Paullac

Chateau Loudenne

Early in the morning we headed North on the estuary to visit the town of Paullac, heart of the Medoc region of Bordeaux with over 2000 Chateaus. Our morning visit was to the Chateau Loudenne, a 17th century chateau with 326 acres of vineyard. It's most famous owner was the Guvier family which built the cellar in 1876. Currently it is owned by a Chinese company. We walked the gardens, noting the roses planted at the end of each row of grapes, which are very sensitive to the parasites that can harm the grapes. The grapes are picked in either late August for white wine or late September for red. In the cellar, we saw the concrete vats from the 1920's as well as the stainless steel vats from the 1970's. In the next room was the 2014 wine aging (for 8-16 months) in the French Oak casks. The casks are typically used for 3 years. Here we tasted three wines - a white light wine and two reds. All the wines in Bordeaux are blended wines from typically 3 grape varieties. On this side of the estuary, the primary grape in Cabernet Sauvignon, with Merlot and Petit Bordeaux. At the chateau, we had a huge lunch including shrimp, salad, baked potatoes, and either grilled meats or fish.

Roses at head of each row

In the afternoon, we continued our wine education. First, we learned about the Grand CruClassé, a system designed in 1855 to classify the top Bordeaux wines into five grades. The wineries have to submit their wines every year to maintain their classification. Our first winery was a fifth classification winery of 3700 acres, the Chateaudu Tertre, which bears the appellation Margaux, the name of the local village. The original village was established in the 12th century. In 1724, the glass industry came to this area, and the chateau was built in 1736. The soil on this side of the estuary is primarily gravel, ideal for Cabernet Sauvignon because the gravel holds the heat. Here the grapes are automatically sorted by machine for color, size, shape, and density. Air jets separate the good grapes from the bad. All the grapes are handpicked, and they avoid piping the wine between the vats - they pour it into a small vat and transport this portable vat to the next tank. The grape juice is put in the vat for 8-12 days at 26-28 degrees Celsius and the yeast from the grapes starts the fermentation process. The vats are carefully monitored to ensure that the yeast doesn't form a cap on top. One to three times a day they 'pump over' the vat taking the wine from the bottom and re-pouring on top. Oak vats and concrete vats are used because they are porous and allow a small amount of oxygen into the vat. Here they were experimenting with egg shaped vats for their white wines to keep the sediments swirling in the wine. Then the wine is stored in oak barrels for 12-16 months. Every 3-4 months they change barrels, eventually they blend the wine and age it another 8-10 months. Then it is bottled and the red wines continue to improve for at least 10 years.

Chateau du Tertre egg shaped vat

Our last stop of the day was at Chateau Giscurs, a 3rd class winery. Here we had a fun time in the wine workshop. We had already learned about the classification system, but here we learned about appellation, of which there are 63 in Bordeaux and 8 in the Medac sub-region. We were quizzed on the aspects of wine. We found out that the older Cabernet Sauvignon wines are lighter in color than the new ones. We were given some scents and asked to describe them. Then we actually tasted two wines, one from 2010 which still had a lot of tannin taste, and one from 2000 which was much smoother. Then we were given a mystery wine and asked to determine what vintage it was. We guessed based on the color and taste that it was probably from 2006-8 and it was a 2007 vintage. Yea! For us.