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July 19, 2012

Team Hong Kong in France – Mitjavile and Moueix Etablissements

Ch. MagdelaineWith the Rhône and Burgundy leg behind us now, all that was left was Bordeaux. The Rhône and Burgundy were absolutely amazing, but there is always a place in my heart for Bordeaux, so the final part of our journey was like being re-united with an old friend!

We had left Mr. Hartley in Burgundy to get the train back to London and wished him bon voyage as we had a new skipper in charge. Alison Buchannan had joined the ranks and was going to guide us through the châteaux of Bordeaux. Today was going to take us to the “right bank” of Bordeaux, visiting Châteaux in Côtes de Bourg, St. Emilion, Côtes de Castillon and Pomerol.

L'Aurage VineyardSo day 6 began with a rather early (8.00am) ferry ride across to Blaye from Lamarque, which was preluded by a brief breakfast picnic consisting of croissants and water kindly provided by our chief, Alison. The crossing was stunning with the sun beaming off the Gironde river and the day was under way. Our first port of call was a true favourite of mine, Roc de Cambes. We were met by Nina, the daughter of François Mitjavile (wine maker and owner of Tertre Roteboeuf and Roc de Cambes). She very kindly gave us a tour of the Roc de Cambes grounds, pointed out the three slopes where the vines are and then sent us on our merry way to Tertre Roteboeuf to meet the man himself, François Mitjavile. The Château at Tertre Roteboeuf is quite stunning, the grounds are gorgeous and perfectly maintained, it really was a privilege to be welcomed by François who literally had just come out of the vineyards with greenery hanging off his beige dungarees! We were ushered into the main “drawing room” of the Château which was like an encyclopedia of information into the thoughts and the mindset of the Mitjavile’s with book cases filled with art and antique books, fine art and antique furniture to set the scene. We then had the pleasure of being invited into understanding the philosophy behind the making of these quite extraordinary wines. It’s all about the “language of flavours” and the “aromatic music” he explains, and now it all made sense, everything fell into place, he is actually a genius.

Tertre Rotebeouf-Francois MitjavilleAfter a while we were then led to the cellars for a tasting of these quite brilliant wines. We tasted  ’11 Roc de Cambes (which by the way is stunning and I shall be picking some of this up for sure) followed by ’06, ’10 and ’11 Tertre Roteboeuf (again, the 2011’s are fantastic from Mitjavile) and just when we thought it couldn’t get any better, François pulls out a bottle of 1997 Tertre Rotebeuf which was quite delicious and clearly left us all wanting more!

And so onto the next, we were due to join François’ son, Louis, at his house and were then to be guided around Domaine L’Aurage. Now L’Aurage is in fact geographically in Côtes de Castillon. However, when standing in the vineyards of L’Aurage, if you were to take a big step to your left you would technically be on St. Emilion soil, so there is a wonderful blend of terroir. Louis took us round the grounds and vineyards and then ended up in the cellars to try the ’10 and ’11 vintage. By this time we had been on the go for a while and appetites were growing so he led the way to lunch. Now we were really being treated, Louis and his wife Caroline had very kindly arranged for lunch outside. Now I’m not talking about a baguette and cheese on a rug kind of lunch outside,  oh no, they had pulled out all the stops. We entered into their vast garden and there was a fully laid table under an old oak tree to shelter us from the searing heat (about 35 degrees that day), with three vintages (’07, ’08 and ’09) of Domaine L’Aurage to be drunk during lunch. Louis did emphasize, “this is not to be tasted, this is to be drunk!”, this was to compliment a wonderful tomato and mozzarella salad and succulent steak, which really had now become my staple diet of the week!

L’Aurage-lunch

Sadly though we had to round lunch up and push onto the next appointment. Next stop was to visit a couple of properties from Jean-Pierre Moueix. So we arrive at the head office of Moueix which is extremely smart indeed and we were very kindly greeted by Christian and Edouard Moueix. We were then introduced to Frederic who was going to guide us around Ch. Magdelaine and Ch. Hosanna. Frederic was a wonderful chap, reminiscent of a slightly shorter yet more smiley Robert de Niro! We arrived at Ch. Magdelaine and were shown to the cellars where we tried the 2010 vintage, this could well be one of my favourite wines of the whole trip, it was stunning! As quick as we arrived we were off again, off to Ch. Hosanna, what a privilege it was too. Frederic very kindly took us the scenic route and pointed out all the major properties around, we really did get the VIP tour from him. We arrived at Ch. Hosanna and were led to the vineyard, only briefly though, as the temperature had soared to 40 degrees and we were all beginning to feel the heat. In Ch. Hosanna we had a real honour and treat to try the 2010 Ch. Hosanna and Ch. La Fleur-Petrus, these really are some the finest young Bordeaux I have tried, quite magnificent.

And so back to the hotel to get freshened up and then onto dinner at a restaurant that will remain nameless for fear of slander, for dinner was an interesting exercise to say the very least! I don’t think I have space or words that are perhaps appropriate for the blog to relay my experience at this establishment, what I will say though is that I don’t think I will be going back there in a hurry! Having said that we did have a rather delicious bottle of 2009 Phélan Ségur which in part made up for it!

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