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  • Day 420

    Day 421: Saint-Emilion Wine Region

    April 11, 2018 in France ⋅ 🌧 13 °C

    Wine time! Headed off to the east of Bordeaux, where one of France's most famous wine regions is located. Bordeaux itself produces a huge percentage of French wine, but one of the most prestigious comes from the Saint-Emilion valley. It's been produced for centuries, and is apparently really good because of the limestone soil that keeps the moisture consistent between seasons and years, while the caves are great for keeping things at consistent temperatures.

    So we drove into town, parked up and had a wander. It's quite a pleasant little spot, though obviously a bit touristy. Nice buildings, and a unique underground church, plus vineyards on the horizon everywhere you looked. We did a spot of wine tasting in an underground cellar, though it cost 5 euros each for just two wines and we both thought the pours were quite stingy. Oh well!

    Had to solve our issues with lunch, where we had a typical lunch menu. Salmon and goat's cheese terrine for starter, then a steak with fries for main followed by a coffee. Very tasty and filling!

    After lunch we hopped in the car and drove around the local area, looking at all the various chateaux. There's some 800 separate producers in the region, the largest at several hundred hectares of vines, while the smallest has just over one hectare. Unfortunately the early spring meant the vines weren't flowering yet, everything still looked dead and barren though there were green shoots here and there. It must be really nice in summertime!

    Eventually we finished filming and headed back home to Bordeaux.
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