Yesterday I went to visit Chateaux Pichon-Longueville, Haut-Bailly, and Pape Clement with 5 friends. To put this in perspective, this is like going to Domaine Carneros in south Napa and then to Jordan in Healdsburg afterwards. But, Mathieu's friends were in town from England and he booked the tours like that so... c'est la vie.
Pichon-Longueville is in Pauillac, the heart of the famous Medoc. 
A beautiful estate (that's Hiroko and Sei in front of the chateau on the right) but also with a sophisticated tank room and cellar setup. Under the reflecting pool you see in the photo, there is a very modern barrel room that looks more like a hangar for an F-16. The guide said a few years ago they completely tore out the old tank room and barrel room and built the new ones... which tell ms that the old ones must have been pretty bad QC-wise. Very nice wines, still a little young.
A beautiful estate (that's Hiroko and Sei in front of the chateau on the right) but also with a sophisticated tank room and cellar setup. Under the reflecting pool you see in the photo, there is a very modern barrel room that looks more like a hangar for an F-16. The guide said a few years ago they completely tore out the old tank room and barrel room and built the new ones... which tell ms that the old ones must have been pretty bad QC-wise. Very nice wines, still a little young. Lunch was at "Le Pauillac" on the riverfront in the main town. Typical French fare. Afterwards we took
the trek to Pessac-Leognan, about an hour's drive from Pauillac, sort of southwest of the city of Bordeaux. Haut-Bailly had an interesting vineyard setup with a melange of varietals in one parcel. I didn't quite understand why they did that, but the parcel was planted over a hundred years ago, so there must have been some reasoning at the time. I think if I ask my professor (who is a consultant there) he would be able to explain. I really enjoyed Haut-Bailly (well, I enjoyed them all) and liked their wine quite a bit.
the trek to Pessac-Leognan, about an hour's drive from Pauillac, sort of southwest of the city of Bordeaux. Haut-Bailly had an interesting vineyard setup with a melange of varietals in one parcel. I didn't quite understand why they did that, but the parcel was planted over a hundred years ago, so there must have been some reasoning at the time. I think if I ask my professor (who is a consultant there) he would be able to explain. I really enjoyed Haut-Bailly (well, I enjoyed them all) and liked their wine quite a bit. Pape Clement was an unusual one, probably because it's so old - it dates back to the 1200s! It belonged to a Pope Clement at one point, and later was owned by the church, but then got sold to several private proprietors. Now it's owned by one man who owns a whole mess of chateaux in France. It was the snobbier chateau of the 3, and somewhat creepy, with a replica of the Pope's 
sacrophagus in a catacomb-like chapel under the castle. I would also hate working a harvest at Pape Clement - no matter how good the wine may be, I wouldn't be able to handle sorting the berries individually by hand!
sacrophagus in a catacomb-like chapel under the castle. I would also hate working a harvest at Pape Clement - no matter how good the wine may be, I wouldn't be able to handle sorting the berries individually by hand!What struck me about all 3 chateaux is how sophisticated their production facilites are. These estates make money, and a lot of it, judging from the building materials and equipment I saw. And designing the facilites very intelligently, to minimize brutalization of the grapes and wines, as well as saving workers' backs. It was a nice day out, and reminded me why I enjoy my work so much!
No comments:
Post a Comment