The Tatler Dining Guide Philippines
No Time For Boredom In Bordeaux
Bordeaux is a good destination for newbies as well as wine connoisseurs. Chit Juan shows us a glimpse of what two days in wine country can bring
I always thought of Bordeaux as a source of serious wine, with appellations and “hard-to-fathom” nomenclatures. But guess what? a visit to Bordeaux will prove otherwise. it actually is fun and interesting to go around a few areas in the southwest of France, learn a bit of history and become comfortable with wines.
If you can only spare two days for this interesting port city of France, make sure you get to see the wines with Graves, sauternes and st. Emilion on their labels. Bordeaux’s history as a trading port makes one’s visit doubly interesting as you imagine ships travelling from England to France, and ships coming from africa and the West indies with coffee, cocoa, and even wood on board.
Bordeaux in the 18th century was really the place for aristocrats as most of its inhabitants were in the flourishing wine trade between England and France, and literally did not know where to put their monies. the evidence is in the Museum of Decorative arts, where donations of household effects from old families are put together to show the visitor just how ostentatious the families were during the time of Louis XiV.
For a taste of good wines from different areas in Bordeaux, you can start at château smith haut Lafitte where the owners Florence and David cathiard have expanded their estate to now include two more châteaux nearby, adding to their original 78 hectare vineyard. have a taste of white or red wine, both made from handpicked
grapes that are sorted and carefully pressed as seeds that get crushed may give wine a bad taste or flavour. the seeds and skins are also saved for their polyphenols which one of the cathiard daughters has patented into five cosmetic formulas, giving rise to yet another side business.
The plots of vines measuring 50cm by 50cm each are monitored closely by
It is a common practice for château owners to open their own bar or café rather than just depend on negotiators or traders to make their wine known to many
Bordeaux in the 18th century was really the place for aristocrats as most of its inhabitants were in the flourishing wine trade between England and France, and literally did not know where to put their monies
satellite to ensure that optimal conditions make a homogenous taste profile for the wines. Each batch or plot is combined only with the same kinds of grapes to give stable flavours and body to their house speciality brands—château smith haut Lafitte and Les hauts de smith.
SAUTERNES
I never knew about the science behind sauternes until i visited château suduiraut, just a stone’s throw from château D’Quiem which now sells the most expensive sweet wine called sauterne. they share the same hills and terroir, and you can be certain their wines will taste similar to each other. château D’Quiem is now owned by Bernard arnault of LVMh group.
Château Suduiraut prides itself in having a very stringent process of hand picking each grape that has been entered by the fungus Botrytis cinerea. sauterne has cool mornings for the fungus to set in and it has warm afternoons which allows water to evaporate from each grape, causing the sugars to build up in each fruit. the pickers make sure that the grapes they choose for this wine have been infected by the fungus.
The “rotten” grapes are then picked and pressed, filtered, and allowed to age in oak barrels until its sugars go down to a level of 140grams per litre (down from 350 grams per litre upon picking). the addition of sulphites makes this happen and the process is aborted once the desired sweetness is reached.
sauternes can be aged and there is a big difference in flavour between a young sauterne and a smoky, tobacco-flavoured
older vintage. another method that they use in filtration is the addition of egg whites to make use of albumins. this gives rise to oversupply of egg yolks which enterprising Bordeaux bakers make into caneles, a pastry that is now a signature of Bordeaux.
Sauternes can be served as aperitifs or as a partner to strong cheese like Roquefort.
ST. EMILION
If the name sounds familiar, this is because many wines come from this region which has a lot of grape varieties: Merlot grapes, cabernet sauvignon and cabernet Franc. Each château blends its favourite varieties which may come from old and young trees, each with a particular role in the taste of the château’s signature blends.
To ensure a swift process, optical sorters are now used to assist pickers in sorting through the grapes, to make sure that the same color, ripeness and quality are maintained and that a higher yield per hectare can be achieved. all the improvements in technology, however, do not interfere with age-old traditions of biodynamic agriculture but merely assist in ensuring consistency of taste profile.
We had the chance to taste four signature blends from the following places all located in st. Emilion: château Dassault, château corbin, château de Ferrand and Pavilion Faurie de souchard.
But visiting a vineyard managed by Laurence Brin, a passionate lady who inherited the job from her father and who practically grew up in the château, gave us a better understanding of how each vineyard keeps its flavour profile and how it blends its best grapes for its signature blend.
As if visiting wineries for two days is not enough, Bordeaux prides itself in serving good food with its wines. We met up at café tupina, a 30-year-old restaurant that has since expanded to take up more buildings on a tiny street in Bordeaux’s centre. Legend has it that the owner was bothered by his neighbours who complained of the noise of his dinner clients. this made the owner buy the buildings on either side of his restaurant, literally making it one of the longest restaurant bar operations along the street of Rue Porte dela Monnaie. there also is a bar called Kuzina, just beside it, run by château owners thierry and amelie. so you move from bar to dinner and in each place, an interesting wine is served. thierry and amelie served us their own château’s blends: château des Gravières (owned by thierry’s family) and
The “rotten” grapes are then picked and pressed, filtered, and allowed to age in oak barrels until its sugars go down to a level of 140grams per litre (down from 350 grams per litre upon picking)
Château Doms cuvee amelie (named after amelie’s great grandmother).
It is a common practice for château owners to open their own bar or café rather than just depend on negotiators or traders to make their wine known to many. this was the practice started by a wine owner, o’ Brien, during the 18th century, when he opened his own wine bar rather than have his wines shipped as a commodity to England which might have caused him to lose his name or provenance.
Ah, Bordeaux. You have shown me how to appreciate wine, not by vintage alone but by your history. i would not mind doing another visit, maybe this time to the Medoc region to taste the famous château Margaux right at the source.