Le Chateau

As promised, I thought I’d chat a bit more about our “home base” in Bordeaux. The Chateau is a true, 17th century chateau. Today, it houses the wine company’s offices, the “company flat,” that Katie and I are staying in, as well as 12 other bedrooms, a full kitchen, and bar, a pool/game room and two massive wine cellars (I’ll get to these in a another post, but in the mean-time, can you say “first-growth magnum collection”? I knew you could). During the week guests visit and stay in the chateau’s 12 guest rooms. Usually these are large company groups, or rewarded sales staff from around the world that have excelled at the promotion of the French winery’s wines. There is NO ONE around on the weekends, save Monique, a lovely woman who lives on the property with her horse-size dog. Believe me, if you lived here alone, you’d have a huge dog too.

Oh – and “the hunters” also make their appearance on Saturday mornings. They have been enlisted to kill off the excess of wild boars that roam about at night, rooting around the chateau’s landscaping for consumables. Obviously, we have a sundown curfew, as to avoid being gored to death.



The flat (pictured at right), in all honesty, is extremely modest, despite its romantic appearance. Perhaps it’s our American life that makes me think so, but I was quite taken back when it was first shown to us. There is very little furniture, and an adequately, but not contemporarily stocked kitchen. We had some bug issues, and it’s quite cold, unless you close our bedroom door and blast the radiator – that’s right, the radiator. I shouldn’t complain though, as we have our own bathroom, toilet included (don’t ever underestimate that convenience in Europe), a nice place to sleep (beats my urine-stained-mattress, hostile based trip to Europe in college, hands down), and, when I’m not on the road traveling for work, my office is only steps away. Not bad. AND – we get six channels of French TV! You laugh, but you haven’t lived until you’ve watched Little House on the Prairie dubbed over in French.

Also, we have managed to really spend very little money on the trip, as we have become quite proficient at the local ATAC grocery store, and have made many of our own meals thus far. Nothing says “trip to the gastronomical center of the world,” like pasta and sauce from a jar, am I right? Don’t worry, when we have gone out, we’ve gone big. Dinner last night almost killed me. Apparently, in France, some genius thought it a good idea to not only serve an appetizer (called an entrée here) before the meal, but to also serve a sweet one before the dessert! In this case it was a small plate of fresh strawberry puree and local cakes. We had quite a time. The wine was a Vosne Romanee by Robert Sirugue, 1998. Absolutely at the peak of its game. Qui!

Next post will be the first tales of my travels with the winemaking staff here. Two very colorful Frenchmen, one who speaks perfect English, and one who speaks almost none. Both gentlemen have been fantastic to us thus far.

Stay well.
JB