Bordeaux Travelog

The late, great English wine writer Cyril Ray once called Bordeaux ‘the richest and proudest corner of the vast vineyard that is France’. Bordeaux is the largest producer of fine wine in the world and it also fashions the world’s longest-living table wines. Its fame is squarely based around its 5 or so of truly great chateaux, yet its wine ranges from the cheapest to the most expensive. The Forbes family once paid $US156,450 for a single bottle of 1787 Chateau Lafite, believed to have come from the personal cellar of Thomas Jefferson.

The Bordeaux vineyards border the banks of three great rivers, of which the widest, the Gironde, is the confluence of the other two, the Dordogne and the Garonne. Its production is roughly half red, half white. Most of its great reds are grown to the north, in a sub-region known as the Medoc. From gravelly soils to the south of the city come the great reds of Graves, while along the north bank of the Dordogne are the prestigious vignobles of St-Emilion and Pomerol. Between the two rivers lies the Entre-deux -Mers, most of whose wine is dry and white. The southern and eastern areas of Bordeaux are principally devoted to white wine, of which the sweetest and most famous are given the names of Sauternes and Barsac.

Bordeaux owes much to its maritime location on the south-west French coast, which provides it with a moderate and stable climate culminating in the lingering Indian summers of better years. Its network of rivers helps reduce climatic extremes and the thick band of forest which separates the wine regions from the Atlantic protects the vineyards from salt-bearing winds. Typical of most of the world’s better wine regions, Bordeaux topsoil is frequently poor, often stony, thereby encouraging the growth of vine roots deep underground in their endless search for nutrition.

The city of Bordeaux is presently France’s fifth largest city and sixth largest port, although petroleum products constitute the overwhelming majority of its cargo today. Handsomely constructed in the time of Louis XIV and Louis XV with some of France’s finest 18th century architecture, Bordeaux’ appeal is aesthetic, in contrast to the captivating simplicity of much of rural France. Set on a crescent-like curve of the Garonne River, Bordeaux flaunts its wide boulevards, noble public buildings and private mansions constructed from golden stone. One of its proudest treasures is the Grand Theatre, commissioned by the Duc de Richilieu, the Governor of Guyenne, and designed and constructed by Victor-Louis.

For nearly 2000 years the Bordelais have been involved in the growing, making, selling and shipping of wine. Their city has been a major port for more than a millennium, the centre of shipping wine from all over the Garonne and Dordogne basin. Although 100 km upstream from the storms of the Atlantic, even Bordeaux’ name recalls its maritime heritage. ‘Au bord de l’eau’ means ‘at the water’s edge’.

Resistant as ever of mass tourism, Bordeaux remains the perfect stamping ground for the casual visitor. There are no giant hotels or crowded tasting rooms, but row after row of delightful street cafes, restaurants and shops, whose cepes, fois gras and patisserie will test the resolve of even the most ardent health do-gooder. A local speciality are cannelets, delicious little yellow cakes made from egg yolks traditionally left over after their whites were used for fining wines.

The Quai des Chartrons makes for exceptional fossicking. The wine shippers’ exclusive and isolated quarter, its grey and whites houses conceal a maze of tunnelled warehouse and cellars where for centuries wine was matured prior to dispatch to England and other destinations. Although most wine is today matured and bottled at its chateau of origin, Bordeaux is rediscovering its historical links with those who conducted its trade for so long.

Bordeaux’ fate has been inextricably entwined with the English and for three centuries, Bordeaux was almost more English than French. In 1154 Henry Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, became Henry II, King of England. His wife was Eleanor of Aquitaine, whose dowry included the Guyenne, the area which covered nearly all the Aquitaine wine-producing country now known as the Gironde.

Until the end of the 14th century the language of the English court was French and by this time wine was Bordeaux’ major export, the English their best customers. The area remained English until the defeat of England’s General John Talbot in 1453 near Castillion, on the Dordogne.

No visitor to Bordeaux could miss the Medoc, a narrow strip of land along the banks of the Gironde to the north of Bordeaux, and its principal raison d’etre as far as most of us are concerned. Home to the premier chateaux of Latour, Lafite-Rothschild, Margaux and Mouton-Rothschild, the Medoc presents an experience to the wine enthusiast rivalled only by the thrill each young Egyptologist must experience at first sighting the Valley of the Pyramids. On holy ground mapped out as finely as a working drawing of a microcomputer, monumental meets mystical and wine drinkers confront the names of their dreams.

To find the Medoc from Bordeaux, follow the road signs to Soulac. Less than 1 km past the turnoff for the Paris Autoroute, the road branches to the right, in the direction of Pauillac. This is the route des Grands Crus, known simply to the travelling oenophile as D2, the road that links the great growths together like pearls on a string.

From the car window the Medoc appears wealthy, well-organised and self-confident. Here and there over clusters of trees protrude slate-topped roofs and turrets, castellated chateaux fashioned in a pot-pourri of architectural styles. While the pagoda’d Cos d’Estournel could have been transplanted from a Chinese Emperor’s summer palace, Chateau Pichon Longueville Baron was surely stolen straight from a children’s fairytale.

Only 25 km northwest of Bordeaux is Margaux, the first of the Medoc’s four principal communes. Its soils are the thinnest of the Medoc, offering its vines the least nourishment. Championed by the jewel of its crown, the classically proportioned Chateau Margaux, its wines are known for their delicacy and sweet perfume. Chateau Palmer is a near neighbour; a small mansion whose graceful lines are reproduced on its label.

At Chateau Giscours tall half-timbered buildings face an impressive sweep of vines. Cantemerle presents itself as a perfect Chateau, nestled deep in a wood of huge trees and quiet pools, while Chateau la Lagune is a neat 18th century building, the closest classified growth to Bordeaux itself.

The D2 then enters Pauillac, which despite being the largest town of the Medoc, hardly asserts itself properly as home to the dress circle of Bordeaux red wine. Its tiny harbour and quai have a rustic charm, but most of its hotels and restaurants are very basic indeed.

Before the town the D2 delivers you past the solitary tower of Chateau Latour, then to the fairytale elegance of Pichon Longueville-Baron, a must visit replete with its modern cellars and new visitor centre. Past Pauillac itself the D2 winds inland to sweep past two of the most famous names in wine, Chateau Lafite-Rothschild and Chateau Mouton-Rothschild. The latter is another mandatory visit, where one can wander through old fermenting cellars, massive barrel cellars or chai and a small museum filled with works of art related to wine, including old glass, paintings and tapestries.

Across the river system from the Medoc lie the contrasting communes of St-Emilion and Pomerol, whose wines are grown and fashioned in circumstances more rustic than majestic. Don’t be misled by the quaintness and small scale of the St-Emilion and Pomerol estates, for their wines lose nothing by comparison to those of the Medoc.

A mystical medieval walled village perched on a limestone plateau, St-Emilion is a simple 45 minute drive to the east of Bordeaux. To leave the main road is to enter a different world of silent villages, medieval churches, rolling hills and stone walls.

Virtually every building in St-Emilion is hewn out of local stone, quarried by human hands as they chiselled out more than 200 km of cellars beneath the village. To amble up St-Emilion’s narrow, steeply cobblestoned streets, keeping feet well clear of the wheel ruts of the horse-drawn carts of ages past, is to peel back centuries one by one. It’s a 121-step climb to the top of the belltower of the village’s monolithic church, from which the regions of St-Emilion and its tiny neighbour of Pomerol – home to Chateau Petrus, the most expensive Bordeaux red of all – spread away like an irregular tablecloth decorated with small hamlets, vineyards, farm courtyards and winding lanes.

From St-Emilion it’s an easy drive through the emerging wine region of Fronsac, back along the Dordogne’s right bank to Laye, in the Cotes de Blaye. A ferry trip from Blaye across the wide Gironde estuary lands at Lamarque, just south of the Medoc and only a few km from Chateau Margaux, where it’s easy to navigate back onto the D2.

Recline:

Burdigala Hotel, Bordeaux.
Modern, comfortable.

Chateau Chartron, Bordeaux.
Modern, comfortable.

Hostellerie Plaisance, St-Emilion.

Dine and Recline:

Chateau Cordeillan Bages, Pauillac.

Small luxurious hotel boasting top restaurant with excellent wine list. Will organise your own programme of tastings and education in the region.

Le St.-James, Bouliac.

Small, idiosyncratic hotel with one-star restaurant, perched above the Garonne across from Bordeaux.

Hostellerie de Plaisance, St-Emilion.

Country inn, atop underground church. Offers sweeping views over ancient rooftops

Wine and Dine:

Baud et Millet, rue Hugerie, Bordeaux.
Cheese and wine shop and restaurant.

Lion d’Or, Arcins.
Rustic dining room favoured by local wine makers.

L’Envers du Decor, St Emilion.
High-trech wine bar,

La Tupina, Bordeaux.
Regional cuisine, comfortable, clubby.

Restaurant Gravelier, Bordeaux.
Expensive, serious.

Le Bistroy, Bouliac.
Lively, creative, quirky.

Visitor information:

Maison de Vin and the Syndicat d’Initiative, Allees de Tourny, Bordeaux. Please login to post comment