Not surprisingly after sleeping 11.5 hours the night before, I had trouble sleeping last night. Never the less, the hotel is charming and very comfortable. Kris took an amazing photo of our hotel (Which I’m totally stealing here…) We’re staying in the tower on the left on the top floor.
Kris takes a lot more pictures while we’re travelling than I do; I chalk it up to the fact that I am often navigating and ‘gets’ to trail along. Make sure to check out his Insta to see more of what he finds interesting in our travels.
Our first tasting today was in the garage of Jean-Luc Thunevin. A bit of a bad boy in the Bordeaux wine scene, he kicked off the garagiste movement here which lead some to rethink how wines in this region should be made. Anyway, after picking our way on foot through the supposedly drive-able streets of the ancient city of Saint Emilion (Those who have been with me for awhile will remember that I learned my lesson on that front in Italy.) we end up on a quiet back street at a double door that looks like a garage. We’re a bit early so we amble down the street for a croissant and un cafe. Amble back…Still no signs of life. Kris finally calls them and learns that we’ve some how ended up at a back door. We hear someone scrambling inside and sure enough, our hostess pops her head out and welcome us.
After a short explanation of the wine making process and many, many references to tech start-ups and Disney, and garages, she leads us through the back door we entered at (We never did learn where the ‘front’ door was!) and popped around the corner to one of their 6 (Or was it 8?) shops in tiny Saint Emilion. For reference, one of their other shops was literally across the ally.
We tasted 5 of their wines, which were quite nice. As this was early in the trip, and we have a tendency to buy heavy on the first day, we made Vivino notes on what we particularly liked and plans to come back depending on how the rest of the visits go.
We had a bit of a break until our appointment at the second chateaux, so we wandered around town for a bit until places started opening for lunch. We stopped at Le Bistro des Vignobles. The weather was perfect, so we sat outside in their courtyard. Everything was quite good, but Kris’ dessert of Saint Emilion-Brest was the stand out. Sort of a cross between a macaron, a canele, and an ice cream sundae; it was a feast!
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