2 Comments Although I say on the video that it is day 6, it was actually day 7.
This was mostly a travel day but when we got to Burgundy (or Bourgogne as they spell it here) we were still able to squeeze in a tour of another winery and a four course meal with sampling of 14 wines, what they call La Grande Dégustation.
Play the video below to watch our 5th day in Bordeaux.
Wine tastings on the left bank and visits of Châteaux.
We visited Phelan Ségur and Château Teynac
Please play the video below and enjoy our fourth day in France.
Shows a day trip into the city of Bordeaux for a wine tasting class at the CIVB (Conseil Interprofessionnel du Vin de Bordeaux or the Interprofessional Council for the Wine of Bordeaux). We were unable to video during ths class but got some pictures of the CIVB lobby.
Next was visit to Planet Bordeaux (http://www.planete-bordeaux.net/) which is an educational center that provides an overview of the whole process from grapes to wine in the Bordeaux and Bordeaux Superieur Appellations: seasons, terroirs, landscapes, patrimony, winegrowing techniques, fermentations, aromas, materials (wood, glass, cork) and a childrens corner. Unfortunately all the exhibits were in darkened rooms and almost all were some form of video presentation which could not be recorded.
I was pleased to see Eric Asimov’s article in this week’s Dining and Wine section of the New York Times discussing the wonderful affordable French wines available in the US market. Asimov writes, “Even with the pitiful exchange rate, France is the greatest source of wine bargains in the world.” I couldn’t agree with him more!
Asimov lists a number of terrific values .I was especially happy to see him recognize the virtues of Marc Kreydenweiss’ Perrières from Costières de Nîmes, which is also one of my featured wines and is a biodynamic wine to boot!
As we all tighten our belts just a little bit more these days (someone thoughtfully pointed out to me the other day that this is the worst time since the Great Depression to be trying to sell a house), it is more important than ever to be getting a great value at your wine store. And as Asimov’s article points out, this is absolutely possible when you are buying French wine!
I’d love to hear from you – does anyone have a great inexpensive French wine that isn’t on the list or featured in Asimov’s article that you would like to share? Drop me a line and fill me in on your best French buy.
I feel a little bit like a kid in a candy store – actually, make that an overgrown kid in a candy store. I just joined Facebook, the social networking site. I waffle between feeling like I’m still in high school and marveling about how cool it is to be able to reconnect with friends from high school and college. Several of my friends are right, though, it is amazing how much time you can spend surfing through people’s pages and posting messages to your friends.
As soon as I figure out how everything works, I plan to check out the different wine groups on Facebook. I’m always fascinated to see the information that is available on the web for wine enthusiasts – it is really nothing short of amazing!
And speaking of technology, how cool is it to see the videos from Rosie and Donald! Saint-Emilion is one of the most beautiful and quaint towns in Bordeaux (it is also an UNESCO World Heritage Site). If they can’t be experiencing the fun of the harvest, at least there are some fantastic sites to see and tour! Rosie and Donald, keep up the great work! We can’t wait to hear more from you about the trip.
And that reminds me, Donald mentioned in one of the videos about storing wine in underground caves which provide a perfect cool environment. I noticed a headline recently that a company in Boise, Idaho has a device called PakSense that is starting to get popular in the wine industry. PakSense is a small temperature sensitive label that can be programmed to go off if it experiences a temperature above or below a certain window.
Wineries and wine shipping companies can use this little device to make sure that wines that are shipped don’t get too hot during their journey. Why would this be so important? Well, storage temperature for wine is vital to the overall health of your wine. If a wine is kept at too warm a temperature, the wine will, essentially, cook. I have found that on too many occasions, wine is shipped from one location to another without any regard for temperature and in the process it is kept in places that are far too warm. It was one of the first things I noticed when I moved from New York to North Carolina. When I would open a wine I had purchased in NC that I used to drink regularly in NY, it tasted like the fruit had been cooked.
When you live in a warm state (doesn’t matter if it is red or blue), then you really need to be mindful about buying wine and leaving it in your car for long periods of time. Just as you wouldn’t leave meat or frozen items in the car, you shouldn’t leave wine in a warm car either – it can be damaged. Which is one reason why labels with temperature sensors are so great. While these labels aren’t in widespread use just yet, at least we have taken a step in the right direction and acknowledged that it is important to know where your wine has been before it ends up on your table. Just as traceability is important in food, it is also important in wine! If any of you out there have received any wine through the mail that has one of these sensors on the label or the packaging, drop me a line – I’d love to hear about it. Cheers!
This trip was to be about the grape harvest. However, our itinerary has been turned on its head. Apparently, someone forgot to advise Mother Nature of the itinerary and she made her own. In a nutshell, this weekend we were to help with the grape harvesting, which is called vandange, and learn about life and work at the vineyard. Due to an unusually cool and wet summer the grapes are not ready to be picked yet and it does not appear they will be ready for another week or two.
Therefore, after spending some time in the morning trying to adjust to the time difference, we went to see Saint Émilion . This is one of the towns in France which an appellation is named after. There will be more about this later, but briefly an appellation is a small agricultural region that has a similar micro climate and is named after the largest town or village in the area. In addition to Saint-Émilion Grand Cru there are four satellite appellations that share the Saint Émilion name.
The Romans planted vineyards in what was to become Saint-Émilion as early as the 2nd century AD.
One of the highlights in touring the town was when we found ourselves in a wine cave. There are many caves in the limestone that creates the great hill on which the town stands. The caves provide inexpensive climate control for the aging and storing of wine. In this region their temperature stays relatively constant at about 13.0 °C or 55 °F with humidity around 80%. The oldest vintage in this particular cave was from 1967
There are few wine regions that have a more interesting “founding” story than that of Champagne. While there is a great deal of evidence to indicate that the story of the sparkling wine of Champagne being invented by Dom Pérignon, a monk at the Abbey of Hautvillers, is not true, the idea that he was responsible does persist to this day. Legend holds that Dom Pérignon discovered a bottle of wine in which a second fermentation had taken place which had produced carbon dioxide and cried out to his fellow monks, “come quick Brothers, I am drinking the stars!” While we know that this was not what happened, it does much to illustrate the certain “Hollywood” quality unique to Champagne.
So how exactly is Champagne made? Well, first the grapes (Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier) are picked by hand. This is necessary because you want to avoid breaking any grapes so that there is no contact between the grape skins and the grape juice. This is important because color in a wine comes from skin contact and as 2 of the 3 grapes for Champagne are red - but the final color of the wine desired is more often than not white - you don’t want to encourage anything that will promote skin contact and color extraction.
Once picked, the grapes are pressed in whole bunches, again to prevent as much skin contact as possible. The wine is then fermented with the goal of producing a wine that has high acidity, moderate alcohol and a fairly neutral aroma and flavor. Different vineyards and different grapes are fermented separately and then blended together. The blending step is considered to be one of the most important, as you are not only blending together wines that have just been fermented, but also wines from other vintages. The goal is to create a base wine that will produce a sparkling wine that reflects the house style. For some houses, this can mean blending together as many as 300 different wines to create the final base wine!
After the final base wine is created, a process known as Assemblage, then the Liqueur de triage, a blend of sugar syrup and yeast, is added to the wine. The wine is then bottled and stored horizontally at a cool temperature while the secondary fermentation takes place in the bottle. The secondary fermentation that occurs adds not only carbon dioxide (bubbles), but will also add a bit of alcohol and complex flavors and aromatics to the wine. Once the secondary fermentation has finished, the wine will then go through a process called remuage, or riddling. During remuage, bottles will be slowly and gently tilted and turned so that they move eventually from a horizontal to a vertical position with the neck of the bottle pointing to the floor. This will allow the sediment that has been created as a result of the secondary fermentation to collect in the neck of the bottle.
Once the riddling has been completed, the sediment then has to be removed from the bottled. During the disgorgement process, the neck of the bottle is dipped into a freezing solution and then the cap removed. The sediment, which has frozen into a small “ice cube” of sorts, is pressed out by the pressure of the CO2. The final step before the wine is sealed with a mushroom shaped cork, is for the Liqueur d’expédition to be added to the wine. The Liqueur d’expédition, or the dosage, is an addition of wine and sugar that is added to Champagne to adjust the sweetness level.
Personally, I have always found these labels a bit confusing. Why isn’t “Extra Dry” drier than Brut? Instead, Extra Dry, while still on the dry side, can have a little bit of sweetness to it. If you want to compare Champagne sweetness levels for yourself, simply try the two from my list – the Taittinger Brut and the Moet & Chandon White Star. The Taittinger is a Brut Champagne while the White Star is an example of the Extra Dry style.
The sparkling wines of the Champagne region are truly in a unique class all their own. While so many people tend to think of Champagne as the “go-to” wine for celebrations and New Year’s, there is so much more to appreciate about this region and the wines it produces. Champagne, while it does have bubbles, is still a wine, and a very food-friendly one at that. You might be surprised at the idea, but next time you are having sushi or a fish dish, consider opening a bottle of Champagne. Or even try it with BBQ – you might find yourself pleasantly surprised at the combination.
And furthermore, next time you find yourself in Paris, I recommend thinking about a day trip out to the Champagne region. There are any number of producers to visit and the city of Rheims is well-worth exploring. But check the times and tours before you go – making up your own translation to a tour of Champagne caves can be amusing, but you’ll definitely be missing out on some key information that will help you appreciate this wine!
