Sept 16th – Bordeaux

Day 3 – Monday

Today’s agenda was jam-packed with wineries, meals, and medieval walkabouts as we bid adieu to Château Teyssier and our gracious hosts and eventually settled in Bordeaux itself.

Le Dome

Our first stop was Le Dome for a 9:00 AM wine-tasting hosted by Jonathan’s son, Jack.  (A wine tasting at 9:00 AM in the morning, you ask incredulously? The owner did!) This facility is Château Teyssier’s pride and joy…and rightly so. What an incredible building! It’s as if, after finishing up in Egypt, the alien builders of the pyramids landed amidst the vineyards of Saint-Émilion to toast a job well done…then stayed. To quote their website:

Conceived by Jonathan Maltus and designed by award-winning architect Lord Norman Foster, famous for iconic works such as…London’s ‘Gherkin’, Apple’s ‘Cupertino Loop’ and The Reichstag Building in Berlin, visionary winemaking meets visionary architecture.

https://www.ledome-saintemilion.com/en/place/

The wine was incredible as well –  a rich, delicious complement to an out-of-this-world structure.

Château Croix de Labrie

Our next stop was Château Croix de Labrie for a tour and a more reasonable 11:00 AM wine-tasting. Not to denigrate but to exalt this winery, I sensed a refreshing bit of “60s hippie commune” vibe about it. A smaller family operation, built with scattered “chunks” of vineyard acreage pieced together over time, Axelle and Pierre Courdurié’s farming methods are 100% organic. Their vines are meticulously tended by using natural, time-honored methods honed and perfected by Axelle. Pierre’s primary focus is on the wine-making process. 

After touring their facilities and sampling some grapes off the vine, we gathered in their tasting room to sample four of their reds. Once the tastings were done, the Courduries invited us for lunch at a nearby restaurant, La Table de Saint Sulpice.

With lunch out of the way, it was time to unsnap the wine-tasting bibs and pop on the tourist berets as we explored the heights and highlights of cobble-stoned Saint-Émilion, the medieval namesake for the surrounding wine region. Our group split apart as we navigated the ever-higher climbing streets of the town until we eventually reached the highest elevation, a church as you might guess. 

Descending from the lofty heights of charming St. Émilion, we resumed our journey to Bordeaux and our home for the next three nights, the Hôtel Normandie.

Checked in and unpacked, we regrouped in the hotel lobby to leave for dinner. Setting out across the Place de la Comédie, a large pedestrian plaza sandwiched between the Grand Théâtre and the Grand Hotel and traversed with tram lines, we entered the rue Sainte-Catherine and the heart of Bordeaux’s shopping district. Once inside this retail mecca, we headed to a local restaurant that specialized in meats, La Brasserie Bordelaise.

We were escorted upstairs to a private dining room masquerading as a library. It was a bit stuffy until a back door was propped open, allowing a stream of cool, fresh air into the room. The first of the wine was poured…and it was exceptional, as expected. Personally, it was the food that was disappointing. The meats were sinewy and difficult to chew much less to swallow. Wine helped save the night…although even it couldn’t overcome the gristly leather I was served.