Bordeaux, France
Date: August 17, 2018 – August 19, 2018
Location: Bordeaux, France
From Barcelona, Spain, Brian and I took a bus to Bordeaux, France. The trip was a little over 11 hours.
La Cité du Vin – August 18, 2018
La Cité du Vin is a wine museum in Bordeaux. The museum opened in 2016.
The museum has a lot of information from the history of wine, how it is produced and information about the wine regions all over the word. There is a lot of technology used in the museum with visuals and interactive displays.
Brian and I spent three hours in the museum and could have stayed longer. The museum ticket includes a glass of wine on the top floor of the building. The selection of wine we could choose from was larger than I expected.
On the top floor you can also go outside to see the town.
This is looking towards the old town.
La Cité du Vin also has workshops. There are some that happen everyday and we did the Question of Style: Bordeaux workshop. We learned about the Bordeaux wine regions and the grapes that grow there.
We then tasted three wines: a Claret, Graves and Margaux. We enjoyed the Margaux the best.
On our way back from La Cité du Vin to the Airbnb we stopped in the old town.
This is parliament square.
Across the street from parliament square is miroir d’eau, water mirror. It is the world’s largest reflecting pool. It was built in 2006.
Wine Tour – August 19, 2018
We scheduled a full day wine tour. On the way to the Bordovino apartment we went to see Monument aux Girondins.
For the wine tour it was only Brian and I in the morning. We heard about the different grapes and then got to try a 100% Cabernet Sauvignon wine and a 100% Merlot wine. We then blended them together for 70% Cabernet Sauvignon and 30% Merlot and a 30% Cabernet Sauvignon and 70% Merlot. I was surprised which blend I liked better.
After experiencing the new aromas that are created from blending grapes we did a blind tasting of four wines. Each wine was from a different region in France and we tried to guess what region each was from based on the color, smell and taste of the wines. Brian got 2 out of the 4 correct where I only got 1 correct. Valentin, our guide for the day, also had to guess and correctly got 4 out of 4.
After lunch others joined our group and went to Château Côte de Baleau.
We saw that mildew has effected the grapes this season.
This is a bottle of wine from 1961 that has never been opened. As you can see, the bottle doesn’t look full. The wine evaporated because the bottle was stored upright instead of on its side.
After Château Côte de Baleau, we went to the town of Saint-Émilion. In the town we went to Clos des Menuts to see the wine caves that are under the town.
The wine is stored in the cool, dark caves.
Upstairs in the shop the wine was for sale.
The last winery we wen to was Château Ambe Tour Pourret. They had an interesting poster that showed what aromas each grape is known to provide.
The area has a lot of grape vines in each direction that you look.
We had a great day on the wine tour!
Back in Bordeaux we saw the big bell of bordeaux.
Around Bordeaux there is a lot of construction going on. It will be interesting to see what the area looks like five years from now.
