What Tops Winetasting in Pauillac and Pomerol...?

by Paige Donner

What Tops Wine Tasting in Pauillac & Pomerol...? Wine tasting with Dad in Pauillac and Pomerol! 

FULL SLIDESHOW of BOTH CHATEAUX HERE  

(All photos by Paige Donner © 2015)

These two châteaus, Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande on Bordeaux's Left Bank and Château Lafleur on Bordeaux's Right Bank are two of the most distinguished, not to mention prettiest, gems in Bordeaux. 

The new(-ish) vat and vinification rooms at Pichon Comtesse are simply stunning. Rarely have any of the sweeping renovations done at these historical, landmark properties been done in a manner that gathers up the beauty of the surroundings and displays them like a living painting, all there for your eye to take in and behold of the beauty and bounty. Oh yes, and then, of course (as if it could ever be an after thought!), there's the fabulous Pichon Comtesse wine, softer and more supple than her surrounding brethren. 

Château Lafleur in Pomerol... Need I say more? It's difficult to describe the feeling of standing in the humble vineyards of this esteemed property, singular in its placement, its yield of some of Bordeaux's Right Bank's best wines and also in its devotion to simplicity. On one side is Pétrus, on the other is Château Le Gay... Of course what is fascinating here is that the daughters who inherited the vineyards, the predecessors (and relatives) to the current family-member owners, had the wisdom to keep their cabernet franc vines in the ground when everyone around them were pulling theirs up and re-planting with merlot five and six decades ago. What this has resulted in is a vineyard that yields grapes that go into the blends of both Les Pensées and Château Lafleur wines from this property. Of course, if you ever get to taste either of those, you can count yourself among some of the luckiest people on Earth. 

One thing is for sure, even if my dear old dad never makes it back to Bordeaux, he can still always say that now he has drunk the finest wines in France. 

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Checking In With Bordeaux's Cité des Civilisations du Vin

by Paige Donner

It's always a thrill to watch the development, the progressive, step-by-step development of an ambitious and culturally iconic project. Such is the case with the Cité des Civilisations du Vin gorgeously taking shape along the banks of the Garonne in Bordeaux. 

FULL Slideshow HERE

All photos by Paige Donner.  ©2015 Paige Donner. 

Anouk Legendre, Architect

According to Sylvie Cazes, the President of the Foundation for the Support of the Cité des Civilisations du Vin, the project, now in its 8th year, took a bit of time to get off the ground because it was a matter of "finding the money."  Among dozens of generous donors and supporters some of those offering the greatest largesse are Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux, Pétrus, Domaine Clarence Dillon, Vinexpo, Groupe Edmond de Rothschild, Bernard Magrez Grands Vignobles and the American Friends of the Center for wine and civilization. 

Here in these photos, taken in mid-May, you will see demonstrated the rise of what can only be called audacious architecture. 

"The architects Anouk Legendre and Nicolas Desmazières have imagined a structure replete with symbolic echoes: the knotty trunk of a grapevine, the swirl of wine moving in a glass, the ebb and flow of the Garonne...their design captures the spirit of wine and its fluid essence: a seamless curve, weightless and sensual."

After walking around the site with a team of other journalists, led by the architect, Ms. Legendre herself, my overall (early) impression was as though I'd been floating through a decanter. Whatever you make of the building's design, its imminent opening, projected for June 2016, is an exciting prospect for wine lovers, enthusiasts, amateurs and connoisseurs the world over. Stay tuned...

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