"Remember, Don't Drink All The Wine!"

                Last Tuesday was a national holiday in France.  As we were out of class, my friend and I went to Bordeaux for a wine tasting tour.  We were very excited since we kind of live in the wine capital of the world.  We had a wonderful day despite all of the things that went wrong.

Bordeaux!

                Unlike in the U.S., cities pretty much shut down on national holidays here.  That includes all public transportation – metro, buses, trams, everything.  This affected us first in Toulouse.  We rented bikes and rode to the train station since the metro was closed.  As I was wearing a dress and Niamh was wearing a skirt, riding bikes proved an interesting challenge.  After almost getting hit by a car, we finally made it to the train station.  We met a guy on the train that we talked with for a while.  After we told him we were going to Bordeaux for a wine tasting, he informed my friend for the first time that you weren’t actually supposed to drink the wine, just taste it.  When we got to his stop, he left us with the most memorable quote of the trip “Remember. Don’t drink all the wine!” We were quite tickled by his emphatic advice.

Beautiful Vineyard

                When we arrived in Bordeaux, we got tram tickets to the city center and waited for about ten minutes before realizing that the trams weren’t running because of the holiday.  We then proceeded to walk forty-five minutes to the tourism office where we barely made the bus for the tour. 

Wine Tasting

                The tour went well, excluding the fact that my phone went off during an intense spiel about how wooden wine barrels are made.  I had no idea how significant the wine industry was in France, and especially Bordeaux.  Over 50% of agricultural land is dedicated to wine production, providing tens of thousands of jobs and a multi-billion dollar French industry. 

Being a Child... 

We went to two vineyards in the Entre-Deux-Mers region southeast of Bordeaux.  The first was classified as a domain due to the amount of wine produced there.  The domain had been run by the same family for fourteen generations and only distributed its wine through direct sale which is apparently a unique practice among most vineyards.  This particular domain made some of its own barrels on site and the owner showed us in great detail how a barrel was made all the way from cutting down the tree to the finished product.  He gave us lots of information about the wood used, explaining that they only use European trees as they give the wine a different quality than American trees. European wooden barrels are also more expensive than American barrels because they only use 30% of a cubic meter of European wood compared to 80% of a cubic meter of American wood.  American wood apparently has more “knotholes” than European wood.  My friend and I found this part of the explanation quite entertaining as the translator didn’t know the English word for “knothole,” and when one of the guests told him that the word he was searching for was in fact “knothole,” the translator misunderstood and proceeded to say “noodle” instead of “knothole” for the rest of the visit.  The most interesting part of the process was how they actually get the wood to bend by lighting a fire within the barrel and using your hands to help the wood take the appropriate shape from the outside. 

Beautiful Chateau

After the tour and tasting, my friend and I found an irresistible playground on the way back to the bus which of course we couldn’t help playing on while we waited to proceed to the next vineyard.  I’m convinced that no matter how old I get, I will never grow up. 

Favorite Winemaker Ever!

The next vineyard was actually classified as a chateau, and it was spectacular.  On top of a small hill surrounded by green meadows and vineyards sat a beautiful eighteenth century chateau.  It was like something out of a fairytale.  Beyond the eighteenth century style courtyard was a very modern stainless steel facility in which some of the wine was produced and stored.  The winemaker at this vineyard was the cutest thing.  He was so incredibly passionate about what he does and it really made the visit for us.  His French was also very easy to understand so we listened to him mostly as he drew beautiful imagery from his description of winemaking.  It sounded so beautiful in French, but the translator was unable to do it justice in English.  In fact, after we listened to the winemaker in French, the English translation seemed to be completely different from what he had actually said.  We got to go into the chateau for the tasting.  It was lovely.

Tasting

When we returned to Bordeaux, we began our trek back to the train station and stopped in a nice but inexpensive restaurant by the river.  It was so cozy, but after carefully selecting our choices and drooling over the menus, we realized we did not have enough time to eat and make it back to the station in time for our train.  The waitress was very understanding.  Almost immediately after we left, it began pouring down rain, and neither of us had umbrellas.  By the time we got back to the train station, it had stopped raining, but we were soaked.  All of the dry people coming out of the station gave us really weird looks.  

Even though we couldn’t get transportation, eat at our restaurant, or stay dry during the torrential downpour, we had an absolutely amazing day.  We didn’t ever get discouraged or upset, but instead kept smiling and fully enjoyed our lovely trip to Bordeaux.