14 Oct 2023
Super luxurious, pricey, but worth every penny. A very private vineyard tour - literally my wife and I and our guide for the day. Our guide, Aurelian, collected us from our hotel first thing. An ex Bordeaux wine merchant, his knowledge of all things Bordeaux and all things wine was sensational. Driving in his comfortable car we set off for the less well known corner of Bordeaux. First to Graves, home of some particular Bordeaux reds, but also some very unusual but excellent dry whites. Part of Bordeaux, but very specifically their own area too. A wonderful chateau visit with Emily at a smaller chateau (30k bottles in a good year) - massively knowledgable, a great tour and some really informative samples to taste to help educate these two novice rosbifs! A wonderful experience. On to chateau two which happened to have a beautiful restaurant attached. Stopped for lunch with our guide and carried on the conversation of the day. Chateau 2 and 3 of the day were down in Sauternes. As fairly recent converts to the joy of good dessert wine, this was absolutely fascinating. The differences in vintages, different blends, in how long the bottle had aged, in different vineyards and areas of the same vineyard a few hundred yards apart, and in different winemakers approaches were startlingly illustrated. Absolutely fascinating and educational. A great tour - the passion of the owner of the business comes through loud and clear, and in Aurelian she has a wonderful person to share his knowledge. A very full day out - not cheap at all, but you cannot beat the experience of being the centre of attention, especially if a bit worried about getting caught up in a bigger tour with experts or wine bores. Wonderful.