Bordeaux and the Wine Tour

I am on the train writing this blog offline and will post it once I get to my apartment in Paris. It is a rather wordy one, so you might want to just skip the last section on the wine tour and just view the pictures if you are not interested in the details relating to Bordeaux wineries and wine production.

I had a great Friday night wandering around Bordeaux being amazed at the crowds of people who where out in the streets. Around midnight I headed back to my hotel, which was on the right bank of La Garonne, the large river which forms a large estuary as it pours into the Atlantic a distance from Bordeaux. The most touristy part of Bordeaux is on the left Bank of the river where forms the shape of the moon in a large curve. Yesterday's post featured some of those night shots which included the Port Du Pierre, an 18th century bridge. I will add add some labels and explanation to yesterday's photos when I get a minute.

Here are a few pictures I took of varous monuments and churches.

 

The bricks on the left side of this church have been cleaned, as part of the effort to bring the city back to what it was - "a golden city". You can really see in the photo how dirty the buildings have become. In the part if the city I was in, the more touristy area, I'd say half of the major buildings have had their bricks cleaned.

I have been pleased to see in the major European urban centres I have seen on this trip and how much attention has been given by the planners to provide for pedestrian traffic, cycling and public transit everywhere. This bridge and avenues in the surrounding area of Bordeaux is a great example of this. There are two dedicated walkng, cycling , tram (public transit) lanes and just one auto lane in each direction across this bridge. It makes for more pleasant walking when cars do not dominate the roadways.

Bordeaux's public transit seemed fast and efficient with dedicated lanes for the major routes which are serviced by frequent running, modern Tram cars and buses running on the lesser traveled routes. The ticketing system is very efficient with paper time limited tickets being purchased from machines and validated by the passenger as they board the car. I looked at the fares and with a single trip for 1.5 hours and a monthly pass at only 32 € is very cheap. Barcelona's system was similar in that cars did not rule thenroads, even though they also had a very comprehensive subway route. Toronto's Mayor Rob Ford please take note!

I had booked a full day wine tour for my Saturday in Bordeaux via internet just 2 days earlier. The confirmation received back from the booking company said that I needed to confirm the tour by phone prior to arrival. I was very annoyed that my call to the number went unanswered and I just did not have the patience to try further. My main challenge was that I didn't know where I was to go to meet the tour group and the tour was scheduled to leave at 9:30 the morning after my arrival. So I had a bit of chasing to do to deal with all this, made doubly difficult since the tour office didn't open until 9:30!

I found my way to the tour group and joined the tour in progress at the Bordeaux Wine Museum. I got there just at the end of the museum tour and at the beginning of the wine tasting, which I guess was not too bad. We learned how to taste the wine and evaluate colour, aroma and palate and then we tasted two Bordeaux wines - a dry white and a red.

The next part was a walking tour from the museum to a restaurant for lunch, through what once was the wine district. This area housed the trades involved in the wine business in Bordeaux through the centuries that Bordeaux has been the wine making capital of the world (per the tour Guide LOL). Barrel coopers, label makers and wine merchants were centred in this one area around Rue Notre Dame to the north of the city centre near the river.

We ended up at the "Restaurant of Wine and Cheeses" for a 3 course lunch of typical Bordeaux fare. I particularly liked the baked cabecou cheese dish which was the starter. Of course, the main, Duck Confit, was pretty good too. The meal was finished with (of course) a selection of cheeses and a dessert of a pot of lemon cream and coffee. All accompanied with some great Bordeaux wine.

We got to tour the restaurant's "cheese cave" - a cellar room which was chilled and filled with hundreds of cheeses.

We were in a jolly mood when we hopped on the larger bus with those who had only taken the half day tour, which was a visit to two wine Chateaux in the Madoc region of Bordeaux.

Wine has been produced in Bordeaux since Roman times, however it probably was the church which started wine production in any major way as they needed wine for communion and also to give to pilgrims who would stay at the churches after their daily trek. Eventually, the estates were owned by families who over generations turned these small vineyards into the large "companies" or Chateaux they are today. In Bordeaux, a Chateau is an identified wine producing property and is not a type of home. At the present time, a good number of the Chateaux are owned by major companies and very wealthy indivuidals who have purchased them as an investment rather than as a family run business.

Wine production is very controlled inBordeaux and the better Chateaux are distinguished by a rating, to indicate the quality of the wine to expect from the Chateau.

Chateau Priueri-Lichine

We first visited Chateau Priueri-Lichine in the Margeaux appelation and then we visited Chateau Paloumey of the Haut-Medoc appellation. The two wine Estates are operated quite differently from one another and I developed an appreciation of the one of the aspects of terroir as a consequence. But let me backtrack and tell you about "the notion of terroir".

From wiki: In Bordeaux the concept of terroir plays a pivotal role in wine production with the top estates aiming to make terroir driven wines that reflect the place they are from. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bordeaux_wine

There are several factors which affect the grapes and the wine which is produced. Terroir formalizes the three major things which affect the wine which an estate produces - the land upon which the grapes are grown, the climate during the growing season and the people who produce the wine.

The Bordeaux wine growing region is divided into different wine growing areas which reflects the first aspect of terroir - the area of land in which the grapes are grown. There are several areas which provide the different conditions for the types of grapes grown here, to make the the generic dry red Bordeaux you might recognize, (blend of up to 6 types of grapes including merlot and cabernet sauvignon and Cabernet Franc), or the dry white or the sweeter Sauternes, for instance. This area designation can be used by an estate to provide a general name for a wine produced within that area and if it doesn't meet the criteria for the more specific village appellation designation. An example is a Madoc wine.

These areas of land are further divided into named appellations to identify wines made within smaller villages or cluster of villages. Because Bordeaux is like a puzzle, made up of areas with distinct and subtle different soils and microclimates within a relatively close distance, there are 60 appellations within this wine growing region of France. The area of land, with a slightly different type of soil, sandy or gravelly or rocky or less so and a particular microclimate with warm humid breezes and certain amount of sun, affect the qualities of the grape used in the local wine and make each wine appellation unique.

Of course it is not just about the area of land being used to produce the wine and there are other aspects of terroir. One other one is the weather during the growing season. This struck home as we stood out in the fields at Chateau Paloumey and looked at the vines and were advised that they would be flowering next week. The Chateaux hope for no rain while the vines are blooming so that the pollen will have time on the flowers to ensure lots of grapes of good quality. If it rains the pollen will be washed off before it can do its job and the harvest will be poor. I noticed that they are forecasting rain for much of next week and hoped that the forecast was wrong. The specific weather in a year affects the grapes available to make the wine and the resulting quality of the vintage of a particular year. It also creates challenges for the wine makers to overcome and explains general terms used to describe the vintage year, "classic vintage" (ordinary weather), "technical vintage" (when the weather is bad and the all the skill of the wine maker is needed to improve upon what nature provides, and the "superior vintage", which is used in years where the grapes were exceptional. 2006, the year we were tasting, was defined as a classic vintage.

As I learned about viniculture and wine production, I was struck by how labour intensive the job is, even with modern technology and this is the last aspect of Terroir, the people (and the choices they make about production). For instance, at Chateau Priueri-Lichine they hand pick the grapes and use a machine with a sophisticated sensor to sort the individual grapes prior to fermenting whole grapes (uncrushed) in cement vats while at Chateau Paloumey they use machines to harvest but hand sort the grapes which are crushed prior to fermentation in steel vats. Individual differences in growing practices and production is what distinguishes not only one Chateau ( and the skill of their wine makers) from another Chateau but also one vintage (year) from another as no two year's blends are the same even for the same Chateau. In fact, we learned that Bordeaux Chateaux do not strive for consistency in flavor one vintage to the next, but rather they attempt to produce the best taste given the specific characteristics of the grapes which were harvested in that year. This is what making "terroir driven wines" is all about.

Looking inside the cement vats at the Chateau Priueri-Lichine.

Our tour guide, Bruno and the tour guides associated with the individual Chateau we visited were each very personable and informative. I am so much better informed about the French process of making wines in Bordeaux and the system of classification for these wines. I had no idea that the designations are so rigid and rules for production are so strict. For instance, to use a specific area designation such as Hault-Madoc the grapes must be grown by the chateau (not purchased from another grower) and they must be grown within the small area defined by the appelation and the wine must be produced and bottled by that same Chateaux. There are also rules governing the growing of the grapes, such as they may not irrigate the vines. I learned a lot on the wine tours but mostly I learned that there is a lot to know.

Learning about and tasting wines might be something I could get into when I get back to Canada.

As the tour ended it was evening and I wandered back to the hotel, I was tired, no doubt because of the full day which included lots of wine! We had sampled 6 different wines and had several glasses over lunch! I was not at all hungry so after walking for a bit I headed back to the hotel to get organized for my trip to Paris in the morning.

I am so excited that I will be joined there for a full week by 3 of my adult children. Additionally, it will be the first time in over 50 days that I have stayed in the same place for more than 2 nights and not a hotel so it will be nice to relax in a home like atmosphere for a while. That said, we have lots planned for Paris, so stay tuned!

I found a familiar icon at one of the monuments in Bordeaux. The Turonensis route of the Camino passes through Bordeaux.

 

Over the Pyrenees by Train and on to Bordeaux

What a full day! When I was planning my trip, I found a refence on the Internet to a scenic train ride through the Pyrrenes from Barcelona to Toulouse. The journey is via regional trains - a milk run and is comprised of a Spanish train from Barcelona to Latour de Carol then a French train from there to Toulouse. Spain has a different gauge rail than the rest of Europe so you actually do have to change trains when you leave the country.

It would be the first day's use of my 7 day Eurorail pass. While the fare is apparently not a lot, there is an added benefit when using the Eurorail pass that you don't have to line up to buy tickets. You do need to buy a "reservation" on some of the trains and the price varies. (see note below on Using a Eurorail pass.)

My train was scheduled to leave at 9:30, so being my usual "early rather than late" self, I set off for the train station at 7:30, having been told it was a 15 minute journey by metro. I must say that Barcelona has an excellent subway system, with routes going every which way. From the Universitat station it was three stops to a change from the red line to the green line and then two stops along the green line to the Sants Estation stop - easy peasy! I had enough time to grab a bit of breakfast and stock up on some food for the trip and was waiting at the disparture display in plenty of time to see that train which was leaving from track 8.

I was amazed at how many trains were leaving from track 8 in the short while until my train left. The Sants train station is in the centre of Barcelona and I started to draw parallels with Toronto's Union station during the inbound commute by office workers into the centre of the city. Outbound travelers on regular trains must be similarly bewildered. In the 15 minutes I sat waiting at track 8 I saw 7 trains arrive.

At 2 minutes after my train was supposed to depart I started to get worried. I asked a man who was waiting also and he just shrugged, but all was well when a few minutes later a train labelled with my destination pulled into the station. It was a small commuter style train and I had to run up to the centre of the platform to get on because it only had a few cars. The train stopped for no more than 2 minutes and off we were!

When I got myself settled I noticed that an oriental lady was chatting with someone asking about the train being late. The woman replied "Spanish trains are always late!". Apparently the folks at the information booth had given the woman a print out showing a departure time of 9:33 when it was already 9:37! Anyway, the three of us - Gemma, Soon and myself, had a great chat for a good hour or so until we got to the Vic station where Gemma was heading to stay with family for the week end. Her parting words were that the train trip was usually so boring she was so glad to have had such good company of woman travellers to chat with.

We continued on up and through the mountains until we reached the small village of Latour de Carol where we were to have changed trains after a layover of an hour - now only a half hour due to the late start.

 

After some wait on the train we were advised that the train was malfunctioning and that we would be bussed forward to the next stop, but it would be an hour before the bus would arrive. Soon and I wandered through the small village in 10 minutes and when we got back the bus was there. We all piled in and the bus left immediately. I am not sure if anyone actually went on a longer walk and got left behind.

When we bused into the next stop and boarded the train that was waiting there we discovered that the passengers there had been waiting for us for an hour. Two stops down the line they removed the car we were in and we had to squeeze into the few cars that were left. I guess it had to go back to the Latour stop and pull the other cars out of the station. There were still two hours of small town stops left in the journey and by the time we arrived in Toulouse it was a very packed train full of late people.

No big worry for me though because I had a 2 hour window to the connection to Bordeaux which left at 6:46, so I had just enough time to secure my reservation on the TVG and eat last night's leftover pizza, followed by a French pastry and espresso to celebrate my arrival in France!

The TVG is a fast train and it only 2 hours to Bordeaux - no milk run! I thanked my intuition to get a 1st class ticket as the seats are very comfy, there is a table which helps with typing my blog and even a plug so that I can charge my iPad as I type. So I was able two catch up on my blogs (offline text part that is) while I travelled.

Once I reach my hotel in Bordeaux I will upload the two new blogs and pictures before bed. Tomorrow is a big day - wine tasting and chateau tours! I have splurged on a nice hotel for the next two days, at least judging by the price. We shall see. After my Peregrino days it doesn't take much to define luxury for me.

I am including a few of the wonderful Bordeaux night scenes I shot tonight.

Note re Eurorail Passes: I am not sure if I will be saving anything or much by buying the pass, but I plan to sum up the individual fare prices plus reservation costs and see if there is saving. There are 7 days of train travel in my itinerary however depending on which trains you take there are reservation costs in addition to the Eurorail pass costs to be considered. Today I paid 6 € for the reservation on the Toulouse-Bordeaux route - 1st class but the 2nd class reservation cost was 18 €. I did the reservation for the Bordeaux-Paris trip on Sunday via Internet before I left and as I recall the reservation fee was not cheap! So we will see whether I get more than the cost 589 CAD in value from the pass.

Barcelona in Two Days

Ok, not even 2 days, but long enough to know that I want to go back again. I wrote this blog on the train to Toulouse and will post it when I find some wifi.

I arrived via Ryan Air (see note below) at the Baracelona xx Airport and was whisked to the xxx, in the centre of Barcelona and a 10 min walk to my hostel for only 5.65 €. It was just after noon when I settled into my new digs and set out to explore. The first thing I had to do was buy a new camera as the one I had brought somehow had developed a black cloud over one spot on the frame. The camera guy said it was a malfunction of the sensor and couldn't be repaired. The good news is that I was able to purchase a new one - one model up an SX230 - tax free - for 210 €. I was told the price was much reduced since the model came out last year and it certainly was cheaper, as I recall, than the old one I bought just over a year ago. This model features a GPS and so records the location of each picture taken. More importantly to me, I could use the accessories I had for my old camera and best, I don't have to spend time reading the manual.

The Rick Steve's Guide recommends the city bus tours and after looking at the extensive routes for the hop on, hop off double decker bus ride, I purchased a 2 day ticket for 24€, deciding to focus on the north or blue route on day 1 and the south or red route on day 2. The blue route essentially covered buildings which were architected by Goudy and other modernista architects.

Barcelona is a tremendously interesting city architecturally. From wiki:

Barcelona is today one of the world's leading tourist, economic, trade fair/exhibitions and cultural-sports centres, and its influence in commerce, education, entertainment, media, fashion, science, and the arts all contribute to its status as one of the world's major global cities.

From the reading I have done, the city may have originated as early as 3 BC and in about 15 BC the Romans redew the town as Castrum. Between 1885 and 1950 the Catalan modernista architects, such as Antoni Gaudi and Lluis Domenechi I Montaner, their work was related to Art Noiveau in the rest of Europe and it left a major legacy in Barcelona. The result is a city which is wonderful to behold by tourists as it is full of magical buildings.

It is hardto believe that Gaudi became involved in the construction of the Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família in 1886 and his involvement continued until his death in 1926 when it was less than one quarter finished.

I found this picture of the Sagrada Família with the cranes digitally removed. Gives you a better idea of what he had designed.

After an hour or so on the bus I began to feel a bit sick so I headed back to the hostel to rest. Unfortunately, I think I picked up a little bit of a flu because I ended up in bed for the rest of the day with fever, chills and stomach cramps. I started to feel better during the night and rested easier knowing I would be able to set out to explore Barcelona in the morning.

The hostel was pretty good. I had booked a room in a 4 bed dorm but lucked out with a large 3 bed room with a private balcony. My roommate was a young girl from Scandanavia who had been working in Spain and was visiting friends in Barcelona and attending a rock and alternative music festival for a few days. So she was out most of the night and I pretty much had the room to myself. Not that it would have mattered - I was dead to the world for most of the evening and night.

On Friday morning I felt much better and left to check out the Barcelona Touristica's Red route. The hop on hop bus was perfect as I needed to go to the Sants train station to get information regarding my train trip tomorrow and it was one of the stops. Barcelona sits between two large hills and route took us up to a great vantage point on the hill which also served as a stop on the cable car ride down to the Harbour and Barcelona's World Trade Centre. It would have been nice to have gone on the cable car and I guess that is a reason as good as any to plan to return to Barcelona.

 

 

 

As it was, I was able to get off thie tourist bus and see the panoramic view of the city and in particular see the towers of Gaudi's work in progress, Sagrada Família. Construction is slow as it continues at the pace dictated by the amount of donations made to finance it. When finished there will be 18 towers in all. Interestingly, as I flew into the city I was able to see the distinctive towers spiraling above the Barcelona skyline.

My zoom lense allowed me to take this photo of the towers.

After getting a bird's eye view of the city, the bus whisked off down the hill and we toured the harbour area. There were many things to see.

The Columbus statue is the largest one in the world, which is appropriate since it was here that he arrived to tell Queen Isabella about his discovery of the new world.

After a drive by of the Barcelona beaches we turned back and headed to the Bari Gothic, in the old city. Here I took the opportunity to go to the Piccasso museum. His work was presented chronologically and here I saw how his work progressed from his more realistic portraiture during the late 1800s to the impressionistic and avant guard work through the 1900s.

From here I moved on to The Rambla, Barcelona's main street, (actually 5 streets joined together)- but it is a main street like I have never seen. It winds down from the Plaza Catalunia to the Harbour, but it's more pedestrian walkway than road as there is only a single lane of traffic, either side of the wide pedestrian boulevard down the middle.

I stopped and ordered a sangria and a bowl of gaspacho and watched the world go by. I was struck by how much of the city is geared to being outside, with the numerous plazas and outdoor cafes and this wonderful Rambla.

On my way home I stopped at a cafe and ordered what turned out to be decidedly mediocre pizza and saved half of it for my lunch on the train tomorrow. My research told me that there is no service on the train and I will be traveling all day and didn't want to be without food.

Stay tuned - tomorrow is over the Pyrenees.