Storm Clouds Over St. Emilion
We arrived at our next destination, Libourne on Tuesday midmorning for our first day in the region and the 2nd appellation that I was really anticipating, St. Emilion, the land where Merlot rules as opposed to Medoc where Cabernet Sauvignon is king. Merlot thrives in the alluvial clay and silty soils of St. Emilion creating wines that a more restrained due to Merlot’s softer structure. If there is a more beautiful medieval city on earth than that the village of St. Emilion, we haven’t seen it yet.Narrow cobblestone streets everywhere, limestone arches spanning buildings, an underground church and catacombs and not one but two towers to climb for stunning views of the landscape.
The Village of St. Emilion
We started with a guided tour in the underground chapel, said to have been initially carved by St. Emilion who purportedly had the ability to turn wood into bread. If we can just pair him with another saint that can turn clay into cheese and bring Jesus in for the water to wine thing, we have the makings for a serious party. The chapel was enlarged later by the followers of St. Emilion and then sometime in the middle ages, they began to excavate an underground chapel and then attached catacombs for burying the wealthy. It was utterly breathtaking seeing the amount of rock that was moved with just hand tools. Unfortunately, I had to pull pictures off of the Internet because private pictures weren’t allowed.
Underground Chapel In St. Emilion
After the tour, we had some free time to wander around St. Emilion. It had the largest collection of wine shops either of us had ever seen. At least every third store was dedicated to selling wine. Quite a few of our cruise companions sampled at various shops because it was a really good way to get a cross section of wine from various producers rather than tasting a few wines from a single vintner. Knowing we were going to have more wine that afternoon at another Château, we just went for a stroll which involves some serious downhill (and unfortunately then, serious uphill) climbing. We couldn’t get enough of the place.
Chateau du Pressac
A short drive took us to Chateau du Pressac, a St. Emilion Grand Cru winery. The view of the winery and the surrounding area was stunning. I suppose I should really come up with another word than stunning because I’m getting tired of writing it and you’re probably getting tired of reading it but so much here really is stunning. Before we started the tour, we meandered around the grounds of the Château, which sits on a hill that was fortified for defense in the middle ages. Everywhere you look, the ground drops off in a vast landscape of grape fields. Almost as good as the wine however was the winery dog. Five or six of us got our “dog fix” when she proved so friendly that all you had to do was look at her and she’d flop at your feet to have her belly rubbed. You could tell the softies in the group. I know my dog (Guinness, by name) is going to be incredibly put out when he smells another dog on me. No one can make you feel as bad as your dog can when you’ve cheated on him by petting another dog.
The Tasting Room at Chateau du Pressac
The wines of Chateau du Pressac were definitely softer than those that we had tasted from the Medoc region due to the heavier use of Merlot. I suspect that they will be ready to drink quite a bit sooner due to a slightly less tannic structure but that is just a guess. Surprisingly, the hit of the tasting was a dry rose they made as a one off in 2014, when the excess rain created wine grapes with too much juice relative to the skins. If they didn’t drain some of the juice, they would have had some very weak wines so hence, a rose was born. The remaining juice was proportional to the skins so it created a wine with the right complexity.
Wednesday morning started with another market day, this time in the Bastide town of Creon. A bastide is a town that was surrounded by fortified walls in the middle ages. It could be a rough time with constant raiding and plundering. I once heard that contrary to popular myth, knights were much more like Tony Soprano than the chivalrous protectors of the poor that we think of today. It’s one of the reasons why Pope Urban II started the crusades. It wasn’t just to recapture the holy land but also to get many of the troublemakers out of Europe. Anyway…enough with the history lesson…back to the market. I have no idea how a country located in Northern Europe that doesn’t have a long growing season, can have vegetables and fruit that are so ripe. Everything was riper than we ever see in our stores unless you go for the organic “Mortgage your house to buy them” route. The French are passionate about food so I guess they just won’t accept lesser quality, something we in the US could learn.
Vegetables At the Market In Creon
The cruise company AMA, arranged for cured meat, bread and cheese tasting. I had no idea there were so many types of ham. Those from specific regions have very strong naming and process restrictions if they are going to carry the local moniker. It’s quite similar to the requirements for wine. Again we made the mistake of eating breakfast so we weren’t really hungry but we did end up trying every type of meat and some bread. By the time we got to the cheese shop, we couldn’t hold another bite. It’s probably just as well because the French really like their cheese and have over 300 types made in France alone. Most of them were in this shop and some were rather aromatic. Neither Karen or I particularly like strong cheese but most of the tour group loved it. The stall owners are all proud of their wares and even through we were clearly tourists and weren’t going to buy much, several cordially (sometimes, rather insistently) offered samples just so we could try. They are obviously proud of what they sell.
Cured Meats At the Creon Market
The afternoon was another highly anticipated tour at Chateau De La Riviere in the Fronsac Region. It was another Chateau on a hill with fantastic views and this one has a few guest rooms for those who want to spend the night. The wine was quite good but the tour was better. First the building is amazing. It’s getting pretty redundant to talk about amazing Chateaus but most of the bigger ones are. We just don’t see that level of adornment or size in California. When many of these were built in the late middle ages to the mid 19th century, having an ornate Chateau to call home was a status symbol. Oh yeah…and clearly size mattered no matter what any one else may say.
Chateau Riviere
Chateau De La Riviere is connected to a tunnel system that was used as a quarry in the 17th century. There are a remarkable 22 kilometers of interconnected tunnels (roughly 13 miles for those us still stuck with the English measuring system. By the way. What’s up with that anyway? The English colonize part of North America, then lose the colonies and just to get even, they flip to metric leaving us as the only country on the planet that still uses a nonsensical measuring system using feet, gallons and Lbs. Ok, enough with the rant). The Chateau has leased 10 kilometers of them where they store their 500,000 bottles of wine for aging. Another cool fact. It is believed that the French resistance used the tunnels as a base in world war II, even though the Germans were ensconced in the Chateau right next door.
AMA Waterways Kristin and Leo. Leo dared me to put a picture of him in the blog post. He is the “thorn” next to the “rose”.
We bought a bottle of their higher end wine, which we didn’t get to try at the Chateau, to have with dinner the next night. It was great. Wine and beer was included with meals on the cruise but we wanted something special for the last night.
Chef Todd of Liaison Bistro and Anna from Idle Hour Winery
Speaking of meals, tonight’s was a wine pairing done by Chef Todd of Liaison Bistro in Berkeley , who brought a number of people on the cruise and our friend Anna, the winemaker from Idle Hour Winery.
Karen hadn’t even finished the first bite of a scallop and shrimp mousse appetizer when she spouted, “Oh my god”. She says it was one of the best bites she has ever had. She was particularly thrilled because she got mine as well because I am that good of a husband….well…actually it’s because I don’t like seafood. We got to know Todd pretty well on the cruise and he is a really jovial guy but I’m seriously pissed off at him now. For all 23 years of our marriage, I’ve been doing most of the cooking at home. I’m actually a pretty good cook and Karen has always been happy with my offerings. Now she’s going to look at my meager fare and realize that they just don’t compare. Thanks a lot Todd! If she leaves me for a French chef some time, I’m coming after you with a stale baguette to beat the daylight out of you. The pairing was phenomenal and Anna broke out two of our favorites, her double gold winning Reserve Tempranillo and Cabernet Franc.
A little dancing finished the evening which is noteworthy because I really don’t like to dance. I’d normally rather have a root canal than dance. Karen loves to so she was up dancing most of the night with our friends although I did dance once with her. Now I’m off the hook for a couple more years…
