Wine Country

Baggage claim at Bordeaux airport

My great-grandfather was born in Bordeaux and spent the first couple years of his life there. As such, my father was very interested in touring this wine-savvy city and visiting his roots. One of the vineyards in Bordeaux is actually called Chateau Phélan-Ségur; unfortunately, we happened to visit Bordeaux for the two days a year when the vineyard in closed. Still, the first thing my Dad did when we arrived in the city, before we even entered our apartment, was buy a bottle of Chateau Phélan.

   

Mom and Dad drinking Chateau Phélan Ségur

Daddy and I in front of the Museum of Customs 

 The apartment we were staying in was spectacular and perfectly located in the center of the old-town. We were right next to the medieval Porte Cailho and only a 5-10 minute walk from the Cathedral St. André and the Grand Opera House. The woman from whom we rented the apartment, Emmanuelle, is a photographer and had our apartment beautifully decorated with her works. Of course, Dad got to tell her all about Bito, mi abuelito, who was a photographer until the age of 89 and who always said “anyone can take a picture, but not anyone can be a photographer.” Emmanuelle had some of her works at an exhibit nearby, so we were also able to stop by that and see more of her photographs. Beautiful.

Porte Cailho  

The afternoon that we arrived, Tuesday, the three of us wandered through the small street of Bordeaux and went in and out of all of the cafés and boutiques that flooded every foot of every street. We went to Cathedral St. André and Dad and I climbed the bell tower so that we could see the city and the church from above.

Cathedrale St Pierre (view from atop bell-tower)

Kids playing in the water plaza, 'the water mirror,' in front of the Palace of Justice

Emmanuelle had recommended one of her favorite local restaurants to us, so for dinner we searched for the small restaurant, eventually finding it squeezed between dozens of other cafes lining a busy Bordeaux side street. It was worth the search. After 2.5 months living in France, this is by far the most authentic and best food I have had. Dad and I both had mussels in a garlic butter sauce to start off and Mom had a mushroom tart drizzled with cream. I have never had so many mussels and each one was perfectly cooked. The first course was so incredible that before we even got to our main plates, we made reservations at the same restaurant for the next night. For the main course Mom had beef that had been slowly soaked in a red-wine broth and then slowly cooked. The meat was so juicy and fell apart on your fork—a knife was unnecessary. Dad had rabbit that was cooked in a rich sauce. Again, the meat was perfectly cooked so that it was tender, but still held its strong flavor. I ordered  lamb cooked in a slow cream stew. Like Mom’s, it was an extremely tender piece of meat that fell apart on your fork. The flavor was absolutely incredible, and probably the best out of the three dishes. And to top the meal off, there was a little old Argentinian guitarist who was singing and playing on our street. The first song he sang was “Bésame mucho,” a song Bito used to sing a lot—it was a great memory of Bito while we were in his father’s birth town. By the end of the main course, we were all stuffed, but how can you say no to dessert at a restaurant like this? I had the profiteroles stuffed with vanilla ice cream and drizzled with chocolate ganache, mom had an almond panna cotta with a berry sauce, and Dad had caramelized apple pie.

Papi y la guitarrista

We started off our second day in Bordeaux with specialty coffee and pastries at a coffee/bookshop charmingly named “Books and Coffee.” We then made our way to the famous Bordeaux Opera House, The Grand Theater. To this day, operas and shows continue to be performed at the theater. When we toured it, the theater was decorated in an Alice in Wonderland theme, complete with a giant rabbit, a collection of mad hatter hats, and shrinking rabbit hole illusions throughout.

Breakfast

Entrance to the opera house

main costume room in the opera house

the theater at the Opera House

theater ceiling

Inside the grand theater

 We had originally hoped to visit Chateau Phélan-Ségur during our visit, but clearly this was not possible given the two days we were visiting. Instead we took a wine tour at another nearby vineyard, Chateau Luchey-Halde. The winery has been around for centuries, but during the Second World War, the French government took it over for military use and it was not returned until the 1990s. As such, it is a much more modern winery than some of the others in the Bordeaux region. We toured the vineyard and learned about the different grape leaves and shapes for each type of grape. Then we moved inside and saw all of the machines and equipment used to make the wines. First the grapes move through a conveyor belt to wean out inadequate grapes (both by machine and by hand), then they are crushed and moved to large metal chambers (each container is sorted by the type of grape) where the juice is subject to varying temperatures and allowed to ferment. When the wine is ready it is moved to oak barrels and left there for one year in order to give the wine a fuller, bolder flavor. At this time it is finally bottled and ready to drink. In order for a bottle to be labeled a ‘Bordeaux’ wine it must follow specifications. All steps of the wine making process must occur at the vineyard (from growing to grapes to bottling the wine), there can be no fertilizer or additional additives to the grapes and soil, grapes must grow from rainwater alone, and all Bordeaux wines must be a mix of different types of grapes/wines (ie a mix of cabernet sauvignon, merlot, etc.)

Chateau Luchey-Halde

Mommy and Daddy at the vineyards

Cabernet Sauvignon grapes

Dad found the cabernet sauvignon grapes!

wine making machine

where wine is tempered and made

barrels that the wine is stored in for a year to get the oaky flavor

wine tasting

Mom and Dad at the wine tasting following the vineyard tour

We spent our last night in Bordeaux walking through the hustling streets and exploring all of the shops. I introduced my parents to the gelateria Amorino—a gelato store that sculpts its gelato in the shape of flowers when they serve you. My friend Rose had told me about before it before I went to Paris and so I had some there and it was delicious and creamy, so I knew my parents had to try it too! We returned to the same restaurant for dinner and had an equally spectacular second night’s meal. It’s safe to say that Bordeaux was not only a culinary masterpiece, but also a comfortable and fun place to wander and touch base with family roots. 

Amorino: gelato carved into a flower

foot of a fountain