John & Lynne's French Odyssey: St Emilion

On Friday, Vinexpo having ended, we drove to St Émilion

On the outskirts of the town, we stopped at a wine shop

which advertised tastings 

 and had a stupendous range of wines from Bordeaux (prices shown are per bottle)

 It hurts to do the sums, but the 1988 Petrus cost R29700 per bottle. Who'd like a case?

 Chateau d'Yquem is a bargain by comparison

 They can arrange exports for you

 Beautiful roses at the ends of the rows

 and rain everywhere

 We entered St Émilion from the south

along a narrow lane

 

A folly

 a  tiny fern in a wall

 and vineyards as far as you can see

beautiful plantings of Impatiens

 Old stone buildings

 and many wine shops

 and restaurants

 In this Epicerie, we were given a taste of paté and a little Pineau de Charantes, and we bought some patés

 A small cognac still

 Ice cream

 and macaroons 

 This Englishman obviously thought that he should wear shorts because he was on holiday in the south

 Everyone else was dressed for winter

 The town center, St Émilion

 This restaurant looked good, but too expensive (we saw no customers, so others must have agreed)

 so we chose this one across the way. We were hungry and decided to stop looking even if it would be expensive. It was wet

 

 We ordered confit duck, which came with a glass each of St Émilion

 It was a delicious choice

 The chef was the owner and the waiter. He refused a tip 

 Wines for sale, matured and so young they still need planting

 WE visited a garagiste winemaker

 who has grown a bit. Called "Bad Boy" because Robert Parker scored him #1 when he made his first vintage in St Émilion

 His charming assistant let us taste the wines

 He says he is NOT from St Émilion

and, after a lovely day, despite the rain, we went back to Bordeaux
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© John & Lynne Ford. Adamastor & Bacchus 2013