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Declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2007, the city of Bordeaux (33 Gironde, Aquitaine) is making a serious claim as a tourist desitnation. I must admit most of my visits have been fleeting - on the way to the airport or to the vineyards beyond the city centre. The Times (26 Nov 07) provides a new look at the city:

The region is one of the most vaunted wine producers in France but until recently many of visitors gave the city itself a pass. Prostitutes and shady characters strolled its rundown waterfront, black grime obscured the architecture.
But a recent regeneration project, backed by mayor (and former French Prime Minister) Alain Juppe, has scoured buildings, turned the area by the Garonne River to a sweeping promenade with a shallow pool reflecting the Place de la Bourse and resurrected its graceful beauty.
Multimedia

A new whisper-quiet tram, free from overhead lines in the central city, whisks visitors and locals around its 35kms tracks (expanding to 45kms).

For more info see Times Online
Bordeaux Tourist Office

Along with the new Vin de Pays de l’Atlantique in South West France there is also to be a new Vin de pays des Gaules (Wine of the Land of the Gauls)in the Beaujolais region - or is there??
The proposal was for the Vin de Pays des Gaules to be produced in the Rhone region and parts of the Saone-et-Loire departement : from Leynes, in northern Beaujolais to Chazay d’Azergues in the south.

Both appellations are designed to offer an alternative to an oversupply of Bordeaux and Beaujolais AC wines, offering winemakers the opportunity to make a wide range of wines with fewer restrictions. In the Pays de Gaules Gamay will be the overwhelmingly predominant grape, with Chardonnay, Pinot, Syrah, Viognier, Aligoté and 13 other allowed varietals.
However, there is a hitch in the system as the EU has ruled that the names of these 2 appellations are not sufficiently geographically recognisable. Someone, somewhere has got something wrong, which is a shame as these new wines could be very helpful if reducing the volume of over-priced and mediocre Bordeaux and Beaujolais and encourage some experimentation, WInemakers have been planning this new wine for some time, with labels already printed, as the above image demonstrates - from the Cave des Vignerons de St Laurent d’Oignt.
The new Vin de Pays des Gaules will not be allowed to compete with Beaujolais Nouveau however, as it cannot be marketed until mid-December, a month after the release of the Nouveau.

Jonathan Ray in The Telegraph selects his top 10 sweet wines, which includes the little-known and hard-to-pronounce appellation of Pacherenc du Vic Bilh from South West France. Reserved solely for white wines, it is the white sister to the red Madiran AC, covering virtually the same area in deepest Gascony.
It is most often seen as a late harvest dessert wine, but you can also find dry versions. Permitted grapes include Gros Manseng, Petit Manseng, Arrufiac and Petit Courbu grapes, similar to nearby Jurancon AC, but tending to have a touch more mineral edge.

2005 Rive Haute Reserve Pacherenc 13.5%vol, France (£8.99 per 50cl; Playford Ros 01845 526777, Coe Vintners 020 8551 4966, Wheeler Cellars 01206 713560).Pacherenc du Vic-Bihl is the white wine AOC from Madiran in south-west France. Made from Gros and Petit Manseng, Petit Courbu and Arrufiac picked between St Martin’s Day (Nov 4) and St Albert’s Day (Nov 15), this has hints of lemon and apricot. Great with fruit tart.

This comes from the Plaimont Co-operative, who also produce another superb Pacherenc - Cuvée St Albert.- for more see www.plaimont.com
Other French wines on the list included a Jurancon from the Southwest, a Barsac from Bordeaux and a demi-sec Champagne from Pol Roger!

Johnathan Ray makes the point that we too often pigeonhole such wines as “dessert” or “pudding” wines, when there are ocassions when they can be a perfect compliment to other foods.

“Pan-fried foie gras, simple pâté de foie or even smoked fish at the start of a meal can work beautifully with a sticky. I once enjoyed a fine German Beerenauslese with a main course of roast wild boar.”

The artist Margaret Loxton is very English, and very Yorkshire – as is her style, but she has neverthess produced some very atmospheric images of France, and particularly French rural life. With her buxom men and women it may be a style you love or hate, but these pictures are so French they could not be anywhere else.

She has a whole series of scenes, including wine-related ones such as the Pavement Café in Riquewihr (68 Haut-Rhin, Alsace) shown above, but also Nuits St Georges (Burgundy) and the Luberon (Provence).

Limited edition prints are available online from La Provence Collections (along with a host of other gift items and fabrics on a Provencal theme) – thet also have a shop on the Square at Stow-in-the-Wold, near Cheltenham, Glos.

If you don’t want a print, you can see some of pictures in her book

Travels Through Burgundy

A recent missive from the “Seigneurs de Cahors” helped to unravel some of the varying terms used for oak barrels in France.

The “Seigneurs” or “lords” is a self-selected group of some of the best Cahors producers – but whilst I will agree that they are amongst the best, there are other producers outside the hallowed group who produce great wines.

The Seigneurs of Cahors include Chateau de Mercuès, Chateau Haut-Serre, Chateau Leret-Monpezat, Chateau les Bouysses, Chateau de Caix, Chateau de Chambert, Chateau du Cedre, Prieuré de Cénac and Chateau Triguedina.

However, back to barrels and barriques. As it is France, there is inevitably quite a lot of regional variation in names and sizes. The most common is the Bordeaux barrique (as pictured) used for ageing (and sometimes) fermenting wines especially to impart the softening and oaky flavours that contact with oak (especially new oak) can bring to a wine. In Bordeaux this is usually a barrique of 225 litres. However, in Burgundy a 220 litre barrel is known as a “pièce”, although sometimes this is 228 litres in the Côte d’Or. You will also find a demi-pièce which holds half of the equivalent quantity.

On a larger scale come the pipe (400 litres), the tonne(or tonneau) at 1000 litres and ultimately the foudre which can be over 11,500 litres. These larger containers tend to be more for storage, as the larger the barrel gets the less contact the wine has with the wood. The larger foudre tends to be quite ancient and will impart no real “woodiness” or “oakiness” to the wine.

The smaller the barrel and the newer the oak, the more intense the impact on the wine will be. Many winemakers will use a proportion of new oak barrels with some that have been used for one or two harvests to get just the right amount of “oak” character in the wine.

Also the French being French, they will usually choose French oak from the massive forests of the Allier or the Troncais for example. American oak is sometimes used, but tends to have a more powerful oaky flavour than the more subtle French oak. There is a whole industry and mythology around the whole process of oak cultivation (sylviculture). cutting and drying the staves, toasting and making the barrels (tonnellerie). There is now cheaper oak available from Eastern Europe to complicate matters, and seeing as how a quality oak barrel from a good supplier can cost €700 or more, then price has to be a serious consideration for the winemaker.

For more info on the wines of Cahors see www.frenchduck.co.uk/cahors.html and www.vindecahors.fr

Whilst the mid-summer in the UK has been pretty miserable and very wet, bad weather has not been confined to this side of the English Channel, and many wine regions in France are now reporting serious concerns, particularly about the onset of mildew on the grapes. Up to 60 days of frequent and heavy rains in Bordeaux, South West France and elsewhere have led to very damp conditions which provide an ideal environment for parasitic mildew to develop on the leaves and young bunches of grapes. Even spraying with the distinctive “Bordeaux mixture” of copper sulphate and lime does not have much effect when the rain dilutes its effects as soon as it is sprayed.

Certainly my visits to the wine regions of France this summer have been disappointing weatherwise, and unless the weather improves soon there may be a serious shortfall in the 2007 vintage. Really good weather from now until September could rescue the quality of the resultant wines, but not the quantity. However, the 10 day forecast for Bordeaux still seems to threaten rather changeable conditions rather than the reliably hot and sunny weather you would normally expect in mid/late July.

Alsace was also severely affected by localised hailstorms in June, which were so ferocious that cars were damaged by the hailstorms.

Just another reminder that owning a vineyard is seldom an easy option – pests, diseases, marauding animals, weather, the 35–hour week, customs bureaucracy….. all seem to conspire against you!

The City of Bordeaux has been officially recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage site, and so joins a large section of the Loire Valley and the medieval city of Carcassonne as some of France’s most prestigious and important sites - see the others at www.frenchduck.co.uk
For me the most significant aspect of Bordeaux has always been the Quai des Chartrons Chartrons - a curved facade of wine trading houses and warehouses along the banks of the Garonne river set back from the cranes and ship wharves - not so long ago seeming very delapidated, but recently spruced up. This is in many ways the heart of Bordeaux’s prestige, being the port from where wine (both local and from the Haut Pays) was exported to England, northern France and Holland over many centuries.

Certainly in recent years the city seems to have become more vibrant and less stuffy.

“With over 350 historic monuments in a protected area of 147 hectares, as well as 3 churches (Saint-André, Saint-Michel, and Saint-Seurin) that were already listed as World Heritage sites on the pilgrim road to Santiago de Compostela, Bordeaux had a number of assets to convince the jury.

Bordeaux’s successful bid as a World Heritage site also relied on several ambitious urban renewal projects begun in 1996 under the impetus of mayor Alain Juppé. These include development of the quays along the Garonne River, the restoration of many façades, and a light rail transit system.”

For more info see www.bordeaux-tourisme.com/

Markets in the Gironde (33, Aquitaine)

Arcachon for oysters and seafood, Bazas for beef.and almost everything in Bordeaux.

The following list is provided as an indicator of what markets take place whenin good faith, but bear in mind that some markets will only take place in the summer, others may be 2-weekly or monthly - always check with the local tourist office.

Andernos Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday
Arcachon daily
Ares Tuesday
Audenge Tuesday
Bazas Saturday
Blaye Wednesday, Saturday
Bordeaux - Aubiers Friday
Bordeaux - Bacalan Friday
Bordeaux - Belcier Tuesday
Bordeaux - Capucins Monday-Saturday
Bordeaux - Chartrons Tuesday-Saturday
Bordeaux - Grand Parc Saturday
Bordeaux - Grands Hommes daily exc Sunday
Bordeaux - La Bastide Thursday
Bordeaux - Lerme Wednesday, Saturday
Bordeaux - Pins-Francs Wednesday
Bordeaux - pl St-Amand Saturday
Bordeaux - pl St-Pierre Thursday
Bordeaux - Quais Sunday
Bordeaux - Royal Saturday
Bordeaux - St-Martial Wednesday
Bordeaux - St-Michel daily
Bordeaux - St-Suerin Friday
Bordeaux - St-Victor-Dupeux Tuesday
Bordeaux - Victor Hugo daily
Bourg-sur-Gironde Sunday
Cap-Ferret Wednesday
Captieux Monday
Castillon-la-Bataille Monday
Coutras Wednesday, Saturday
Creon Wednesday
Gujan-Mestras Wednesday
Hourtin Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday
La Teste Thursday, Saturday, Sunday
Lacanau Tuesday
Lacanau-Ocean Wednesday
Lege Saturday
Lesparre-Medoc Tuesday, Saturday
Libourne Tuesday, Friday, Sunday
Monsegur Tuesday, Friday
Pauillac Saturday
Sauveterre-de-Guyenne Tuesday
Soulac-sur-Mer daily
St-Andre-de-Cubzac Thursday, Saturday
Ste-Foy-la-Grande daily
Villandraut Thursday

Bordeaux can be overpriced and boring! If you separate out some of the finest and most expensive wines in the world, the remaining huge bulk of Bordeaux wines can have a tendency to rely on history, name recognition and reputation with a certain gallic arrogance. That has to be an outrageous over-simplification, but I have so often been disappointed with affordable Bordeaux that I have tended to look elsewhere in France to excite my palate and save my bank balance.
But inevitably something stirs, and the problem then comes for the few adventurous, passionate wine makers in Bordeaux to grab the attention of an increasingly sceptical consumer. Fancy packaging can help, but then I suspect that “modern” labels and garish colours can be just a marketing ploy which disguises an otherwise unremarkable wine.
So it was with some relief that I came across Terra Burdigala - Burdigala being the Roman name for Bordeaux. Certainly the packaging looks modern and funky, the website is swish, but does this necessarily imply that the contents of the bottles are any different?
Well, for a start this is not a traditional chateau operation. Two young Frenchmen, Stéphane Derenoncourt & François Thienpont, create wines by selecting grapes from chosen vineyards (sometimes from some of the less fashionable appellations) and determining precisely how the grape is vinified into wine - a sort of local verion of the flying winemaker crossed with the best negociant approach.

We launched this venture in the spring of 2001 and are involved every step of the way, from the vine to the bottle, so that our wines are a true testimony of our concept of Bordeaux: fruit, balance and pleasure

Another reason to believe that these Bordeaux wines stack up is that Andrew Chapman at www.surf4wine.co.uk is stocking them. Surf4Wine has a strong leaning towards the New World, so any Old World wine has to compete directly with some really exciting wines from Australia and South America to get a place on the list.

www.surf4wine.co.uk stocks half a dozen of these Terra Burdigala wines from a Bordeaux AC at £6.99 up to a St Emilion Grand Cru at £18.99.

Of course, the other interesting thing in Bordeaux this week is the bi-annual wine trade exhibition - VINEXPO - probably the biggest wine gathering with exhibitors and buyers from around the world. Probably not a good week for visiting French vineyards, as many winemakers will have deserted their domaines and have decamped to Bordeaux for the 3-day event! Also probably not a good week to try to find a hotel room in Bordeaux either!

In general I am not a huge fan of Bordeaux because there is a lot of over-priced claret certainly at the lower bulk end, and also I suspect at the fine vintage wines end of the spectrum.The problem is that there are so many great value, under-rated wines in other parts of France. But it would be churlish to dismiss the many great wines Bordeaux has to offer, and I do confess to great memories of some superb St Emilions (Chateau Figeac, Chateau Carteau Cotes Daugay) and an unforgettable Château Gruaud-Larose, St Julien AC.

Hence for mere mortals who face the difficult choices of what to buy from Bordeaux on a tight budget there is some good advice and an interesting article on visiting Bordeaux by Laurence Marks in the Telegaraph (6 May 07)

“If you are running to a budget, always buy a poor year from a great château, and never a great year from lesser châteaux”. So slowly I built up a wine collection from some of the great châteaux of Bordeaux, and have enjoyed the pleasures of fine wine ever since.

I have to confess that I do not find the Bordeaux vineyards the most picturesque in France (that accolade probably goes to Alsace) - but I can recommend St Emilion - it is a pretty, interesting and historic village which is worth visiting even if you are not interested in wine.
One great way to discover St Emilion this summer would be through the St Emilion Tourist office:-

Every Friday from May 18th to September 14th. Appointment at the tourist office. A whole day spent discovering Saint-Emilion and the vineyards along with a lunch shared with the wine-maker.

Recommended reading:-
Dordogne, Bordeaux and the Southwest Coast (Eyewitness Travel Guides)
Bordeaux: Medoc & Graves v. 1 (Mitchell Beazley Classic Wine Library)
Robert Parker’s Bordeaux