Bordeaux. The ‘Confrères’ arrived yesterday … 31 of all the thousands of such friends who have enabled us to grow Chateau La Clarière – the tiny vineyard where I started – to the most important in the area. How? They reliably buy a case of its wine every year, then visit and buy more, we’re booked up for the year.
We run this group tour every year. And I always turn up with one of my boys (ensuring future continuity)! This tour was supposed to have come in 2020 but … well you know!
They had lunch with Les Deux Soeurs; the Two Sisters and family – ‘adorable’ – drank their organic wine and ate their organic garden produce before moving on to the very flash Hotel and Spa La Grande Barraille near Saint Emilion. And with the heat that Spa is very popular. We all had a good dinner, all dressed up … it’s a posh hotel. Served stunning examples of our Epiphanie wines… after too much wine I might have let slip secrets, like which anonymous Premier Grand Cru each comes from.
Today was the Chai au Quai our second winery in Bordeaux, on the quayside of the Dordogne from where Castillon wine has been shipped downriver to the world for a thousand years. (We usually use trucks now). So you’d think nothing much changes but it very much does. This is our ‘wine kitchen’ where, every year, the guys come up with new style wines. We showed the Confrères some examples, then let them have a go at blending. Did well.
It was 38.5C outside. Cellars are truly cool at such times. Super lunch, siesta, then dinner at L’Envers du Decor in Saint Emilion. We are all now best friends and the chatter is deafening … wine does that!
Thank you Tony, family, tour organisers and staff for making this trip worth waiting 3 years for. The attention to detail regarding explanation of wines, and food to enjoy them with, were excellent, the locations superb and the La Clariere chateau and wines excellent. It won’t be 3 years before we make our next trip. Highly recommended.