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Published: December 19th 2012
Chateau Pichon-Longeville
Or is it Sleeping Beauty's castle?We started with a quick run through a breakfast buffet and took a taxi to the train station, Gare Saint-Jean. Once we got the keys to the car we were directed to walk down the street until we found the Hertz sign. Well, that walk was a little further than I expected and the automatic "Ford Focus" was a standard transmission Opel (something or other...). Good thing I know how to change gears.
Glenn navigated using a GPS and an iPad and both were useful at some point. City driving was OK, but some of the country roads are just wide enough for two lanes and not worthy of a line down the centre. I held on tight and got honked at once for hogging the road. The guide books mention that it is 50 km/h in towns and 90 km/h on the highway - what they don't tell you is that the towns are sometime a kilometre a part and you have to slow down for the corners and speed up so the Mr. Bean car behind you doesn't drive into your trunk. This lead to a few tense moments.
We toured Chateau Baron Pichon-Longueville first. A tour
Chateau Gruaud Larose
The original owner would look out over the vineyards in this tower. guide led us through the history of the winery, the wine making process, the winery and a tasting. It was informative and interesting.
The second winery, Chateau Gruaud Larose. I was starting to think, oh, another grapevine, more pressing, this might be boring, let's just get to the tasting - but I was pleasantly surprized. Wine is not all made the same. The blend may come before or after aging, the tanks can be cement, wood or stainless steel. But, I must say, the tasting was in an elegant room overlooking the vinyard. There was lots of time to enjoy the experience.
Lunch followed at Cafe Lavinal:
Apps: Poached eggs in a wine sauce
Foie gras
Mains: Braised lamb shoulder - rated by Glenn as the best lamb ever
Monkfish
Gormet Coffee with a selection of mini-desserts (apparently you can't leave without having sweets)
The afternoon was a bit of a disappointment - we booked a 2 pm tour, but they wrote down 11:30. We left and had a little drive and returned for the 4 pm tour. Not as comprehensive a tasting, but the Lynch-Bages tour featured a very old method of making
wine that they used up to 1975. Again, they make wine a completely different way than the first two.
The ride back was somewhat less stressful because we knew what to expect, but it still felt a bit like playing a video game for way too long. Back at the hotel, we opted to try out the hotel's restaurant, which was very good.
Apps: Foie gras
Shrimp Salad
Mains: Braised beef
Bream (fish) on a risoto with dill
Although we did not order dessert, we were brought Canele, a specialty for this area.
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