Oct. 21 - Return To Bordeaux

Cruising and Chateaux Wine Visits

The final day of the trip - hard to believe it - and we sailed away at 9 am from Pauillac, bound for Bordeaux.  The trip took almost three hours and I did stay on the sundeck for a considerable amount of time to enjoy the sailing, but the majority of the time I was in the lounge by the floor-to-ceiling plate glass windows as the temperature WITHOUT the wind was in the low 50s, so it was chilly.  We arrived back in Bordeaux about noon and it was time for lunch.  I had a scant 45 minutes before I needed to be on the dock to board my bus for a 5 1/2 hour wine tasting trip to two gorgeous chateaux.  What I DID NOT KNOW was that the bus trip would be 1 hour and 45 minutes and basically take us right back to where we were before we sailed!  In fact we passed both of the chateaux that we visited yesterday on the trip out of Pauillac where we embarked from today!  My lone "complaint" about the trip is that it should have been called, "Chateaux, Buses, and Wine" rather than "Chateaux, Rivers, and Wine" :)

The first chateau we arrived at was Leoyville de Poyferre.  Of the classifications of wine producers in all of France they are at the second level.  And while you may think that's pretty good, we found out on this trip that there is ONLY one producer that is EVER #1 and they are heads and shoulders above all the rest, so anyone who rates #2 is an excellent wine maker.  Here's another tidbit for you.....the classifications were made in 1855 and they have never and WILL NEVER change!  Here's one more little fact I learned....check out the two bottles pictured below.  Note the different names.  Well, that is a clue to the quality.  Like nearly every business, a winery manufactures several different brands and/or blends of wine.  They are only allowed to name ONE brand the "Chateau" - that's the TOP brand of the highest quality and obviously the most expensive.  They can name the others what ever they want but NEVER use the word chateau!

Far and away the "best wine" of the day at at this wine producer came when we were given a real treat.  The grapes had just been finished being picked and the vat you see the girls drawing from can only be drained like this for ten days of the entire year.....and we were here on one of those days!  It was the "best red" I've tasted because it was simply ultra-pure grape juice.....and chilled to 36 degrees to boot.  DELICIOUS!  I will say that when I toasted my new pal John with their "chateau" red it was a good red wine - as far as reds go :)

Now it was back on the bus for what proved to be a very interesting visit - to Chateau La Tour Carnet.  It is one of the few in the region that is actually an original castle - built in 1195!  Still has a moat and a drawbridge!  Pretty cool.  What a setting.  They allowed us to taste a white - very unusual for the Medoc area of France, and their two best reds.

The long drive back to the ship got us on board with ten minutes to spare before the Farewell Dinner.  I sat with my ladies and for three hours we laughed and talked....at least every ten minutes someone would talk about how special the dinners had been since we discovered each other.  And perhaps the most meaningful comment came from the two elderly ladies who - at ages 87 & 88 - said they had NEVER had such a wonderful experience as the evenings with us.  It was touching.  The last half hour it was the six of us at our table and six other couples came to join us for quite a while.  When we finally got up, we looked around and there was NO ONE left in the dining room.  Lots of hugs, misty eyes - especially from the elderly ladies.  A very special ending to a wonderful trip.

Starting from my right....John, Margie, Kim, Eileen, Donna, Rita, Anneli, and of course me

Up at about 3 am tomorrow - off the ship at 4 am, first flight leaves at 6 am and I'll be home (I hope) at about 6 pm in time for my sweetie Kim to pick me up and we will go to the Florida Panthers hockey game!

Thanks for following my adventure!  By the first of the week the front page of the site will be re-designed to include the highlight video and a page devoted to all the great gourmet meals we had!