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Fortunately I had a whole week of practice ahead, this being the first day of a week\'s buying trip in Bordeaux - the largest \'fine winemaking\' district on earth, with around 3,000 producers. I fled the coolness of the cellar (or Chai as it\'s known in the region) into the 35?swelt where my colleague, a \'Master of Wine\', had just completed \'swirling and chomping\', and spat a well-structured metre-long stream in the direction of a fleeing ghecko.
Bordeaux is situated in the south-west of France, and its close proximity to the Atlantic coupled with the confluence of the Garonne and Dordogne rivers into the Gironde Estuary produces a moderate, stable maritime climate providing warm summers and cool winters ideal for growing vines. The waterways divide the region into two broad areas - the Left and Right Banks. Myself and five colleagues were staying in a gite on the \'Right Bank\' in the petite village of Saint Romain la Virvee, 20 kms north-east of Bordeaux, in the Bourg region - arguably the most beautiful part of Bordeaux, and an ideal base to concentrate on the lesser-known and underrated appellations (appellation status being the highest level a French wine can achieve), such as the Côtes de Bourg and Castillon, Entre-Deux-Mers and Bordeaux Superieur - where a nice drop will satisfy both your palate and still leave your wallet with a reasonable bulge.
The purpose of this trip was to bring back samples from new and emerging producers to be tasted back in the UK by an expert panel of Masters of Wine - an elite group of professionals of which there have only been around 200 or so ever. I was privileged to be in the company of three of them on this trip, though this was to be no vacances. We were on the road at 8am each day, and at our first château by about 9pm, in order to cram in at least eight vineyards a day.
I was employed on a driving, note-taking and photographic basis, with an almost virgin palate in desperate need of education by my assigned Master.
At the Château The first stage of visiting a château requires finding it - pretty tough going in rural France, with a notable absence of signposts and dodgy directions from numerous elderly ladies. "Ahh, Bonjour Madame, ou\'est le Château s\'il vous plait?" Madame would then go through a frantic repertoire of molar-deficient rapid mouthing and arm flinging, et voila, five minutes later you\'d find yourself up a dead-end facing a lake. Later, it would become apparent that the château you\'re actually after is just a couple of doors down from Madame.
Then there\'s the château itself (which includes vineyards as well as the buildings), and is likely to be anything from a grande maison to a shed. Estates are often passed on between generations, and with it, winemaking knowledge and techniques. The lifestyle of the owner(s), often husband and wife teams, appears to be idyllic on the surface. They usually split winemaking and office tasks between them, though they will also usually employ a small team at busy times of the year such as picking.
For the small producer, however, making wine is immensely hard work - a way of life. To succeed you need to be a farmer, a chemist, a negotiator, a marketer, and then there\'s the unknown weather factor, which could bumper your crop one year and devastate the next.
The owner may like to show you around the vines, fermentation tanks and the cellar. After a few visits it soon becomes apparent that there is little to get excited about around concrete and steel fermentation tanks, where cleanliness is paramount. However, a chai can be immensely aesthetic - a cool respite from the sweltering summer temperatures, stacked full of barrels (for secondary oak fermentation/ maturation).
The Tasting With the tour complete, it\'s time to get down to business, and sample what the producer has to offer. This may be one or two wines, or around ten, depending on how many \'labels\' they are producing from various vineyard sites, grape varieties and so on, and sometimes including those not yet bottled - where a sample is taken from cask.
Thanks to some tips relayed to by my highly experienced colleague I was able to display the air of someone who at least knew one end of a corkscrew from the other. The typical cepage (or grape percentages) of Right Bank reds is predominantly Merlot, which is often blended with Cabernet Sauvignon for balance - producing wines full of fruit and tannins which age well, whereas Cabernet Sauvignon is the predominant grape on the Left Bank. Merlot produces full-bodied, well-rounded, moderately tannic wine. Tannins are very evident in Claret and important for ageing, whilst also having a drying effect on the gums. Other grapes typically used in smaller quantities of a typical red Bordeaux blend include Cabernet Franc which is green and stalky, and matures more rapidly, and Malbec \'the vignerons spicy seasoning\'.
The Master took me through the basic steps in tasting, beginning with clarity. When holding the glass at a 45?angle to light the wine should appear bright and clear, cloudiness usually means the wine is faulty in some way. Then you should check the intensity of the wine which in reds can vary from purple/black to red. Generally, the more purple a wine, the younger it is, and the greater its development potential with bottle-age.
Finally there\'s the taste. I\'d sip and suck like a drain emptying, then swill and chomp. The fruit characters on the palate should at this stage confirm those of the nose, and are divided into three distinct stages: the immediate impression, or \'front palate\', the \'middle palate\' of the full wine flavour in the mouth, and finally the finish, or length - the duration of which the flavour lingers on the palate after spitting.
As for the endless nuances and detail in between such as balance, oak, acidity and the endless stream of vinous terminology you\'re better off consulting an expert than my amateur \'bull\'.
The art of spitting (because it is one) should also be not overlooked. Spittoons are rarely provided in Bordeaux, and it is the custom to spit where you see fit, but obviously not in the direction of the winemaker or their dog. Swallowing is not an option with around 30-35 wines to taste each day in the height of summer, especially if you\'re driving. At the end of each day if you could have prised my gums away from the sides of my mouth, you could have scraped enough sediment to - well have a nasty amount of sediment really.
As for white wines - well I didn\'t taste too many myself, but for interest (if there is any) Sémillon is the most widely planted white variety in Bordeaux, and is especially prominent in the sweet wines of Sauterenes (a blend of Semillon, Sauvignon and Muscadelle). Sauvignon Blanc produces low yields and wines with a distinctive gooseberry fruit, and as you may well know is increasingly used for single varietal dry white wines.
The Lunch Each day, lunch would consist of a picnic in a vineyrad. We were under strict orders not to accept lunch from the winemakers, but finally succumbed on the last day. In a farmhouse kitchen, we were asked how we liked our half cows cooked. "Rare", the Master replied. Very chic I thought, until I cut into the jelly-like mass of pink flesh, popped it into my mouth, chewed, and chewed, swallowed and began convulsing. Rather sheepishly I put back on the plate what shouldn\'t have entered my quivering body in the first place, and with a feeling of embarrassment asked for it to be burnt to a cinder to avoid a repeat performance.
Entertainment We would get back to the gite around 7 pm each night, with just about enough strength to unload the samples from the car, cook up a barbecue and drink beer (not wine), overlooking the banks of the Dordogne. Then I\'d get distracted by the football World Cup which was being staged in France at the time, talk drivel for a while, and crawl into bed, to be woken at 6 am by church bells which would strike 6 am twice - a throwback from past times to ensure that the vineyard workers didn\'t oversleep.
The journey back to the ferry port took less time than the journey to Bordeaux as we took the main roads back instead of digressing through rural France as we had done on the way - and so the journey took 8 hours instead of ten, with stops for autoroute oysters - slightly more appealing than chips and beans at an English motorway service station and cheaper. On boarding the ferry we made for the bar for a quick pastis, only to be surrounded by jubilent dancing football fans - England having reached the Quarter Finals - back to the culture I know and, well would you know were the biggest wine market in the World - seems that way doesn\'t it?
A little bit about buying direct from vineyards If you are planning on visiting Châteaux yourselves for the first time it might be an idea to try those who advertise themselves as Vente Directes (direct sales) as they are more geared up towards cellar sales, open specifically to the public to sample and buy wines - a kind of shop front, though of course you lose some of the appeal of a more rustic château - but not always. You may bring as many bottles back to Britain as you can as long as you can prove it is for personal consumption, and you have paid French taxes, and have a receipt as proof. You are not expected to buy, but no grower likes to throw away wine all the time.
Tax - you have to pay French VAT of 20.6%, and duty of ?.09 per bottle (for still wine), or can ask for an acquit (receipt) and provides you with a document which you have to show customs both on leaving France and entering the UK. Growers prefer the 1st method as sometimes we forget to produce at customs and they end up paying the tax. Don\'t let this put you off too much, it\'s not really a hassle, and you\'ll still end up with a bargain.
When to Go Any time of year except from August to around November which is a tricky time with holidays and picking.
Guides and maps If you can read French, two of the most well-respected wine guides are Guide Dussert-Gerber des Vins de France, 98 - edited by Albin Michel, price 140 Ff (around ?4.00), and Le Guide Hachette des Vins, 1998, pub. Hachette Livre, price165Ff (around ?7.00) A good starting point however, would be \'A Traveller\'s Wine Guide To France\' by Christopher Fielden, pub. By Aurum Press, cost ?.99 For a detailed guide to tasting check out Michael Broadbent\'s Pocket Guide to Winetasting, pub by Mitchell Beazley, cost ?.99 Maps - check out the yellow Michelin Series.
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