A day in Bordeaux Wine Country

Our instructions were to meet outside the Bordeaux Tourist office a bit before 9 am - there must have been about a dozen tours meeting there, so it was a bit confusing. Finally our guide Julie arrived and called out our names, and we were off! We were a group of eight, six English speakers and an older couple who only spoke French, although as the day unfolded we discovered that (the quite cheeky) Michel spoke a bit of English, but his wife nada. The others in the group were Tommy and his mum Diane, who were from the States, and Jorge and Tatiana, who were from Colombia but currently live in Switzerland. Prior to this they had spent 14 years in the States working for Dow Chemicals. It was a really nice group, lots of fun and easy to talk to, especially as the day progressed and we consumed more and more wine!

It turns out that Tommy, a global diversity manger for Uber, is a mad “Kath and Kim” fan and loves to take the piss. He found all of the wines “Noice”. He and a bunch of his friends are heading to the Sydney Mardi Gras in 2023. They are planning to spend a month in Sydney.

Our first stop was Château Carbonnieux, a Grand Cru Classé de Graves, located in Pessac-Léognan sub-region. The Château is absolutely stunning and has been very well maintained - it was the most beautiful Château of the day. This is a family owned winery and has been in the Perrin family since 1820; the grandmother of the current owners still lives on site. They produce both red and white wine, both Grand Cru Classé. They are very well known for their exceptional white wine, a Sauvignon Sémillon, a result of the terroir of deep gravel and clay-limestone in their vineyards. We tasted both their white wine and their red wine, a blend of Cabernet-Sauvignon (60%), Merlot (30%), Cabernet Frank (7%) & petit Verdot (3%). Both were very good wines.

Our guide was Louise who gave us a great tour of the property and explained the history of the Château.Les mer