An on-time flight from Bristol got us fifteen mustard-keen cyclists in to Bordeaux’s Merignac airport right on time. Sensibly, some of the team decided to take a taxi to the terribly ‘un-posh’ Novotel in Bordeaux’s faceless Mériadeck district. However, others followed my lead and took the bus in to town. Wrong decision! I managed to get us on to the commuter bus instead of the airport shutlle and after an hour’s worth of meandering around the houses, we got to the Novotel. Our bikes were delivered over night and on Friday morning, we negotiated our way out of the Bordeaux traffic and powered our way up the minor roads along the Garonne. This was a great gang of lads who really did want to cycle but also wanted to learn a little about this very demanding region. By lunchtime, we had found a really friendly café in Macau (le Petit Verdot) and freshened up with a few beers and some charcurterie and then pressed on up to Paulliac where we had a visit planned at Grand-Puy-Lacoste. François Borie was his usual charming self and didn’t seem at all phased by a group of rather sweaty chaps from East Devon. We tasted a beautifully structured and pervasive 2006 GPL and the remarkable 2009 that is now showing its real potential – a really grand master. The team were hugely impressed by the triage work (not really needed!) going on in the salle de réception but equally so by the sheer class of the wines and the welcome of Monsieur Borie. We nighted at the France et Angleterre on the front in Pauillac and tumbled in to bed really quite tired and happy!
Saturday was a big day with a run up to Mouton and then down through the vineyards via Gruaud-Larose, Talbot and (unexpectedly) Lanessan! We had chosen an off-road route for this part of the ride and ended up on private roads through Château Lanessan, ending up narrowly been chased by a very fierce Alsatian guard-dog but managing to set off a state-of-the-art burglar alarm system surrounding the (uninhabited) château. “Every man for himself” was the shout that went up and we scattered like rabbits in the headlights. No sign of the local gendarmerie – phew! Mark Seward, our host for this event (who was celebrating his 50th birthday) had managed to find an étape for lunch on his I-pod (Michelin app) and our ever-dapper van driver, Daryll, persauded Le Lion d’Or at Arsac to take us for lunch. Madame was really quite surprised when we all turned up and the tone was set by Richard E. who was attired in a startling Tour de France one-piece cycling suite that really didn’t do him justice. When we ordered 15 menus at 13 euros, she became even frosty but we turned things around by managing to order wine worth three times the value of the food element of the bill! Onwards to Château Paloumey near Pian-Médoc, albeit rather late as we experienced some navagational problems, adding a further 10km. to an already very long route. Martine Cazeneuve, the delightful owner, gave us a fascinating tour and proved that some delicious, affordable wine is also available at the Cru Bourgeois level. We had been cycling in late-20 degree Centigrade temperatures and we were more than relieved to get to our hotel at Le Pian-Médoc and throw ourselves in to the pool!
It was a fantastic trip…covering over 100 miles on our cycles…without any injuries or too many hangovers. By the way, Dick, you did very well…
Our wine tasting at the Innovation Centre, Exeter approaches (Thursday 25th November 5.30 – 8pm) and we have selected the wines to show to all our customers. It’s been a difficult decision as we stock over 2000 wines across many different vintages. However, it’s also been an exciting decision as we have, over the past few months, selected some new and very interesting wines and this will give us a great opportunity to see what our customers think of them. To name but a few…’Cool Climate’ Riesling from Canberra, Australia, Pecorino Pescaersi Trabochetto (white) from Talamonte, Italy and one that Chris has always been after but never actually found a good one until now, a Morellino di Scansano (red) from Spiagggiole, Italy.
