Bordeaux: Building A Wine Collection.
Back in April, I did a day-long wine education and chateau tour with my friend Bail. It was one of the main reasons we had come to Bordeaux for her birthday. She is really knowledgeable about wine, and I like drinking wine...
Anyway... While there, I ended the tour by buying 18 bottles of wine from the St. Emilion area of Bordeaux. That's a lot of wine for someone like me. And I vowed not to buy any this trip back to the region, because I wasn't sure if I was even going to have a need for any wine for years.
Well, I deliciously broke my vow.
It's like a handheld harp! You'd need both hands to pour out of it, that's for sure.
But we were there to do one final wine tasting... And to buy some wine, if we felt like it. But it required we descend into the basement of the old building...
A lovely tasting room with a gravel floor! And rows and rows of dusty bottles...
From what I've seen in cellars at every chateau we visited (and one secret one we got a peek at), there seems to be a lit of pride in dusty bottles. It suggests that the wine has been "lying in" for years. Dusty bottles would never fly in my mother's house. So this idea will take some getting used-to for me.
As we started to look through the bottles and taste some stuff, I found myself wanting to add to my collection. These were unlike the ones I had bought back in April. And quite a few of the bottles are from the chateaus we visited.
I asked the wine master host if he could help point me in the right direction of what else to buy that we hadn't tasted. He said that if I was feeling "crazy" I could get this 1982...
So I did. This one will be for a very, very, very special occasion.
And we tasted this Haut-Bailly (my favorite vineyard!) 1975...
I loved it. It was gentle. It was unlike any other red wine I had tasted. Others didn't like it because it wasn't bold. I found it to be gently powerful though. And it is a wine that doesn't have to be drunk with something to eat.
Speaking of eating... I have developed a love for Sauternes...
A sweet white wine... But it goes perfectly with salty foods. I envision eating a salty roasted chicken for dinner one Sunday afternoon, and opening this. I bought a few of these.
I also added a 1985 Pomerol based on the recommendation...
I'll give it a few years before opening too though. But perhaps I'll drink it with someone next year on their 30th birthday. (Hint. Hint. Red.)
A beautiful case addition to my collection...
Anyway... While there, I ended the tour by buying 18 bottles of wine from the St. Emilion area of Bordeaux. That's a lot of wine for someone like me. And I vowed not to buy any this trip back to the region, because I wasn't sure if I was even going to have a need for any wine for years.
Well, I deliciously broke my vow.
Our wine master host took us to one of his favorite places to buy wine in St. Emilion.
It's a wine merchant on a little cobblestoned street. The rows of wine bottles go all the way to the very high ceilings... So high, you need a library ladder to reach them all. And a "too quick" turn in the place would mean breaking something very expensive. Like this Reidel decanter...
It's like a handheld harp! You'd need both hands to pour out of it, that's for sure.
But we were there to do one final wine tasting... And to buy some wine, if we felt like it. But it required we descend into the basement of the old building...
Looks a bit creepy. But inside was a stylish surprise...
A lovely tasting room with a gravel floor! And rows and rows of dusty bottles...
From what I've seen in cellars at every chateau we visited (and one secret one we got a peek at), there seems to be a lit of pride in dusty bottles. It suggests that the wine has been "lying in" for years. Dusty bottles would never fly in my mother's house. So this idea will take some getting used-to for me.
As we started to look through the bottles and taste some stuff, I found myself wanting to add to my collection. These were unlike the ones I had bought back in April. And quite a few of the bottles are from the chateaus we visited.
I asked the wine master host if he could help point me in the right direction of what else to buy that we hadn't tasted. He said that if I was feeling "crazy" I could get this 1982...
So I did. This one will be for a very, very, very special occasion.
And we tasted this Haut-Bailly (my favorite vineyard!) 1975...
I loved it. It was gentle. It was unlike any other red wine I had tasted. Others didn't like it because it wasn't bold. I found it to be gently powerful though. And it is a wine that doesn't have to be drunk with something to eat.
Speaking of eating... I have developed a love for Sauternes...
A sweet white wine... But it goes perfectly with salty foods. I envision eating a salty roasted chicken for dinner one Sunday afternoon, and opening this. I bought a few of these.
I also added a 1985 Pomerol based on the recommendation...
I'll give it a few years before opening too though. But perhaps I'll drink it with someone next year on their 30th birthday. (Hint. Hint. Red.)
A beautiful case addition to my collection...
I can't wait! It arrives at my parent's place in Arizona this week! Now I have to buy a small wine fridge...
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