The beautiful vineyards of Chateau Franc Mayne in Saint Emilion
Brit James Capon, a 25-year-old, gave us a tour of the grounds. He works in marketing. We learned from James and our tour guide for the day Mary Dardenne that native English speakers are in demand for marketing, tourism, and exporting.
Chateau Franc Mayne has nearly 4 acres of old limestone quarries beneath its vineyards. The quarries were mined in the 18th century to build the great buildings of Bordeaux. The winery does use the constant 12C atmosphere to age its wines.
The winery recently added an "animation" to the quarries to show visitors the history of wine, wine at Chateau Franc Mayne, and the history of the Saint Emilion area. We were not allowed to take photos beyond the entry point because the animation has not yet been opened to the public. James sought our feedback and ideas. It's going to be very unique in France, that's for sure.
We had lunch in the Chateau which started with this nice meat dish appetizer!
I think most photographers are suckers for a patch of lavender - and it seems to grow everywhere in France.
After our Chateau visit we headed down the road and down the old streets of Saint Emilion.
Love this view of the Bordeaux countryside taken from the main plaza near the monolithic church tower.
Down these rather steep stone steps to see the spot where Saint Emilion hid for 17 years.
Our last stop of the afternoon was at the incredible warehouses of Millesima on the outskirts of downtown Bordeaux. They are private buyers/sellers for some of the world's top collectors. They buy directly from the winery and sell direct to individual consumers. All the wines were stored in the traditional wooden case as you see here. The wines represented every major Chateau in Bordeaux. They have 67,000 customers our guide told us in 120 countries - and business is growing.
Millesima's Gerard Spatafora, marketing, walked us through the facility and showed us this unique large format bottle - which, by the way, goes for about $2000.
Friday night it was onto a boat to cruise the Garone River with producers of Sweet Bordeaux wines.
We were able to watch the festival go by as we motored down the river - you can see the beautiful French architecture of its market square behind the tents.
The sweet Bordeaux is made from the same three wine grapes as Bordeaux whites - Sauvingon Blanc, Semillion, and Muscadel. Most people have heard of or tried Sauternes but it's made in other regions as well. Here I am chatting with Guillaume Perromat of Chateau d'Armajan .
When we cruised back toward downtown later in the eveneing we had wonderful views of the architecture and evening at the festival.
