Pure France - Holiday rental homes and villas in France

Biking across France - with Wendy Gedney 3

Wine expert Wendy Gedney continues her vineyard tour by motorcycle, taking in the Medoc and St Emilion

We left Cognac in full sunshine for the short drive to Mirambeau, a village in Charente-Maritime on the border with Gironde, in other words the Bordeaux wine region. The bikers would use a local hotel as a base for the next three days.

Wendy Gedney wine tour Cognac to Mirambeau
I stayed a little way away at a wine producing chateau near Bourg. My clients would have time and space to themselves and I could relax a little at the end of each day.

1 Wendy Gedney wine tour bikers leaving CognacPhoto:Wendy's biker clients leaving Cognac

The following day we took the ferry across the Gironde estuary to that great appellation, Medoc. This half-hour boat ride avoids hours of driving via Bordeaux to reach one of my favourite vineyards, Lynch-Bages at Pauillac.

In 1933, Jean-Charles Cazes rented the vineyard then bought it on the eve of the Second World War. Successive generations of the Cazes family have expanded the hectarage, rescuing areas long abandoned to the nineteenth century scourge, phylloxera.

Today, it’s another Jean-Charles Cazes, great-grandson of the first, who runs the vineyard now. The tour is very professionally conducted and included both the current winery and the old one which they stopped using in the 1990’s.

It was fascinating to see the old equipment and realise the hours of labour it must have taken to produce the wines in years gone by. Lynch-Bages is a 5th growth which punches well above its weight.

It interests me because the Cazes family also own a vineyard in La Livinière in the Minervois region which I often include in my tours.

Here in the Médoc they produce three wines - Lynch-Bages, another red, Echo de Lynch Bages and a white, cunningly called Blanc de Lynch Bages.

Lynch bagesEcho de lynch bagesBlanc de lynch bages
Photo: The Lynch-Bages wines, two reds and a white

We tasted the reds at the château but I was so was disappointed not to taste the white. I have always adored good white Bordeaux. After the tasting, we looked around the neighbouring village of Bages which the Cazes family revived. It was derelict but is now a delightful place where you can lunch at the bistro and buy wines from the shop.

Lunch was very special and enjoyed at Château Cordeillan-Bages just 2 minutes away.

Chateau Cordeillan BagesPhoto: Château Cordeillan Bages

Jean-Luc Rocha produces dishes that are imaginative and tasty. We particularly enjoyed the butters – seaweed, spice and smoked salt! But what made it for me were the wines.

Cuisine by Jean Luc RochaWe started with the Lynch-Bages blanc 2008 which is a medium bodied, refreshing white with flavours of melon, grapefruit and zesty lemon and was ideal as an aperitif.

We moved onto a Smith Haut Lafite blanc (Pessac Leognan) which was unimaginably wonderful! Apparently the secret here is mainly Sauvignon Blanc with 5% of that little heard of grape, Sauvignon Gris.

It gave us citrus and stone fruit along with spice and fabulous minerality. Gorgeous!

Photo: Jean-Luc Rocha's cuisine - hunger is in the eye of the beholder




After lunch we headed to Château Beychevelle in the appellation of Saint-Julien where we had a tour of the cellar. The wines were good but we preferred the Lynch-Bages. Perhaps we'd been spoiled by the superb wines which went so well with our lunch.

Chateau beychevelleChateau Beychevelle

The next day's destination wasn't a difficult choice. No Bordeaux vineyard tour would be complete without a pilgrimage to that shrine, Saint-Emilion. The village sits on a small hill with vines to the horizon in very direction.

My clients preferred to spend the day, meandering the tiny streets, tasting wine at merchants and having a superb lunch at Le Logis de la Cadène.

Le logis de la cadenePhoto: Le Logis de la Cadène

ts easy to buy wine here, the merchants all invite you to taste and they'll send it anywhere in the world. My clients took much advantage of this. They'll be receiving some delicious wines any day.

There's more about Wendy Gedney's wine tours in the link below together with a selection of Pure France homes near to Bordeaux and Saint-Emilion. It's never too soon to plan next year's holiday!


Related links :



Pure France in the Media


The Media Pages
Articles in the National Press & Media...