At 8:00 the alarm in our room began to buzz and there were a great number of "deleted expletives" mumbled from beneath the covers. Bleary-eyed, we tried to figure out why we were getting up so darned early after a full day of gorging ourselves on wonderful food and wine the previous day !

Luckily, we had placed the alarm clock at the far side of the room so Art ( as Betsy snoozed warmly under the covers ) stumble out across the room, turned off the alarm and tried to focus his eyes on the schedule for that day ......... Oh God !!!!!! .. We had to get ready for a 9am Tasting Session.

As Betsy mumbled something that sounded like "see you at lunch .. I'm shopping" ... I fumbled about getting dressed. All the time thinking to myself ... tasting wine ??? 9 am ???? You've got to be kidding. As I stumbled into the lobby of our hotel, desperately seeking the aid of coffee, I was glad to see that I was not the only one suffering from the ... say we say ... "indulgences" of the previous day. As we loaded onto the bus to go to the tasting session there was not a lot of conversation .. but there were a lot of expressions on faces that said "am I really doing this ??".

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As we entered ( some of us stumbling a bit ) into the hall where the tasting would be held, we found our seats and the listing of the wines that we would taste and comment on during the next 2 hours.

There were 35 wines from 16 appellations of Bordeaux. The wines were tasted two at a time. One wine was about 5 years old and the next would be about 10 years old so that we could see the changes in quality over the past years.

At each table there was an oenologist to comment along with us. There was also a professional leading the tasting and giving his comments as we went along.

Lunch at Ch. Filhot and touring in Sauternes

As we arrived, we were greeted with the beautiful view of Ch. Filhot. The chateau had been in the Filhot family since 1709. The neoclassical chateau was rebuilt in 1850. The ownership was passed on to Lur Saluces ( of Yquem ) until 1935 and then it was acquired by the Vaucelles family who still maintain it today. The typical sauternes here are aged for 30-36 months in vats and barrels.

With dozens and dozens of the wonderful sweet wines from Sauternes, Lupiac, and Sainte-Croix .. combined with Foie Gras as far as you could see ... Art was in wine and food heaven !!!

We were hosted at Ch. Bastor-Lamontagne for a tour and yes .. more tasting ! This estate, until 1710 was owned by the King of France. Today it is owned by Foncier-Vignobles. It covers 42 hectares of silica-gravel soil. The wine is barrel fermented for 15-18 months with 25-30% of the barrels being new each year. They also produce a 2nd wine called "Les Remparts de Bastor".

After our touring of Sauternes we went back to the hotel to change clothes and head out for dinner in Graves.

Our dinner was hosted by

Ch. Haut Selve and
Grand Counseil du Vin de Bordeaux

As we arrived at Ch. Haut Selve .. our buses let us out at the end of a long gravel road leading through a vineyard. In the distance we could see what, at first glance, appeared to be a low, single story building that almost appeared to be a new storage shed. Many people commented "is that really a chateau ??"

As we walked closer, you could hear the "ooohs and ahhs" from the group as the classic simplicity and beauty of this chateau unfolded and two massive cast bronze doors, flanked with two huge bronze statues came into view. When we stepped inside, we were awed with the clean, modern simplicity that was combined with quality everywhere .. from the beautiful cellar room to the crafted wooden doors with cast wine barrels as handles.

The stated goal of the owner, Jean-Jacques Lesgourgues ( in the tan coat standing next to the Grand Maitre of the Commanderie, Francis Fouquet ), to combine fine Art with the beauty of the vineyards was more than met. This 43 hectare vineyard in Graves was built in 1993 and the first wines from here are just now reaching the market. If you get the chance to visit the other properties that Jean-Jacques owns, you will also see the love of Art, the land and tradition in all of them.

Dinner and the wines

As dinner drew to a close, Jean-Jacques took to the podium and announced that there was a "surprise" under one of the tables. Low and behold, on reaching under where I was sitting, I found this rolled up paper that said ..

I had won a bottle of
1900 Ch. Laubade
Bas-Armagnac !!!
( another Jean-Jacque's properties )

We were presented the beautiful, hand-blown bottle by
Bernard Matabos, Director, LEDA S.A.

Of really interesting note is that, afterwards, when we were talking to Bernard, he asked where we were from and we replied "North Carolina". His face lit up and he said "I have been looking for you !!". Needless to say, since we had never met this gentleman before, we were a bit confused and it definitely showed on our faces. He smiled and said that "Andrew told us you were coming". It turns out that a friend of ours, Andrew from New Zealand and his wife had stayed with Bernard and his family just a few weeks earlier and Andrew had mentioned that we were coming to visit.

It is definitely a small world when a person from New Zealand visits someone in France who would end up presenting the two of us with a bottle of 1900 Bas-Armagnac !!!

While fending off dozens of offers of "We will help you drink that" .. we boarded our buses and returned to our hotel, full of the headiness of the day.