Bordeaux

After two late nights, we slept in and had "breakfast" at noon.  Maureen and Jon were kind enough to leave out the breakfast for us in the dining area while we slept the morning away.

We headed back to Saint-Emilion to walk around (there aren't many towns around the area for walking around), and we had to stop and try the macaroons and Bordeaux originated caneles.  We found the same place that Brian and Diana had gone to during their trip to Saint-Emilion and enjoyed the fresh, crisp exterior with the soft interior of the canele while we sipped on some espresso at the cafe just across the way.

We visited the wine cellars of the Saint-Emilion Grand Cru Clos des Menuts and tasted 7 of their wines.  We tried a range of wines from 1995 to 2005 and found that most, not just the young wines, had sharp tannins.

We were on a mission to visit a chateau in the afternoon.  Unlike the California wineries, most Bordeaux wineries require that you make an appointment to visit the winery for a tasting.  We drove around looking for the wineries listed in a brochure we had picked up in the tourism office.  After a couple of tries, we had no luck.  Then, we drove up to Haut Veyrac, drawn in by a sign they had posted on the roadside.  After I had read in the brochure that the visits were by appointment-only, we headed down the long driveway towards the road.  As we were leaving, someone came outside towards us so we asked if it was possible for a visit.  Julien was his name, and he was the 7th generation of the winemaker family that owned the vineyard.  He showed us around the property, told us about the different grapes, spoke of the history of the vineyard, and welcomed us into the tasting room.  We tried the 2003 and the 2005 wine and learned of how the weather affected the wines those years.  In 2003, a heat wave swept through France, and in 2005, it was quite warm as well.  In 2002, however, there was plenty of rain, which made a lesser wine that year.

After driving through the Saint-Emilion vineyards, we went back to Saint-Emilion to grab an early dinner.  At Le Bouchon, we ate on the terrace and had their fixed menu of mushroom gazpacho, duck confit, and dessert (tarte tatin or white chocolate mousse).

Back at BeauSejour, Maureen and Jon invited us to enjoy some champagne out on the terrace with them.  We talked about our day and their plans for Jon's birthday dinner and told them the story of our engagement.