Day 27 - Blogabond

I neglected to mention we had a nice swim in the pool yesterday afternoon and a bit of a nap around the pool. There were several English speaking guests at this hotel including a group from New Zealand that were having a great time. The typical sedate French hotel was challenged a bit by all of us non French tourists.

We got up and went back into St-Emilion to explore. After Mark had a hamburger we started checking out all the wine shops. Mark even enjoyed learning about Bordeaux wine. He was petty good at determining the contents of the bouquets, but often couldn’t get over “that alcohol smell”. We were looking for a 1982 wine as that is our wedding anniversary. 1982 was a very good year so the selection of available wines is scarce and expensive. We did find a nice bottle of Pomerol for 5000 Euros. I think we may have to celebrate with a nice 2000 vintage wine. We always new we were a fine vintage. The recommendations from most of the wine shops were to get 2005 Bordeaux now as it is going to be even better than the 1982 or 2000 vintages. The second labels of most of the Grand Cru Classic Chateaus are also very good wines that will cellar just a few years less than the first labels and are much less expensive. There are 7000 Chateaus in Bordeaux alone so finding the perfect wine is a bit overwhelming.

Paul and I decided we needed more training so we signed up for a wine tasting school. The class was led by a very funny guy who put on quite a show of being the Bordeaux wine snob. “That Beaujolais is made over night, not even really a wine, and the Rose’s, definitely not wine”, were a couple of his comments. We learned how to smell, swirl, taste, and check the legs after being tested on our ability to detect smells. I only got 3 correct out of 8, but I still know what I like and do not like.

We went back to the hotel for another swim and dinner. The plan was to eat and drive into Leborne to watch the fireworks as today is Bastille Day, or French Independence day. Dinner was a long and very enjoyable event. Mark even joined us for most of it. Just as we finished our dessert, we saw the first fireworks being shot off. We jumped in the car and got to town just in time for the grand finale. We had a perfect day!
SKC

written by

pscossette on July 14, 2007 from Saint-Emilion, France

from the travel blog: The Cossette Family Sabbatical

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