Thursday, June 27, 2013

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

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