But first, our sail in to the city of Bordeaux began at
about 4:30 in the morning when the pilot was dropped from the sky - literally -
at the mouth of the Gironde River. The city is actually a two-hour sail up
river and since the pilots all come from there, it is faster and easier for
them to travel by helicopter, a 10 minute ride, than it is to take a pilot boat
all the way back. One would think that we'd have heard the helicopter at that
time of the morning, but it was extremely quiet and we didn't talk to anyone
who had been aware of it.
The other thing about the Gironde River is that it is VERY
heavily influenced by a tidal current.
In the spring it is possible to surf an extra-high wave caused by this
current for about 20 miles up the river, and people from all around come to do
it. Bordeaux is actually on the Garonne River, which, along with the Dordogne,
flow together to make up the Gironde. This tidal surge that causes the wave
also runs into the Garonne and can be up to 10 metres, or over 30 feet! That's
why the large ships going into Bordeaux need to time their arrival and
departure very specifically.
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| Fishing hut on the river's edge. Most of the fish caught are lamprey and eel |
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| The ship's shadow on the river, but take a look at the other bank and just how low it gets at low tide |
We arrived at Bassens at 10:30 in the morning. This is the
closest port for ships that can't get under the bridges. The first bridge might
be high enough, but there is also a new lift bridge that Serenity is too high
to fit. Crystal Symphony, though, being a bit smaller, did fit and sailed past
us at about 1:00 the next morning on her way into the city. We even managed to
snap a quick photo as we crossed a bridge on our tour the next morning.
Our first tour was to the Chateau Carbonnieux in the Graves
region of Bordeaux, and we were given our introduction to the specifics of
French winemaking. It isn't just the process and art of making wine, but in
France each region and the appellations, or named areas, have certain requirements
that MUST be met or they can't include the appellation or the region on their
labels.
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| The winery was run by Benedictine monks on two occasions in its history |
The short and sweet (or dry, if that's your preference)
explanation of winemaking goes like this:
In Bordeaux, your vineyard must be planted with a
combination of: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot. These
are the varieties blended to create wines in this area. You can throw in some
Malbec if you like, but France isn't the prime growing area for this variety so
it isn't used much.
When it gets close to the expected harvest time, your
vineyard will be visited by what may as well be called the 'wine police'. There
is a government agency that tests the grapes for the sugar levels, the tannin
levels and skin thickness and then tells the winery when they can start
harvesting. Now we know where the 'controllée' in 'appellation controllée'
comes from!
Once the harvest starts, the pickers will pick the prime
grapes, those that will be used for the 'grand cru', by hand. Even beforehand,
a lot of the leaves will be picked off to allow the sun to reach the grapes
more easily and help to ripen them before the skins get too thick. Some large
wineries will machine harvest their second and third quality grapes. The grapes
varieties are kept separate through the entire harvesting, fermentation and
aging processes, and will only be blended just before bottling.
Once through the de-stemming, sorting and crushing
processes, the juice, skin and seeds are pumped into huge stainless steel vats.
It is here that the initial fermentation happens over a period of a week to 10
days. The skins and seeds float on top of the juice, so the juice is regularly
pumped back to the top of the vat to percolate through, picking up more colour
and tannins as it goes. This part of the process is only used for red wines -
for white, the skins are removed immediately and the juice goes directly to
fermentation. What many people forget is that white wines are often made from grapes
with red skins; rosé wines are the product of leaving the skins in the vat for
a very short period and letting the juice take on a little colour.
After the initial fermentation, the juices are placed into
the oak barrels for the extended fermentation. In Bordeaux, the wineries all
use French Oak barrels, and replace a specific percentage of barrels every
year, usually just over half. That's
quite an investment since each barrel costs around 750 Euros to buy new, and
they will only be used for a maximum of about 6 years before being sold off,
usually to whiskey distilleries in Scotland. The fermentation period is about
16 to 18 months.
During the fermentation period, the barrels are racked every
few months. This process removes the sediment from the wine. The good clear
wine is put into another barrel, the original barrel is emptied and cleaned,
then the wine is returned to the barrel to continue fermentation. Doesn't sound
like much, but some of the larger wineries have in the range of 700 barrels of wine
fermenting at any given time, so it is quite the job.
Once the winemaker decides that the individual wines are at
their peak, they go through what is called a fining process. Red wines are
'fined' with egg white. The proteins in egg white have a positive charge (okay,
everybody remember their chemistry??) and the sediments in the wine are
negatively charged. The egg whites attract the sediments and pull them out of
the wine. White wines use an inert chemical for this process.
Finally, the wines will be blended with a specific minimum
amount of the base wine - in Bordeaux this means at least 60% Cabernet
Sauvignon - and additional varieties in the amounts determined by the
winemaker, and then they are bottled. The Grand Cru wines are the best quality
and have been given the most care, the second and third quality wines are still
good, but not as good.
Wow! That is really a heck of a lot of work, so now we
understand why some wines are so expensive. And after learning about the whole
process, many of us in the group had a much greater appreciation of the wines
we tasted.
Returning to the ship, we had something of a city tour of
Bordeaux. It is getting to the point where spending time on an almost
constantly moving bus in narrow streets doesn't make for very good photos, but
here are a few anyway:
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| The first bridge built across the Garonne River. It was commissioned by Napoleon but he didn't see the finished product |
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| Along the riverfront - old buildings and a new streetcar system |
Our first evening included the long anticipated dinner at
Chateau Haut-Bailly. It turns out that this chateau is practically right across
the street from Chateau Carbonnieux that we had visited in the afternoon. Our
evening began with a tour of Haut-Bailly's winemaking operation, which brought
us to champagne (Pol Roger) and hors d'oevres on the lawn. Duck breast, seared
ahi tuna, caviar, all in such a gorgeous setting...
Then we were ushered into a beautiful room, unfortunately
not inside the chateau itself because our group of 19 was a little too large,
but very beautifully appointed nonetheless.
Our four course dinner was
delicious and accompanied by the Chateau's excellent Grand Cru wines from two
different years. It is amazing just how the growing conditions, what the French
call the 'terroir' - everything from the amount of gravel in the soil to the
age of the vines and depth of their roots to rainfall, sunshine and temperature
- from one year to the next can change the resulting wine. We compared the 2002
and 2003 vintages and could really taste and smell a difference. This is what
we had for dinner:
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| Lobster with Brunoise Vegetables and a Rosemary Emulsion |
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| Filet of Beef with Bigorre Bacon, Zucchini, Basil and Butter |
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| A Cheese Plate with figs and dried fruit |
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| Vanilla Parfait (underneath) with Red Berries and Caramel Wine SAuce |
It was a great experience and a wonderful evening.
The next morning we headed into the Médoc area to visit two
other wineries and do a drive-by of some of the best-known names in Bordeaux
wine.
Our first visit was to Chateau Giscours in the Margaux
region, where our winery tour was conducted by none other than the Managing
Director of the winery, a very knowledgeable and friendly Dutchman named Marc. He
explained the whole process in detail (see Winemaking 101 above) and led us in
a tasting afterward. Between Marc and our tour guide who was also an educated
wine expert, we learned a lot about yet a different part of Bordeaux wine
country.
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| Outside Chateau Giscours. The chateau is currently empty, but Marc would like to turn it into a boutique hotel. We'd go there, for sure! |
From there, we were travelling to our final stop at Chateau
Lagrange in Pauillac but we made a couple of photo stops:
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| Chateau Margaux |
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| Chateau LaTour |
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| Chateau Lafite-Rothschild |
At Chateau Lagrange, instead of another tour of the winemaking operation, our guide asked the winery's guide to show us the garden instead, as the chateau is also known for this in the area.
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| This barrel has been racked a few times |
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| Sauvignon Blanc Grapes just harvested for white wine |
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| The pilot helicopter just leaving Crystal Serenity after the pickup |
All too soon it was packing day and the end of another wonderful cruise. We had renewed acquaintances with some of our favourite officers and crew members, and had some lively discussions with both Lt. Col. Rick Francona (military analyst who appears regularly on CNN and was one of our guest lecturers) and our old friend Mike Goddard, who is a much-loved comedian/entertainer on Crystal. We ran into some people we knew from previous cruises and made some friends of people who were on their first Crystal cruise. Lots of fun as usual, and it left us looking forward to our next visit with Crystal Serenity.
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| Us with Ross, Rick and Mike |
After leaving the ship in Southampton we headed to London
for the weekend.
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