Bordeaux visit 20/9 - 27/9 2004

At last it was time for another visit to Bordeaux. After the great success in 2001, we again booked Chateau Gourran in Premieres Côtes de Bordeaux, near the village Langoiran. This fantastic Chateau can be rented if you have bought a stock in the Danish owned Chateau Haux. This time the price was EUR 2400. But if you are 10 people it is not so much after all. This time we had booked a Maersk Air flight to Toulouse, as we couldn't get a flight to Bordeaux that day. The tickets price was EUR 193. From Toulouse we had rented a car to EUR 333 and drove the 230 km to Bordeaux. We arrived late about 22.30. This time we had planned to visit the area as the harvest was ongoing, which was very interesting to follow. We saw manual harvest as well as harvest by big machines.
Although we had been on Chateau Gourran before, it was again a stunning experience to be here. The Chateau is lying on the top of a hill, with a great view over the country area. See pictures here
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On Tuesday we were "home", but on Wednesday we again visit "my own" Chateau Haux, for another guided tour. Afterwards we got a lunch in the garden. Photos here.




On Thursday we went to the Haut Medoc area and this time we had booked a visit at the great Chateau Fonbadet in Pauillac. We got a nice reception and were shown around by Pascale Peyronie, who is in chard of the Chateaus wine today. Pictures from the visit, can be seen here.




Our visit continued after a lunch in Pauillac north of Pauillac to St. Estephe. Here we visit another great Chateau, Chateau Haut-Marbuzet, which really is producing one of the best Cru Bourgeois wines. There we no guided tour, only the tasting. We tasted Haut-Marbuzet in the vintage 2002 and another wine from one of Henri Dubosq other Chateaus. See pictures from Chateau Haut-Marbuzet and some other Chateaus we stopped by here


Fridays planned tour was changed as it was raining, so our visit to Saint Emilion was postponed to after lunch See pictures from Saint Emilion here.

We didn't have time also to visit Chateau La Rivière in Fronsac that day, but two of us used Saturday afternoon to visit this fantastic Chateau. Enjoy the pictures here.

After the great visit at Chateau La Rivière we were about to drive home, when we decided to drive via Pomerol and Chateau De Sales. Here we had another great expiring, see more here.
On Sunday we went to the Sauternes area. We started at the big Chateau Suduiraut Pictures here.
After that we went to the top Chateau, Chateau Equem, which lies on the top of a hill, with a view over the entire Sauternes area. Pictures of Equem can be seen here.
As last time, we dinned at home some days and out on other days. We tasted different wines from the whole area and in general the prices were lower than in Denmark. As last time the prices were about 15-20% cheaper then in Denmark. Here are labels of some of the wine we tasted:



Chateau Langoiran 2000, Premières Côtes de Bordeaux. This wine had a clear red colour and a fine bouquet. An easy to drink wine, maybe a bit too easy! 7
Chateau Les Marcottes 2002 Premières Côtes de Bordeaux. This wine had a dark colour and a spicy bouquet. The wine was generally fat and nice and better than the above, with a good long fruit and spicy taste too. 8*
Chateau Bessan 2000, Premières Côtes de Bordeaux. Another local wine, which was nice produced and tasted well. 8
Chateau Beaumont 2001, Haut Medoc. This fine wine had a red colour and a charming bouquet. The wine was already drinkable now and had a nice taste of fresh berries and a bit of vanilla. Great wine! 9
Chateau Fonbadet 2001, Pauillac. Before the visit to Chateau Fonbadet, we tasted the wine at "home". It had a dark red colour and a fine bouquet. It was a very fat wine with a classic Pauillac taste. The wine were far from matured, but still possible to drink.9
La Demoisalle de Sociando-Mallet 2001, Haut Medoc. Even though it was only the second wine to Sociando-Mallet, it was an impressive wine. The wine was nearly black with a bouquet of berries. It was a wine with lots of tannin, which will keep this wine a live many years. It had a very spicy long living taste. A top wine, but not the women's favourite! 10
Chateau Fonbadet 1995, Pauillac. This wine still got a dark red colour, but with a weak matured orange colour too. The wine was still had lots of tannin and power, but also a nice fruity taste. A great wine, which will be on top the next 5-8 years. 9*
Chateau des Jouans 2000, Saint Emilion. This wine had a good red colour and a fine berry bouquet. A charming wine ready to drink now, with a long silky fruity taste. 8*
Chateau Lalande-Borie 1997, Saint-Julien. This wine had a nice matured red colour and a great bouquet. A super wine in a difficult vintages. The wine had a fine taste of berries, cedar and vanilla. Absolutely the winner by most of us. 10
Chateau Haut-Marbuzet 2002, St. Estephe. This black coloured wine, we tasted at our visit. It was a powerful wine with an intense taste of berries. Still it was a very young wine, so I will guess it will be matured to drink about 10 years from now! 10
Chateau Saint_Ourens 2001, Cadillac. This sweet wine we tasted to Foie Gras. The wine was dark yellow with a fine bouquet. A sweet wine with lots power and a nice taste. 8*
After our visit to Sauternes, we bought this great wine. It had an intense yellow colour and a fat super wine, with a nice long sweet taste. A great Sauternes! 9



I bought 8 bottles of wine, 3 Chateau Lalande Borie to EUR 10, Haut Marbuzet, Saint-Estèphe to EUR 22, Chateau Duluc 2001, Saint-Julien to EUR 10, Chateau Beychevelle 2001, Saint-Julien to EUR 24, Chateau Fonbadet 2000, Pauillac to EUR 22,5, and Chateau Potensac, Medoc to EUR 10,5.

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