A day in Sauternes: Nov 8

1In my (Sean's) opinion, one of the highlights of our time in France was our trip to visit some chateaux in the Sauternes region. We went on Saturday, Nov 8, with three visitors: Yol, Jonathan and Petra. We rented a giant car, the Ulysse, so we could all fit inside. It was open house weekend in Sauternes so there were a bunch of chateaux open to the public. For those of you who are not in the loop, Sauternes is a town about 30 km south of Bordeaux where they make some famous sweet wine that is very tasty to drink with Roquefort cheese or foie gras. We drank a lot of Sauternes while we were there. Here is a picture of Jonathan and Petra in front of the Maison Mercure before we headed out.


Our first chateau was not that exciting -- a chateau with pretty good wine where Petra bought some foie gras. We hung around a bit and then headed out. But when I took a look at their vineyard, it seemed like there was something weird hanging out on the vines... Then, all of a sudden, about 10,000 birds flew off the vines at the same time.


For the next half hour the birds swirled across the sky in crazy patterns. Sometimes they would settle on a big tree for a minute, then something would spook them and they would take off again. It was spectacular! We have some videos but they probably won't come out well in low-res so if you want to see it let me know.

We kept watching the birds on the way to our next stop, the chateau just across the street, called Chateau d'Armajan des Cormes (in the background of the photo of Owen and Marisa below). We got a full tour from the nephew of the current owner, most of whose family lived nearby and helped with the winemaking.




We had a really time at the chateau-- we got to look into the bubbling vat where the wine was fermenting, we saw the barn and the tractors, the vines and the barrels. Then we got to taste a few different bottles of their Sauternes -- the best was one that fruity and light and not too sweet. Very nice stuff and a fantastic visit -- Owen enjoyed walking around the vines! Here are some photos from chateau d'Armajan des Cormes:






We were getting pretty hungry so we drove around a bit and finally found a chateau that was making food as part of its open house. I can't remember the name of that chateau but they made some great magret de canard (grilled duck)!


We hung out for a little while then we decided to hit one more place on the way back to Floirac. We chose the last place based solely on its name: Clos Dady! This place had pretty good wine but we had tried so many by that point that we were kind of Sauternes-ed out. They did have some nice art on the wall in their barrel-room:


By this time, Petra and I had gotten into the mood for red wine, as Clos Dady also made some reds. The guy who was showing us around told us that the 2005 "clos des remparts" was fantastic -- one bottle was on display as if to be tasted, but he told us that they were all out. Petra decided to just buy a bottle of the 2006, but I became intrigued by this apparent paradox: how could they be all out of a wine when they had a bottle on display? So I told the guy I wanted to buy the display bottle of the 2005. He ran this idea by his boss, but she wasn't confident of the quality of the display bottle since it had been standing up for a while rather than being left on its side like any well-behaved bottle. Trying to make her point, the boss-lady told me that she didn't even have any of the 2005 in her own cellar. I was not deterred and kept asking for a bottle of the 2005. The guy finally had a little chat with the boss-lady and they decided that it wouldn't do any harm to let one buffoon (me) have one of their secret and apparently prized bottles of 2005. So, after about a 20 minute debate, the guy went into the cave and brought me a bottle of the 2005 -- great success! I was overcome with a feeling of great self-satisfaction -- I had somehow persuaded these folks to give me a bottle of their most prized and secret wine, and I was surely a master of humankind! Petra thought me a complete wacko but I didn't care. It wasn't until we got home that I discovered that they had actually given me a bottle of the 2006! Those bastards! The bottle from Clos Dady ("clos des ramparts") is the fourth from the left in the photo below, and the chateau d'armajan des cormes is the fifth from the left.


We ended up going out for a fun dinner in Bordeaux with J&P -- all around a super fun day!


ps - I actually found Clos Dady Sauternes in a liquor store in Boulder after we got back... No way I'm buying anything from those scoundrels!