Bordeaux - the Medoc

This account excludes an account of visits to the five first growths, which will be separate. We flew into Bordeux with a few good thumps of turbulence, with towers of cloud and showers drifting through. On the ground it had the pearly light I had read about and the odd spot of rain. The city is low rise, maybe three stories most commonly, flat and in limestone block which varies from white (recently cleaned) to dirty grey. Old building that seem the same era as Paris, but this time no attempt at grandeur. Loads of traffic which slowed us down on many occassions in the days ahead. Having said that the city has its charm, and we loved lunch in a first floor restaurant with the usual loads of french residents, almost as noisy as us. We has to reviewand upgrade the above opinion of Bordeaux a few days later. Lunch was the usual fixed menu and loads of bustle as waiting staff come and go in a steady stream. Then on to our first meeting for the day, if I can use that term - this time a negotiant firm, a merchant buying and selling Bordeaux wines. These merchants partly define the local wine industry, as most serious chateaux do not del directly with the public and can be very unapproachable, we were warned. More that that, at the top end they may be long standing family aristocracies pursuing interests which have nothing to do with spotty bummed visitors arriving by coach. This negotiant had set up our most important chateau appointments. 'Do not be late' he said. We headed off to the village of Margaux for the first of two nights. Accommodation beside a golf course so. We enjoyed the park like setting Ad noticed again the melodious blackbird singing that has been a thread right through our France travels. By dusk the swallows were working the pond outside our window. They are a larger species, with dusky black plumage and no other markings. At this time of day they seem to call in a high pitched bat like squeaking that we have heard in city areas such as Avignon. As it became dark bats came out, flying close to the building maybe checking out the eaves. We squeezed and leaned out the window watching them flick past! The next day was memorable, as we drove up the Medoc, the peninsula north west of Bordeaux, that houses the great wine estates of Bordeaux and of France. The road north was well lined with houses, and was obviously residential in nature, still very much the outskirts of the city. But the housing was starting to break up into reaches of vines, and we could see the lie of the land and how it defines their spread. With the Gironde river and estuary nearby, the deep gravels, over limestone base, we're only suitable for vines where they had elevation and therefore drainage. These low broad hills are further divided by 'jalles', being the channels build by the Dutch in the 18th (?) century, and which deepened the drainage and lifted the extent and quality of the region to the preeminence it enjoys today. So a Jalle, the road lifting up a gentle slope, then the woods and any houses break out into open sky and a sea of vines. Names we know so well flicked past the bus, with sign posted gates and the occassional walled plots, being relics of monastic wine growing. An exhilarating drive particularly given where we were going - Pauillac, to visit two of the greats, Chateaux Latour and Lafite Rothschild. We knew what to look for. As the road pushes through the region called St Julien, past it's most northern and most famed vineyard Les Cases, the land dipped to a Jalle and rose again into Pauillac, with the entrance to that commune asked by the two chateaux of Pichon Baron on the left and Pichon Lalande on the right, both arguably being the most beautiful Chateaux in the Medoc. Visible to the right of Picon Lalande - (whose full name is Chateau Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande) is Chateau Latour. A brief picturesque drive through what might be the most fabulous wine location on the globe. The visit to Latour was followed by what has been voted our most unique lunch experience in France, perhaps even the best dining experience. An exclusive restaurant in Pauillac, and an old building, dripping with exceptional black suited staff and with indescribable quality food. Very formal in nature. Entourages of large black Mercs outside which seems to be the badge of the local wine elite! Each car with a driver, waiting for how ever many hours their bosses decide to spend chatting over lunch. The afternoon trip was to Lafite, often held to be Latours twin opposite, if that makes sense, being at the northErn and southern ends of the commune of Pauillac and polar opposites in style. The following morning we packed our bags for day two, being a visit to the third Of the three Pauillac 'first growths'and to the rising star of Pontet Canet. The day finished with a somewhat slow drive back through Bordeaux and into the southern district of Graves, for a three night stay in accommodation owned by Smith Haut Lafitte, a Graves vineyard. Very plush, woods on one side and vines on the other. More blackbirds and other more exotic wildlife. A from Smith Haut Lafitte we drove the next morning back up through Bordeaux, into the commune of Margaux, to visit Chateau Margaux. Some nerves on the bus as traffic was heavy and the 'don't be late' warning ringing in our ears. Anyway we made it, just, turning into the long tree lined driveway that is just another element of perhaps the grandest and most beautiful estate in the area. We spent a happy hour in the winery cellars, watching barrels being racked ( contents shifted to another barrel to separate them from the sediment) and visiting their cooperage where the barrels are made, by hand. Then a tasting of their wine, as per usual somewhere in the cellar where the mood of the place seems to hang in the air. Outside in the sunshine one last look around, over the Chateau itself, with it's high and locked gate, the old trees in the gardens, vines all around, the winery buildings many very old and now knowing what lies unseen in the cellars below. That seemed to signal the end of the most intense part of the trip, successfully making it the the Chateaux in question and having so much to take on board afire being in these magnificent properties. We finished this section of the trip with a few hours and an evening in Bordeaux city itself, where we had to radically alter our initial impressions of the place. The city centre has limitations on vehicle traffic and extensive pedestrian areas, including the longest pedestrian road in France. Well it was absolutely pumping with people, for kilometers, and a shopping mecca especially if you like womans clothing! Shanti didnt know where to turn! The street ran towards the river through some wonderful squares and buildings, including another massive cathedral and then a bridge over the river and another very Paris like scene with apartments lining the banks. Sleek polished trams glide around and the sheer number of people out and about is impressive. Restaurants and sidewalk cafes everywhere, shopping - you name it. The place had a certain feel, urbane but old world, confident eclectic and edgy on the people front. We finished the evening in a restaurant where they took us downs stairs and voila, another limestone basement full of wine and tables! Both floors were packed with diners and we spent a noisy couple of hours before heading out into the streets, not heavily lit and the crowds thinning. We noticed again the swifts at that time of night, and their strange high cries, getting towards the upper limit of our hearing. Since becoming more familiar with it we have noticed their calls a lot, and how they seem to magnify in and around buildings. Shanti described it well when she said their thin cries seem to 'cut the air'. Their flight does the same, mostly very rapid beating of their stiff, long but narrow and scythe shaped wings, then they lock them and glide in fast banking curves. If only they would slow down so we could see them more clearly!