Unbelievably beautiful village built in the middle ages, with underground vaults, passages, wine cellars and rolling hills covered with vineyards of Merlot and Cabernet grapes.
We stay in a chateau (castle) :), the home of a winery family, and the winery is called Chateau Franc-Pourret. It is a 5th generation enterprise, and it has been organic for about 20 years. The proprietaire, Madame Catherine Ouzoulias, is not only kind, but a world of knowledge for us. The St. Emilion-Bordeaux area is where you find some of the worlds outstanding wines. At this winery they sell "Grand Cru." She gives us a private tour of the winery, and we drink 2001 St. Emilion, a great year, and buy some to bring home.
In the afternoon we go to the next door winery Chateau Franc-Mayne. It is the top classification, "Grand Cru Classe" (sorry about accent). This is a much more modern winery, and our tour guide is A.J., a woman from California who studied oenology and married a Frenchman. In this medieval town, you need to make a reservation to visit most wineries, and this costs from free to 10 euros (about $12), but the nice thing is you get a good pour and you don't feel obliged to purchase. We try and buy another fine wine...it is only money. This winery has an underground passage area carved centuries ago where wines are stored and where you used to be able to follow into the village.
On Wed. we take a tour of the medieval city, where there are underground passages and catacombs under the church. The town has winding cobblestone streets and shops and overlooks rolling hills of vineyards planted with Merlot and Cabernet. The other part of our stay that is great is that Catherine shows us how to take a path to the village via the vineyards. We feel like family.
The top two pictures in the restaurant L'Envers du Decor" show typical style and show how ordinary wine can be bought from the barrel. This is our cute waiter drawing barrel wine. I need a facial!
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