an honor to be a mascot, and additionally, unattainable by humans.

We also made a stop at a former submarine base that now shows art exhibitions. The theme for this exhibition was space. It was very dark and eerie in there and the weird sounds that accompanied the funky lights gave me a bit of an ear-ache. The young one thought it was pretty cool and spent the most time trying to get some funky photos with this light:

We started off our second day with the young one’s favorite travel activity: a free walking tour. It was given by a Bordelais, born and raised. The most interesting thing we learned is that in the 80s, Bordeaux was very unattractive. There were no pedestrian streets, a city filled with cars and no public spaces. The buildings also used to all be black! This was until a president decided to make some changes and created the beautiful city it is today. This took a lot of scrubbing dirt off buildings to make them nice and clean and soft sand-colored.

[The bell tower was built separately so its vibrations didn't collapse the cathedral. We could have gone up into the tower to get our usual bird's-eye view but ran out of time]

Speaking of sand, I have never seen so much until that day, when we followed up with a visit to the Dune du Pilat. You guys know that I strongly dislike sand, right? See how grumpy I look?

This is the biggest sand dune in Europe, about an hour drive from Bordeaux on the coast. Mind you, the view on either side was spectacular, but when the wind picked up and created sand clouds, oh boy was I not happy. The young one trudged along, spent a couple hours there, watched the para gliders and some brave children having the time of their lives skidding down the slopes. She remarked how fine and clean the sand is, and for the millionth time how nice it would be to have some company. Yeah, no offense to me at all. Okay I admit I wasn’t the best company there, and not an ideal picnic companion.

***travel note from the young one: Hi! If you are reading this and are planning to go here from Bordeaux, you must get to Arcachon (would have loved to stop here too!) by train or blablacar, then take the bus to the dune. My driver was kind enough to take me directly to the dune!*** On our third and final day we took another trip outside of Bordeaux. I remember the Englishman saying that the city itself is quite boring (we don’t agree) but the area surrounding it is eye-popping. The village of Saint-Émilion was recommended to us by a number of people, and lucky for us the wine châteaux were having open houses over the weekend! That meant free tours and tastings.

We arrived at the first château at 10:30 in the morning, perfect time for some wine apparently.

We were the first visitors and got a private tour. The man spoke English so I was in luck! He told us a lot about the strict regulations of wine-producers. What we didn’t know is that the vines are totally subject to whatever the weather brings, which means no watering the vines or protecting them from cold. The conditions make or break the harvest for the year, and produce different qualities in the grapes accordingly. In the spring of 2017 there was actually a frost that wiped out 90% of vines in the Bordeaux region! The châteaux who normally produce 50,000 bottles of wine per year only yielded around 3,000 that year. It really brought to light how a crop effects the life of a farmer - one bad day out of their control can render them poor for the whole year with just as much work to do after. Even so, the young one came out of it thinking that working in a vineyard might be a cool thing to do some day. Our second château was only remarkable in that the barrels are stored in a cave.

The third and final château of the day was a popular one, with the tour group at around 30 people. This one was in French so I didn’t get much out if it. The young one picked out some things, particularly about the wine-making process.

The tasting at this one was particularly fun for the young one. The guide passed out little viles containing notes found in wine, and the guidees were to sniff them and check off which scent they thought it was. The young one found this difficult. There is definitely an art to wine tasting! She then got to taste the wines that contained these notes, accompanied by their respective cheese companions.

The young one is definitely very happy about how much she learned about wine during our stay! Of course we had some time to explore the village of Saint-Émilion a bit, even though it was rainy for a good chunk of the time. Our favorite spot was one we stumbled upon in an effort to duck out of the rain. It’s a thing called a « cloister », a square structure with arches opening up into a central courtyard.

The length of one wall was a beautiful mural, the kind if quirky art that the young one falls for. We weren’t sure what it was really about because the young one didn’t feel like reading the booklet in French about it.

Here are some other photos taken in Saint-Émilion:

The red signs on the street corner are pointing to some of the 81 chateux open for visiting over the weekend.

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Roaming around the daily flea market at Place des Quinconces, a rooster strikes a pose in front of our favorite fountain.

The young one got a photo every day of the water mirror which reflects Place de la Bourse (containing administration, a museum, and restaurants). The water is always changing. Sometimes it is moving, like in this photo, then it becomes calm starting on one side and spreading to the other, and then suddenly it may be empty. In the summer it mists and children come to play in it.

Faces are seen all around the city, all different.

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As of now, the young one and I are settled into Montpellier for the week! We are staying in a woman's home in the center of town. Our room has a bunk bed so I get my own bed! The young one also gets food provided. She will be gone in the mornings for class, but hasn't found much to do in the afternoons yet. One week isn't quite enough to make many friends or join a club or anything so I hope she copes alright. The program isn't providing as many social activities as she hoped, unfortunately.

We will let you know how it's going in a few days!

Ciao for now,

Winslow