From Sea to Sand to Sipping - Wine from Pessac Léognan - Chateau Pape Clement

Which wine to accompany this bounty of shellfish in Arcachon?

During our recent trip to Bordeaux, we ended up renting a car for a couple of days. I showed up at the rental desk (Hertz, pronounced 'Ertz, of course) expecting a snazzy little Citrioën with a manual transmission. The guy behind the desk took one look at me and my terrible French accent and upgraded our car to a French version of a CUV with an automatic transmission. C'est la vie!

The Opel Crossland was a pretty zippy car and was not too big. It was, however, parked on the seventh floor of a parking garage with just a chicken wire fence between the passenger door and the precipice that led to certain death. Très excitant!

The first place we went to was on the sea - Arcachon. It was a lovely place where we could walk along a boardwalk in the sunshine, explore a bustling marked where we could purchase all sorts of interesting canned fish, and then have a delicious seafood lunch at Café de la Plage where I had rather large but tasty oysters and rather small (and less tasty) sea snails, ordered by accident due to my limited French shellfish vocabulary.

After, we climbed up the giant Dune of Pyla, a short drive away. There is a lot of sand there and the only way up the hill is to take off your shoes and stagger up the hill, taking one step back for every two steps forward. But what a view!

On the way back, we decided to stop at a winery suggested to us by Bogdan. He had said that there were no reservations necessary so we just popped in. We found that there were only English tours every hour or so but one was starting in five minutes. Bonne chance!

We started out on the grounds of Chateau Pape Clement, beside the vineyard. The history of the winery is pretty amazing. It is the oldest Chateau in Bordeaux being 713 years old! It was given to an archbishop by his brother  in the 1300s - and the archbishop eventually became Pope Clement V. He's the pope that moved the papacy from Rome to Avignon. The chateau was passed from archbishop to archbishop of Bordeaux until the French Revolution.

After the revolution, the chateau was owned by a few different owners and, by the 1800s, became one of the best chateaux in Bordeaux. Unfortunately, in the 1900s, a neglectful owner as well as WWII almost brought the chateau to ruin. Happily, a new owner purchased the winery in 1939 and basically ripped up everything and started anew. The current owner has partnered with another wine magnate (Bernard Magrez) and together they own over 30 wineries.

We did the expected tour - and I have to admit that I never tire of seeing those old barrel fermenters.

Like the wineries in Haut Medoc, there were some experimental methods being tried, including this concrete fermenting egg. Incidentally, Chateau Pape Clement is biodynamic - this means that not only are they organic, but they also do some interesting farmer almanac-ky type things like using the zodiac to select harvesting times and burying a sheep's horn full of manure to promote better growth in the vineyard. It's definitely different but there are many wineries who feel this really makes a difference.

When red wine is fermenting, there is a big cap of grape skins that rises to the top. Winemakers want this in the wine as it gives flavours, colours, and tannins to the wine. One way of doing this is punching down - using a big metal thing to push the skins down to the bottom of the vat. This is what that looks like.

The bottled wines are stored in an underground cellar. We were really fortunate in that we were able to visit the cellar at Chateau Pape Clement. Unfortunately, as I later discovered, people in the 1300s were a lot shorter I am. Our Estonian guide (sorry, I forget his name), opened the door and let us in.

First stop was a small underground chapel. It was lovely to look around but not great to exit. I scraped the top of my head on the 700 year old roof and left bits of my scalp in the chapel entryway,. This caused a lot of alarm with our guide but, heck, I had a napkin in my pocket so dabbed my wound with it and encouraged him to continue the tour.

Next was the underground library. Again, we were able to schlep around the wines and take photos of these ancient bottles.

The oldest I found was from 1893.

These bottles were the owner's private stock. That's right - his private wine for when he wants to have some sort of party. How do I get an invite?

On the way back to the tasting room, we were shown a display of the different sizes of bottles that are made. We then tasted four different wine:

First up was Bernard Magrez 2017 Le Prelat Côtes du Rhône Villages Laudun. Obviously, this was one that is made in one of their wineries in the Rhône valley. Worth about 8 bucks a bottle, it was Acceptable. Made from Grenache and Syrah, and grown on limestone and clay, this wine had flavours of blackberry, plum and some pepper spiciness. There was also some oak on this. Although there were tannins on this, I didn't think there was enough in the bottle to age this one.

Next up was Bernard Magrez Le Prelat du Pape Clement which actually was made by this particular winery.  This wine was a wonderful blend of 49% Merlot, 46% Cab Sauv, 3% Cab Franc and 2% Petit Verdot and is hard to find - although wine-searcher.com found bottles between $60 and $120.  Flavours and aromas included black fruit like black currant, blueberries and plum, oak flavours like cedar and espresso coffee, and earthy flavours like leather and smoke. This could probably age for another five years but was delicious right now! It was fairly complex, mostly balanced, had a nice long finish and fairly intense flavours. A Very Good wine.

Another wine was the 2014 Bernard Magrez Chateau des Grands Chênes ($29).  This wine is from Medoc - so on the left bank but not in the named areas of Haut Medoc. It was also a Grand Vin which means it is the best wine in that chateau.  This is also a Cru Bourgeois, according to their website, which means that there is a selection  process to earn that qualification. This wine is 70% Merlot, 29% Cab Sauv, and 1% Cab Franc. There were flavours and aromas of blackberry, black currant and black berry as well as oak, coffee, and vanilla. There were also tertiary flavours of smoke and earth. It was quite tannic and a bit astringent on the palate with a fairly short finish. Overall, it was a pleasant wine that could age for a few years but was good to drink now with a big steak or maybe some spaghetti Bolognese. Good to Very Good.

The big daddy - or big 'Pape' - was left for last when we had the 2015 Bernard Magrez Chateau Pape Clement ($220). This Grand Cru Classé wine (top rating) had all of the big black fruits (blackberry, blueberry, plum, cassis) as well as oaky notes such as tobacco, cedar, and vanilla. It also had those nice tertiary flavours such as smoke, leather, mushroom and barnyard. This wine was a powerhouse Bordeaux wine and would easily age for another 10 years. The mix of 55% Cab Sauv and 45% Merlot made a concentrated wine that was balanced, intense,. complex and had a beautiful long finish. Although I don't think I could afford this one, I still give it an Outstanding Rating.

After another successful wine tour, we bought a tasty bottle of Rosé from their wine shop and left Chateau Pape Clement, walking in the sunshine to our rental car. After such a wonderful day out, we were pretty exhausted and spent the evening sipping Rosé on the balcony, enjoying our repast of baguette, cheese, and meat, and chatting about our day on the sea, the sand and the sip!

Santé!

Bordeaux Red, Red, Wine - Merlot and Cab Sauv - WSET Class 4 - Part 2

When I backpacked in France over thirty years ago, I really wasn't much of a wine drinker. Even back then, however, I knew that France was ground zero for wine. As mentioned before, I spent a couple days in Burgundy and had some record of my time there. I also spent time in the Bordeaux region, but I have no photos, no pamphlets, no information at all from that time. Perhaps I imbibed a bit too heavily on, what some people think are, the best wines in the world....

This week, we looked at some of the grape varietals in Bordeaux. We looked at both reds and white but the two main grapes that many people associate with Bordeaux are Cab Sauv and Merlot.

In Bordeaux there is the left bank - this is the the west side of the Gironde estuary and of the Dorgdogne  and Garonne Rivers. On the left bank they grow mostly Cabernet Sauvignon with some Merlot added in. I have really enjoyed the wines form the left bank as they have at least medium tannins and a lot of complexity.

On the right bank they grow mostly Merlot with some Cabernet Sauvignon. These are also good wines as they are a little more fruit forward and are ready to drink a little sooner.

The first tasting at my WSET course tonight was a comparison of two Merlot based wines. One was a Bordeaux right bank wine and the other was a New World Merlot.

I do have to admit I got a little side tracked. Dave, our instructor, talked about elegant and international styles and I think I mixed up the two in terms of Bordeaux and New World. Unfortunately, I chose that moment to announce to the group, boldly, what I thought - and was ultimately way off base. It was especially galling because I really like Bordeaux wines and I knew, deep down, which was which but got sidetracked by my own notes. Oh well!

The following tasting notes are a combination of what I thought that was actually correct and the group consensus which was much more correct that my evaluation.

The first wine was medium ruby and medium intensity on the nose. It was more of a red fruit wine with cranberry, raspberry and plum and had mint on the nose. On the palate there was black cherry, medium body, light tannins, medium acidity and a medium finish. It was rated as Good and was a Chilean Merlot by Torreon de Paredes that had 13.5% alcohol and cost $22. Maybe a wine to have with pasta on a Wednesday night.

The second wine was also a Merlot - a Bordeaux wine from the right bank. It was deep ruby - almost purple - in colour. It had medium plus intensity on the nose and had flavours of cherry, currants, tobacco, black fruit, wet clay, and jam. It was full bodied with medium plus tannins and medium plus acidity. It had a gloriously long finish! It was a 2010 Chateau Fleur Cardinale Grand Cru Classé from St Emilion which had a whopping 15% alcohol and cost $126! It was rated Very Good - almost Outstanding - and I would be happy to drink it with a variety of dishes, so long as I didn't have to pay....

That was the right bank - all Merlot. Finally, we did the left bank - Cabernet Sauvignon - where I did a lot better with my tasting notes....

The third wine was medium ruby - almost purple. It had medium intensity and had a variety of aromas including red currant, plum, mint, herbaceous notes, and some oak. On the palate, there was black fruit, black cherry, and tobacco. It had high acidity, medium tannins, medium body, and medium plus finish. It was rated as Very Good. I liked this one quite a lot and found it was from Graves (same place as Chateau de Callac). It was another Grand Cru Classé, this time from  Pessac-Leognan by Chateau Malartic made in 2013 and cost $90. Did I mention that I liked this one?

The fourth and final one was deep ruby in colour and was medium intensity on the nose with black currants and cassis and an almost earthy note. Tasting, there was black cherry, black pepper, cooked fruit and tobacco. It had full body, medium plus tannins and medium plus acidity. It had a medium plus finish and was rated at Very Good. It was a 2013 Darioush Caravan Cabernet Sauvignon for Napa valley which had 14.8% alcohol and cost $80. Another pricey wine that just may be worth it.....

I enjoyed the class a lot this week. I think Bordeaux wines are possibly my favourite French wines and it was great to taste them and compare to the New World wines.