Another blisteringly hot morning. Stew took the children for a swim after a hearty breakfast of Eggy Bread and the french version of bacon (France you are good at many things but milky coffee and bacon are not them!).

I was well into my third book and decided my time was better spent nursing my sore throat and having a read. I got the Freckle ready for a quick get away when the Scamps were done swimming. I had done some research and decided that a vine yard tour was essential, and I had found a place that offered a tour in english.

Chateau Larose Trintaudon offered a tour, and as one of the largest vineyards in France and the largest in the Medoc we had to pop along. We pulled into the impressive gates opposite the chateau and parked in around the back…. As we approached the front doors with some trepidation we weren’t sure what to expect. a few years ago we had tried with no success to have at tour of a vine yard and do some wine tasting. We approached the counter, and were greeted by Pacal who spoke great English and offered us a personal tour starting immediately. The building was vast and air conditioned and he suggested given the heat that we stopped past the vines and had a look at the grapes and he would fill us in on the history of the Chateau when we were in the tank room.

I was intrigued by the fact that the vine yard was owned by Alliance and we were told that a number of vine yards are being bough by financianal and insurance institutions. I guess its a safe bet!

The history of the chateau was interesting too… during the late 20’s it was a bad time for growing wine, so a Russian Tzar bought the chateau, ripped out all of the vines and decided to graze cows on the land instead. As we had discussed a day or two earlier that you didn’t see many cows around these parts, it was explained to us that the land is very poor for grazing animals and is much better suited to vines. I have since read that the whole area was a tropical sea around 50 million years ago, and the sediment that remains is what gives the bordeaux wine its unique teroir, and the soil its sandyness!

They grew 3 grape varieties on the site, with the predominance being Cabernet Sauvignon grapes, with less Merlot and Petit Verdot. I was interesting in whether they water the vines as it had been super hot for a number of days. The mark of Bordeaux wine is AOP, i think its like champagne having to come from champagne… if they water the grapes they cannot have their AOP certificate if the vines are older than 3 years. Pascal was telling us that the head wine man has to make a decision if the crop looks like it will be ruined, as to whether they loose the mark for that year. The same he said applies to the organic wines of the region, as due to times of large rainfall (such as France experienced in June) the crops can get mildew and they have to decide to loose the crop or use pesticide on it. At this particular site they had 165 Hectares of vines. They also had 2 other chateau in the region. Here at Larose Trintaudon they picked the vines using machines and sorted the grapes in a similar way. At their other sites they did it by hand, and reading between the lines it created a more premium product. They picked each of the grape varieties on a set day, and then processed each grape type separately. Once it was fermented and bashed up a bit, they recirculated the wine through the pulp and tannins so it was all very well mixed before draining the liquid into barrels. They then pressed the pulp which was super strong and concentrated and also stored in the same way. Once it was appropriately aged ( for their signature wine it spent 12-14 months in the oak barrels) it went back into the tank room to be blended. This was when they mixed the 3 grape varieties together and then added the concentrated stuff if it was needed. That was where they made it taste like wine!

We left the tank room and headed over to the barrel room. It was huge, with 3400 barrels of wine each barrel containing about 300 bottles. The children though it smelt horrid but we thought it smelt great! The barrels were mainly new or had been used once before so they looked lovely. Then it was time for the tasting.

We tasted the white wines which they trade, though don’t make and then moved onto tasting the reds. We noticed that the best recent years were 2010 ad 2009… the year Fraser was born. We were interested to know if this wine would keep for Fraser to drink when he was old enough. Pascal advised us due to it being a good year that it should be good for another 10-15 years if stored well. The children had found the visit really interesting and were really engaged with it so it felt great when we found a box of 2 wines, one from 2009 and the other from 2007, Penny’s birth year. We have bought them and will put them away for another day to reread this blog in a few years time and drink the wine with them!

Whilst we were tasting the wines the scamps had a sniff and had their own glasses of water to taste! There was also a corner full of toys for them to play with which meant when it was time to go they were as disappointed as we were.

We also bought the Christmas wine! In what is becoming an annual tradition for us to find a magnum of wine we love from our holiday for Christmas day. We went for the 2009 again as it did taste lovely!

A fab experience we all enjoyed and I would highly recommend visiting if you are ever in the area.

When popped into the supermarket for supplies and ice creams, before heading back for a swim and cool off. A BBQ for tea before my bug bites got bug bites in the evening!