So the composition of this photograph leaves a lot of creativity to be desired and that little smiling speck with the ugly green jacket is me (standing next to winemaker Ryan Waugh), but I’m hoping you can see where we are at the top of the picture.
It says, “Cheval Blanc”; a wine famous for 150 years on its own but then made even more well known by “Sideways.” For it was the ’61 Cheval Blanc, a gem as coveted as a Ty Cobb baseball card, that anti-hero Miles enjoyed with his hamburger at the end of the film.
Our wine tasting journey (one week ago today, mind you) began at this famed house and it was every bit as memorable an experience as you can imagine.
The cold, rainy skies only made it more appropriate. This is what France’s wine royalty should look like, fitting ever so nicely with the cold, ancient stones of the Chateau (part of which were actually going under renovations.
The vines pictured here, one of three main vineyards on the property are 95 years young and in their dormant state are still maintained to get ready for Spring.
What’s fascinating about spending time here is the simple fact that they’ve been doing the same thing, on the same plots of land for centuries and all you’re doing is taking part in this long and storied process.
Our tour was lead by a young oeneologist named Pierre (you can’t make that up)
– pictured right. His easy demeanor, coupled with the fact that Cheval Blanc is his first job ever begged you to envy (read: hate) him but he was just too charming. We all hung onto his every word like a wallflower hoping to be asked to dance by the captain of the football team.
Tidbit I loved: There were many but my favorite had to do with their barrel selection. Each year they buy barrels from several cooperages in France. And each year they are invited to taste the wine blind from one of six barrels. They do not know which is their barrel and are asked to rate the wines from all six. After the scores are tallied the barrel makers are told how their work fared. That’s how they insure that each manufacturer will send their best stuff every year.
Okay, I’ve officially become a wine geek…
After lunch in the medieval city of St. Emilion, where we saw the actual stone bed of the monk which gives the town it’s name (“Sit and Sleep will beat any advertised (rock bed) price or your rock bed is free!) we spent time with a winemaker who makes a Grand Cru in the same place his family has been making wine since 1821, Chateau Laniotte.
In fact, no tour would seem complete here without the proprietor entertaining us with illusions and wife jokes. His wines (all priced around $30.00) were a little bit of magic too.
One thing that became evident here though, with everyone we met, from wines known and collected around the world to the small producer who only makes enough to sell in France, these people are simply doing what they were born to do. Some have found this calling from a love of wine but others like the Todeschini brothers of Chateau Mangot that I had dinner with that night have it in their blood. And from speaking with them, they’d not have it any other way.
Yes, they must (by law) make wine differently than we make it here in the States, and for most of them there is no great desire to make tons of money from wine. We like to wax poetically here about the passion of wine – and make no mistake, it exists. I know it does because I have it.
But for the fine people who shared their lives with us last week, there is no other life. What else would they do?
great perspective. Thanks for sharing. I need to get to France soon!