France Day Three

There will be noticeably fewer pictures in this post- remember that wonderful restaurant from last night? I left my camera there and we didn't have a chance to retrieve it (they still had it praise the LORD) till late this evening. Today we "do Sauternes": Château La Tour Blanche, Château Guiraud, lunch, Château Suduiraut, and Château Climens. Here's some pics:






We were a bit late to the Sauternes district - our GPS doesn't do lat/long correctly :-( ... so we missed our first appointment :-( We were, however very impressed with Château Guiraud. The gentleman that gave us the private tour was very knowledgeable, and the Château Guiraud 2002 Sauternes he poured was very pleasant! A surprisingly good showing for an off year for Sauternes.

Then, we had lunch at a small bakery, where the baker made an incredibly tasty sandwich for Julie and I: Thick slices of creamy Brie cheese and ham, on a freshly baked and thickly buttered baguette. Wow.

Next, off to Château Suduiraut! We had to wait about 45min for our tour guide to show up, but it was worth it. She showed us all around the winery, and then we even got to watch some of the grapes be pressed! It was really cool ... the press moves very slowly, and the juice flows into a big plastic container, from which it is pumped into large vats. We were then treated to a glass of the grape juice - WOW, very very tasty! These were the grapes for their dry-style wine, but even so the juice was very nice.

Finally, we stopped at Château Coutet. The grounds were fairly pretty, but small. The woman showed us around, and we got to barrel sample the recent '06 vintage. Nice, but not overwhelming ... maybe it'll become so with more age?

We then headed back to La Maison de Sauternes to taste a bit more. It's a tasting bar sponsored by a bunch of Sauternes wineries, where you can try their wines and then purchase them. I asked the very unfriendly lady what "off-the-beaten-path" Sauternes she would recommend, and she introduced me to this very interesting bottle, which actually was a blend of every single Sauternes wines! It wasn't too bad, and for about 10€ + tax per 750ml bottle, I couldn't say no, and got 3 bottles. I got 2 more tastes out of the Wicked Witch of the West (Ch. "R" and Ch. La Tour Blanche) before waving goodbye to the Sauternes district.

We then headed back up to St. Julien to retrieve our camera, and then fell into bed.