Our first Wine Tasting tour took place in the St. Emilion region which was about a 45 minute drive from Bordeaux. The drive was beautiful, although rainy, as the trees are all turning color right now and starting to fall.
We started at Chateau de Ferrand = Ferrand Castle or Manor House (the French don't use the term winery) and had a wonderful tour of the grounds, the barrel room, the bottle room and then, of course, the tasting room where we were allowed to try 4 of their wines. Chateau de Ferrand is a St. Emilion Grand Cru, which is to say one of the highest rated wines in the region. Most Chateaux make 2 levels of wine, a Grand Cru, which is their best and then a 2nd press which is a lower quality and under a different label so as not to dilute the Chateaux name and reputation. This is different from US wines where the label (i.e. Bergstrom) will make a number of different wines at various qualities and usually call their best one a "Reserve". Here in Bordeaux region the other labels may not even be easily tied to the original Chateau. For example, at Chateau de Ferrand, the Grand Cru label is Chateau de Ferrand and the 2nd label is something else, which I tried to look up on the web and couldn't find. A Google search of Chateau de Ferrand only brings up that label ... I guess they're serious about not getting the two confused. The most interesting thing for me about this Chateau is that it is currently owned by Baron Bich (which the owner of the Bic pen company in the US). His daughter married a guy from the Chandon family (famous California champagne winery) and now operate this Chateau. Can you imagine the party they must have had for that wedding? :) Here are a few pics of Chateau de Ferrand.
Next we'll visit the cute little town of St. Emilion ...
We started at Chateau de Ferrand = Ferrand Castle or Manor House (the French don't use the term winery) and had a wonderful tour of the grounds, the barrel room, the bottle room and then, of course, the tasting room where we were allowed to try 4 of their wines. Chateau de Ferrand is a St. Emilion Grand Cru, which is to say one of the highest rated wines in the region. Most Chateaux make 2 levels of wine, a Grand Cru, which is their best and then a 2nd press which is a lower quality and under a different label so as not to dilute the Chateaux name and reputation. This is different from US wines where the label (i.e. Bergstrom) will make a number of different wines at various qualities and usually call their best one a "Reserve". Here in Bordeaux region the other labels may not even be easily tied to the original Chateau. For example, at Chateau de Ferrand, the Grand Cru label is Chateau de Ferrand and the 2nd label is something else, which I tried to look up on the web and couldn't find. A Google search of Chateau de Ferrand only brings up that label ... I guess they're serious about not getting the two confused. The most interesting thing for me about this Chateau is that it is currently owned by Baron Bich (which the owner of the Bic pen company in the US). His daughter married a guy from the Chandon family (famous California champagne winery) and now operate this Chateau. Can you imagine the party they must have had for that wedding? :) Here are a few pics of Chateau de Ferrand.
Next we'll visit the cute little town of St. Emilion ...
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