Another vinyard tour

Early in September, we went on a wine-tasting trip to a small family-owned château in Saint-Caprais-de-Blaye that produces both Côtes de Blaye (Château des Tourtes) on the east side of the Gironde and Haut-Medoc (Château Haut Beyzac) on the west side of the Gironde. Both of these are part of the Bordeaux family of wines. Within the last 5 years or so, CdeB was officially renamed to Blaye-Côtes de Bordeaux, a name that includes Bordeaux to make the association more apparent. Neither of us took any passable pictures inside the shed with the huge containers where the fermenting grapes are maintained at the proper temperature.

The first filtration of the grape juice is done with egg whites. Our guide, Emmanuele, remembers separating eggs when she was a child. The excess of yolks from the wine industry inspired Bordeaux pâtisseriers to invent canelés, a rich pastry available through the area.

The harvest for the year had not yet begun. (It looks like it might be a very good year for the grapes. Knock wood.) You can see bunches of merlot grape hanging low on the vines. Notice how narrow the rows of vines are.

Since much of the work is mechanized, a very narrow tractor is required to drive through the rows.

These are the oak barrels where the red wine is stored. Each barrel is used only three years before it it replaced. The lit signs on the wall display dove logo for the Château des Tourtes. Tourte is the word in the local dialect for touterelle or turtle dove.

After the tour, instead of the regular sort of tasting, we had a meal accompanied by glasses of five different wines, two whites and three reds (including one Haut-Medoc). Both the meal and the wine were very good. Behind us you can see the room where one of the white wines is stored in barrels. (The other is not aged in oak.) These barrels are used only two years.

Afterwards, while Ed was placing our wine order, Kaye got to taste a bottle of €30 wine. We had just bought a couple of €10 bottles of wine, which we thought was very nice. (Actually we bought eight bottles of wine, but the two for €10 were the most expensive. This is about as much as we ever spend for wine.) The €30 wine was in another class altogether. Kaye never expected to be able to tell the difference, but yes you can.

After this the bus (we were happy not to be driving!) took us to visit the citadel at Blaye, which is a world heritage site. We had a walk around the walls, passing the remains of an old château within the fort,

then sat for a rest in the shade with water, then tea and coffee.

At the appointed time, we trundled back to the bus for the ride home.