​We recently blogged about the wines in Arizona, and in particular wines made from the Spanish grape Graciano.  I mention this because the newest winery in Temecula is a Spanish winery.  Spain is one of the big three wine producing nations in the world – right alongside France and Italy – and its warmer climate should mean that Spanish grape varieties will do well in Southern California.
The problem is that there aren’t a whole lot of Spanish grape varieties.  The Spanish grape Tempranillo is by far their most planted variety, and they also grow a lot of Garnacha – also a Spanish variety, better known by its French name Grenache.  Now, if you are at all familiar with this website you will know that I am not a great fan of Tempranillo, and, truth be told, don’t hold a particularly high opinion of Garnacha.  I do like some Spanish grape varieties – the forementioned red grape Graciano and the white grape Albarino, neither of which were offered at this winery the day we visited there.  Hence, it proved a bit of a challenge to evaluate a winery which features Tempranillo and Garnacha.
Altisima Winery is the name of the winery, and it is located on De Portola in the heart of that wine trail.  We dropped in on them on a Monday afternoon, so were quite surprised to find the parking lot filled.  Then things got a bit eerie (not really), as there was not a soul in the wine tasting room or the indoor seating area behind it.  See pictures below.

​Turns out everyone was hiding – ok, that’s a lie – they weren’t hiding at all, just sitting outside on a rather extensive and well-arranged patio area where they could enjoy the great view, as shown in the following pictures.  I pretty good crowd for a Monday.  Those seat with the straps are really comfortable, by the way.

​ting was expensive -- $30 for five tastes from the menus shown after this paragraph.  You will note that Tempranillo is not on the menu.  Not to worry – most of their vines are Tempranillo, and you can bet they’ll pull some out if you ask.  I had no interest in asking….

​Of the wines we tasted, two blends stood out:  La Reina, a Sangiovese blend, and Lucido, a Cabernet Sauvignon blend.  OK, nothing Spanish about either, but they are both pretty nice.  Water was readily available in the tasting room, something I think is very necessary.  On the down side, they had the red wines sitting out without any means to keep them cool.  It was not very hot the day we visited, so hopefully they will correct this problem before the summer temperatures reach into the 90’s.
Altisima has a restaurant, and if the cheese platter we had is any indication, a pretty good one.  It is set up so you can take your wine from the wine tasting room to your table.  In keeping with the Spanish theme, they serve tapas and other Spanish dishes (no paella, though) – and four – yes, four – Sangrias.  We tasted one – well, my wife had one and I tasted it – and I have to say it was really, really good.
They have three very different wine clubs.  There is the “normal” one (Imperial) – 3 bottles per quarter with a 20% discount, 8 free tastings (or glasses) a month, and 10% discounts on restaurant, etc.  Then there is the outsider wine club, i.e., for people who live outside the region and are not likely to visit the winery.  Same discounts but with a flat $10 shipping fee.  This is their Travelers Club.  Both clubs allow you to customize your quarterly releases.
Then there is the Onxy Club:  a flat $500 per quarter payment.  The money can be applied to wine purchases (at a 20% discount), restaurant costs (10% discount), and merchandise (20% discount).  Includes 12 free tastings/glasses per month.  Also includes access to their VIP 56 Degree Room (by reservation) and a number of other bennies.

Doc Ed's review of the wineries in Sedona was so enticing that my wife and I decided to go there ourselves.  We stayed in Sedona rather than in a hotel near the wineries.  The picture above is from the driveway of our hotel.  Need I say more.
On day one of our trip we skipped the usual tourist visit to the local vortices and headed out to the mountain town of Jerome.  Not being mountain goats, we found it best to move to flatter land and, most important, Chateau Tumbleweed.  I half expected us to spend only a short time there, but, well, they had so many great wines…
If you are really interested in learning about wines, Tumbleweed is a great place to visit.  They offer a large variety of different varietals, sourcing grapes from all over Arizona.  Most important is the wine label.  As shown below, the winemaker tells you all about how the wine is made, including the day the grapes are picked.  Absolutely fascinating.

​Our visit there proved to be quite a nice experience, and our first time tasting a wine made from the Spanish grape Graciano.  This red grape is found mostly in Navarra and Rioja regions of Spain, and often used as a blend for its aromatic character.  One reason for its rarity is that the Graciano vines are very susceptible to mildew, and it is a low-yield variety.  Now I would suspect that mildew is not a very great problem in Arizona, so maybe this grape will become a fixture there.
Chateau Tumbleweed makes three versions of this varietal, using grapes from three different vineyards.  So, naturally, we did a horizontal tasting of the three.  The differences were quite noticeable.  One had a fair level of tannins and clearly needed more aging.  One had a similar tannin level but the tannins were softer, with great balance overall – a truly quality offering.  The third, from the Dos Amigos Vineyard, was for us a real treat.  Very fruit forward with soft tannins, perfectly suited to drink with spicey foods.
Of course, they had some other great offerings, including the Italian reds Montipulciano, Sangiovese, and the very rare Refosco.  We wound up leaving Tumbleweed with seven bottles of wine.

​From there we travelled to the other winery Doc Ed liked, Page Springs.  It was a really nice day, and, well, Page Springs is pretty well-known in the area, ergo, the place was packed.  Somehow, we managed to taste three of their Syrah clones and a Syrah/Malvasia blend.  This last is co-fermented, and in high demand, so we could not buy a bottle of it.  We did, however, find a way to come home with three bottles of their 474 Syrah clone.
On day two we visited the town of Cottonwood.  Not quite a touristy as Jerome, but flat.  We were nicely surprised to find a wine tasting room for the winery Carlson Creek, as the winery is located in Wilcox Arizona, a long way from Cottonwood.  I am not a fan of the white wine varietal Malvasia, or at least was not a fan of this wine until I tasted Carlson Creek’s version.  Somehow it made it home with us… 

​From Doc Ed:  "This is a fun tasting room owned by two couples who have been making wine together since 2011.  While the staff interactions with the customers are light and fun, their wines are totally serious.  Kris, one of the owners, did a great job of showcasing her extensive collection of wines.
 
Chateau Tumbleweed doesn’t own any vines, but rather buys their grapes from some local sources, and also from multiple sites near Wilcox AZ.  This permitted extensive menus of wines, both common and unusual.  Unlike the style of other tasting rooms, Chateau Tumbleweed did not list or focus on the usual descriptors for each of their wines (fruity, earthy, flinty, etc), but rather seemed to focus on the overall tasting experience.  I thought that approach contributed to a very pleasant visit."

"The main tasting menu mostly contained blends such as “Le Blend” ($26) which contained nine varietals.  One non-blend exception was Refosco ($45), a pleasant high tannin varietal wine.  The second tasting menu, the “Hidden Menu”, had a large selection of varietals such as Malbec ($39), Cabernet Franc ($45) with a nice grassy expression, two versions of Graciano ($40) both with a noticeable spicey flavor, Aglianico ($45) made with whole clusters and expressed earth and leather flavors, and Tannat ($40)."
Editors notes:  Chateau Tumbleweed is located in Clarksdale, Arizona.  Note that the winery does offer some food to go with their wines.  Also hard not to note that they offer some rare varietal wines -- Refosco, Graciano, Picpoul, Cabernet Sauvignon -- ok, I just threw in that last one to see if you're paying attention....

From Doc Ed:
"Just starting my first sentence, and I already have a problem.  I went to Sedona to taste their wines, but there are no wineries in Sedona!  Fortunately, 10-15 miles to the southwest are several small towns that do contain approximately 35 wineries.  These towns are centered around Cottonwood AZ.  The entire region is in a high altitude valley, with a floor around 3500 feet and some grape fields over 5000 feet.  This layout is the basis for the difficulties that are common to all of the wineries in this area.  They have cold winters (springtime budbreak is often killed by frost), hot summers (bakes the thin-skinned grape varieties), drought (it is a desert!) and strong hail storms that can destroy a crop in a few minutes.  Two winemakers told me they have the largest diurnal variation (difference between daytime and night temperature) in the country.  I would image that it will be difficult to reliably grow grapes to full maturity in this region.  I was certainly curious to see how the Arizona guys addressed this collection of challenges.
One solution to the various climate challenges would be to get grapes from other areas.  Most places I visited grew grapes on site, but it also seemed common to import grapes from Wilcox AZ, where the climate is presumably more favorable.  Thinking only of the locally grown grapes, the first two places I visited had wines that used grapes that were picked on the younger side of maturity.  These less-ripe grapes yielded wines with lighter body (thin and watery), lower alcohol (mid 12%), and fewer mid-mouth expressions of flavors.  I expect the wines will get better with practice.  Then, I found two wineries who had solved the multiple climate challenges and produced fully mature grapes with excellent wine flavors."

​You know from previous writings that I love to explore the endless variations of wine flavors as expressed by various clones.  For a fuller understanding of clones, see my “About Clones” article in the “About” Section of scwineryreviews.com.  Briefly, think of purebred dogs.  A Pointer will be a great hunter, and a Retriever will be very sociable.  If you want to maximize your exposure to one of those traits, go with the purebred.  If you want to create less distinct traits but more of them, do some genetic blending.  Well, I like to explore the maximal expression of the traits, so I like clones (“purebreds”).  Page Springs Winery let me do that like never before!  Most wineries make wine from one, or maybe two Syrah clones.  So, for me to study the dozen Syrah clones in worldwide production, I end up buying one or two from multiple wineries and then have to deal with differences in weather, winemaker style, etc.  Page Springs made it easy.  They produce six clones of Syrah, and I got to side-by-side taste and compare.  It was heavenly!"

"​I tasted Syrah clones 99, 174, 470, 471, 474, and 525 (which was co-fermented with 8% Malvasia Bianca in a Cote Rotie style).  Let me start with the similarities.  They were all 2019 or 2020 vintage, priced between $45-$55, and very good value for the price.  They were medium-to-full bodied, well balanced, and had alcohol content between mid 13’s and low 14’s.  They were prepared in predominantly neutral oak (10-15% new French or Arizona oak), so the grape expression was very clear.  The differences came purely from the various clones.  The differences could be tasted in the composition and intensity of the flavor profile.  Clone 99 opened with a huge black pepper presence.  Clone 470 had white pepper coupled with baking spices, and earth flavors.  Clone 525 had a very silky mid-mouth feel of glycerol.  And Clone 474 had the additional fruit flavors of red cherry.
My experience with these wonderful clones got more complex a few days later.  As you can imagine, a small “tasting pour” permits comparisons among the wines.  But the pours don’t last long enough to show how the wines evolve while they breathe.  The weekend after my Sedona trip, I served four of the clones to family members with great palates, and we watched as the flavors (principally the spice profile) increased or decreased after the wine was in the glass.   This could be a great topic for me to teach at my next wine tasting class.
Page Springs also has a large offering of white wines, several reds (Mourvèdre, Barbera, GSM), and local brandy to try."

​One aspect of the Southern California wine scene that I’ve observed is the large number of different varietal wines produced.  The numbers are quite significant.  I’ve visited most of the wineries in the area and reviewed about 50.  Just in those fifty wineries I’ve tasted 60 different wine varietals.  That’s not 60 grape varieties, but 60 wines made predominately from one grape variety.  (A complete list of the wines can be found in the Wineries section of this website).  About a third are wines that you probably have never heard of before, and are unlikely to find anywhere else in the U.S.  These rare varieties come mostly from Italy.  Well, most.  Turns out yesterday I dropped in on Chuparosa Winery in Ramona and was introduced to a new rare grape variety, Grenache Gris.  This white grape is a mutation of the red Grenache grape and comes from Spain.
Of course, some of these are rare because no one really cares about them, i.e., they really don’t make a good wine.  But for some there are other reasons, such as it is really a pain in the ass to grow the grapes.  High on this list is Lagrein.  An Italian red grape found mostly in northeastern Italy (though its origin may be in northwestern Italy), it yields a dark, full-bodied wine with moderate to high tannin levels, dark fruit and herbal nose, and a generally smooth feel.  The grape growth problem is that the yields are very inconsistent, not to mention it likes high altitudes.  Two wineries in Southern California make this varietal:  Orfila Vineyards and Winery in Escondido and Robert Renzoni Vineyards in Temecula.  I prefer the Orfila version.  The Orfila grapes are grown in San Luis Obispo County, so naturally I had to see what wineries up there had to offer at a winery in Paso Robles.  It was pretty bad.  I also tasted a version in a restaurant in Rome.  Well, bottom line the Orfila and Italian versions were pretty much the same – really, really nice wines – and, yes, I put my money where my mouth is, having bought (and mostly drunk) cases of this wine.

​The Arneis story is not a lot different.  Arneis is a white grape grown in the Piedmont region of Italy.  For many, many years the grape was grown in the same fields as Nebbiolo grapes, and blended with that grape for the most famous (and best, in my opinion) Italian wine Barolo.  Then the Barolo lords decided that the wine had to be made from only Nebbiolo grapes and the poor Arneis grape was abandoned, becoming nearly extinct.  Fortunately, some obviously wonderful person discovered that the grape makes a damn good varietal wine – low to medium acidity, tasting of ripe pear, crisp but quite smooth, along the line of Chenin Blanc or Viognier.  I should add, however, that the name Arneis is Piedmontese for “little rascal”, i.e., it’s like Lagrein – hard to grow.
Strangely enough, I did not realize that this was a particularly rare wine because I found it in no less than four Temecula wineries:  Ponte Winery, Bottaia Winery, Europa Village Wineries and Resort, and Cougar Vineyard and Winery.  I am not the best judge of white wines, so you can take this with a grain of salt, but I find Arneis to be an absolutely wonderful wine.
​Another rare northern Italian varietal that made its way to Southern California is Refosco.  According to the web, the name refers to several grape varieties originating in Italy, Croatia, and Slovenia.  Whatever.  Kohill Winery in Ramona chose to grow this particular red grape variety, perhaps because this wine should do well in our environment.  It is a late ripening grape with high acidity.  If picked too early, it makes for a really bad wine.  Given that we have a very long growing season this should never be a problem, and the acidity issue may also be controlled by our high summer heat.  This dark red wine should have plum and black pepper flavors.  I’ve only tasted this wine once, and then it was a version not quite ready for release, so I cannot comment on the quality of the local version.  Kohill has pretty much shut down, so I can’t say if this wine is currently available.
Our climate may also be a reason for the success of yet another Italian red grape variety, Sagrantino.  Coming from the Umberto region of Italy, it handles high heat quite nicely.  While the red wine from this grape has one of the highest tannin levels of any wine, the tannins are not too harsh so the wine is quite nice without extensive aging, but it is supposed to age extremely well.  The first winery to offer this varietal was Poppaea Vineyard in Ramona; indeed, it is the winery’s core product.  Two other wineries have jumped on the Sagrantino band wagon:  Principe di Tricase Winery in Ramona, and Cougar.  The wine flavors run from black cherries to ripe blackberries.  It is really a nice wine if you are into full-bodied red wines.

Not all of these rare grape varieties are used to make dry or semi-sweet wines.  In particular, Principe di Tricase takes the rare red southern Italian red grape Aleatico and does what the Italians do with it – make a dessert wine using the passito method.  In passito, the grapes are picked while quite ripe and put on trays.  The trays are placed in an outdoor cage and allowed to dry in the sun.  This concentrates the sugars such that during fermentation the alcohol content reaches around 18% before all of the sugar is converted to alcohol, killing the yeast and leaving behind a nice, sweet, smooth dessert wine.  They label this win “Romantico”, and, yes, there’s a story behind the name….  This is probably my favorite dessert wine.
It is to be noted that the tiny island of Elba is where much of this dessert wine is made.  Now Elba is also the island where Napoleon was exiled, and he was a great fan of the wine.  So great that he wrote that it was the only thing that kept him sane during his extended stay on the island!

​In the paragraphs above, one winery seems to pop up very often:  Cougar.  Cougar should be considered “rare wine central”.  Not only do they grow many such wines, but they have been able to get several identified as varietals by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau.  These include the red varieties Lambrusca di Alessandria and Brachetto, this latter used to make a sparkling wine, and the white grape variety Coda di Volpe.  They also produce the rare white varietals Falanghia and Greco di Tufo, both also grown at Monserate Winery in Fallbrook.  Monserate uses the Greco di Tufo grapes to make an “orange” wine, i.e., a wine made from white grapes but fermented in the red wine way with seeds and skins.
Fiano is a white grape variety grown mainly in Campania in Italy.  It has found its way to Principe di Ticase in Ramona, Bottaia in Temecula, and Monserate.  It can have hints of grapefruit in the taste, something I like but my wife really hates.
Two French white wines also fit in the rare category, mainly because they are used primarily for blending purposes.  Marsanne and Roussanne both come from the Rhone region of France, where they are often blended together.  Like Fiano, Roussanne tends toward the grape-fruity tastes, whereas Marsanne is peachier.  You can find two Southern California wineries that offer a Marsanne varietal:  Vineyard Grant James in Ramona and Forgotten Barrel Winery in Escondido.  A Roussanne varietal can also be obtained from Hart Winery in Temecula.
One of the lastest entries into the rare wine lists offered in Southern California is Teroldego.  Of course, it is now offered at Cougar, and Vineyard Grant James has a version.  While it yields a very dark red wine, it is not particularly tannic, with tastes similar to Zinfandel, including a bit of black pepper spiciness.  The grape ripens early, making it a bit tricky for our area but perfect for regions with short growing seasons, such as western Colorado.
Now for the bad news.  The small wineries in Southern California do not make very large quantities of any of these rare wines.  As a result, the better ones sell out quickly.  I mentioned above the problem with getting some of the Refosco.  On the plus side, expect other wineries in the area to begin offering some of these wines, and you can bet more rare varietals are on the way.  There are plenty of rare grapes in Italy yet to make their way here, and you can bet someone is going to start bringing in varieties from other warm climate countries.

​In 1855, Napoleon III decided to hold a Universal Exposition in Paris, a sort-of World’s Fair.  He wanted to exhibit the best wines in France, so he turned to the Bordeaux Chamber of Commerce to arrange the exhibit.  What resulted is the selection of 58 wines as “cru classe”, broken down into five growths.  Only four were chosen for first growth (premiere cru):  Lafite Rothschild, Latour, Margaux, and Haut-Brion.  Of the 58 wineries involved, only one, Haut-Brion, did not come from the Medoc region of the left bank of Bordeaux.  Only one revision to the list has been made – Mouton Rothschild was upped from the top of the second growth to the first growth.  The list grew to 61 with the division of two of the wineries, one into three wineries and one split into two.
Near the top of the second growth list are three chateaus with Leoville in their names, so these were in the 1855 rating as one winery.  We had the pleasure of tasting at one of these three:  Chateau Leoville Poyferre.  Chateau Leoville Poyferre still shares part of the original chateau with one of the other two (see picture below -- they have the wing on the right).  By the way, Chateau Kirwan was listed at the top of the third growth list.

​Located in the St. Julien region of Medoc, Chateau Leoville Poyferre is the most technologically advanced winery I have visited, by far.  Basically, rather than sitting on their reputation and history, this winery has invested heavily in the quality of their product.  Nothing says this better than the machine shown below.  After using a vibratory system to destem them, the grapes are moved in lines through this system loaded with optical and laser devices that identify the grapes that are too small, have the wrong shape, show evidence of rot, or are the wrong color.  At the end of the short run, air jets shoot the grapes across a gap.  As they fly across this gap, a second air jet from above knocks the bad grapes out of the stream.  Pretty cool, huh?

​We tasted wines with three different labels, not uncommon for Bordeaux.  The true second growth wine, direct descendent of the 1855 wine, has the Chateau Leoville Poyferre label.  As seen in the picture of our tasting menu (specially made for Viking visitors), the other two labels are Chateau Moulin Riche and Pavillon de Leoville Poyferre.  Note the price difference.  All three are very good.  While the second growth wine was the best of the three, it should have been just on the basis of aging – a full ten years more than the Pavillon wine and eight on the Chateau Moulin.  I point this out because I did not find the Chateau Leoville Poyferre to be that much better than the Pavillon, maybe because of the higher Cabernet Sauvignon content.  I looked up the American prices for these two wines just for fun.  Turns out the price difference is not that great – $80 for the Pavillon and ~$105 for the Chateau Leoville.  I should add that the 2009 Chateau Leoville Poyferre retails for around $250….

OK, the picture above is not from a winery in Bordeaux.  It is a picture of a chocolate shop in the right-bank town of Libourne.  But, I don’t have many pictures from Chateau Kirwan, and after all chocolate goes so well with wine….
Eventually, we travelled from the right bank to the left bank, i.e., from Merlot land to Cabernet Sauvignon land.  Not much to see, as in the picture below – just miles and miles of grape vines.  Though we did get to see Chateau Margaux...

​Anyway, that night we had dinner at Chateau Kirwan, a third growth winery.  Great food prepared by the Viking crew complemented with Chateau Kirwan wines.  The menu is shown below.

​Now the first two wines were quite nice, but the third was really great.  For some reason, our table of eight were only able to drink one bottle of this Chateau Kirwan Grand Cru Classe 2006.  Anyway, here’s a picture of the empty bottle:

​Saint Emilion is a small town in the heart of the “right” bank of Bordeaux, the region where Merlot grapes dominate the wines.  The picture below best describes the town:

​You see, the town is dominated by wine shops selling some of the best wines produced in the Bordeaux region, many at rather exorbitant prices.  Petrus is a right bank winery located in the nearby Pomerol region, whereas Chateau Margaux is one of the "Premier Cru" of first growth wineries per the 1855 classification.  Note that Pretrus wines are significantly more expensive.
The town is named for its patron saint, Saint Emilion.  His story is rather long, but is celebrated in the local church (see pictures below).  The town is built on a hill, and most of the surrounding region lies on sandstone.  Quarrying in the area has left a large network of caves beneath the vineyards.  Interesting.  Some pictures follow, starting with the outer wall, the church, and a view from the upper level of the town:

​The Saint Emilion wine growing region has its own set of wine classifications, including a “Grand Cru”, or great growth.  Unlike the classification of 1855, they reevaluate the wines and wineries every ten years.  That might be an interesting system for American winery regions to consider, assuming it is legal under our anti-trust laws.

​Our ship sailed north up the estuary then southwest up the second river feeding Bordeaux, the Dordogne.  This is the right bank region with such areas as Pomerol and St. Emilion, and includes Chateau Petrus, producing the most expensive wines in Bordeaux.  But we did not visit there.  Instead, we took a wine-tasting and lunch visit to Chateau d’Abzac, located just north of the Pomerol district.
The Chateau dates back to the early 17th century and is now an historic site.  It was trashed in 1789 during the French Revolution, then confiscated by the state and sold to the d’Anglade family in 1796.  They have owned and operated it ever since.  There was a point in time when the French government made amends for the confiscation and sale, either money or returning the estate to the original owners.  The d’Abzac family did escape France but had no interest in restoring their property, so they went for the money.  The d'Anglade family worked with them on this, and relations between the two families have been very strong ever since.
All of this we learned while standing in the rain on the Chateau grounds.  Our tour was led by Madam d’Anglade, translated by our guide as she did not trust her English.  More on this later.
Bordeaux wineries are not particularly scenic places.  In fact, with one exception I would not visit any of them other than to taste their wine.  That exception:  Chateau d’Abzac.  Proof is in the pictures below:

The tour continued into the family living room for wine tasting – see pictures below – then to their dining room for lunch.  Thus began our near faux pas.  You see, both my wife and I are a bit squeamish about eating pate, so we did not eat the goose liver pate served as part of the first course of our lunch.  Not a problem unless Madam d’Anglade sits down next to you and begins talking about the pate in pretty-good English.  So we ate the pate – and found it utterly fantastic….  The rest of the lunch was also great.  I’m not one for posting pictures of food, but I really have to show you the dessert we were served, along with the luncheon menu.

​I won’t try to relate details of our luncheon discussions with our hostess, first because she was talking mostly to my wife, and second because she kept filling our glasses with wine – very good wine.  So good that we bought a case. 
The wine in question is her Bordeaux Superieur Reserve 2018.  This gold-award winning wine is 100% Merlot.  I am not a particular fan of Merlot, but, well, I did by a case of it….  The most amazing thing about this wine is its price – 8.9 euros, or about $9.  The cost to ship the case home was greater than the cost of the wine.  I am guessing that the wine is inexpensive because Chateau d’Abzac is not in the Pomerol wine region but just north of it.  Were it in Pomerol I suspect it would have a much higher price.  Not Chateau Petrus price, of course.  Did I mention that Chateau Petrus has the most expensive wines in Bordeaux, selling for thousands of euros?

​We were supposed to sail up the Garonne River to the small town of Cadillac (ll pronounced y, not l like the car), where we were to tour a Chateau making sweet white wines.  Unfortunately, the river level was too high for the Viking ship to pass beneath one of the bridges, so the tour was entirely by bus.  Not that much fun.
Cadillac at one time was home to a close (very close) friend of Louis XIV (the “Sun King”), who built a fabulous castle in the city.  Unfortunately, the castle was sacked during the French Revolution.  The town was built as a trade town, with the market square the center of the city.  Some pictures follow, and there are more at the end of this post.

​By the way, the people in Cadillac must love pizza.  Why else have a pizza vending machine in the central square:

​One of the first things I noticed on arriving at my first Bordeaux Chateau (i.e., winery) was how low the vines were.  You can see this in the picture below.  This is done to keep the heat in, and is actually a regulation both on the ground to leaf distance and the total height of the plants.

​Sauternes sweet white wines are made from grapes attacked by bortrytis, or noble rot.  I kid you not.  To do this, only the rotted grapes are used.  Now, as you might expect, all of the grapes don’t rot at the same time, so they can’t be picked at the same time.  To make matters worse, not all of the grapes on a bunch rot at the same time, as seen in the picture below.  The grower has to hand-pick the individual grapes with the rot – the gnarled, shrunken grapes in the picture.  That makes for some very tedious work, especially given how low the vines are.

​The winery we visited was Chateau de Myrat.  Per Wikileaks, Chateau de Myrat is a winery “belonging to the Sauternes appellation in Gironde, in the region of Graves. The estate is located in the commune of Barsac”.  Primary wine is, of course, the sweet wine Sauternes made largely from Semillon white grapes with some Sauvignon Blanc, two varieties that are subject to bortrytis attack.

​We did a vertical tasting, i.e., three of the same wines from different years (vintages).  You can see in the picture below how the color of the wine changes with age, going from light amber to dark amber.  If you go back to my About section on tannins it would seem that white wines do not have the antioxidant tannins to protect them during aging unless they are oaked.  As you can also see below, that is how it is done in Sauternes.

​As far as the taste, all three are very sweet, pretty much dessert wine sweet but with a much lower alcohol level.  The oldest wine has distinct flavors associated with aging – caramel, wet leaves, and maybe even some mint.
Let me finish this blog with three more pictures of Cadillac.  The first one was taken in the archway of the town gate, showing water levels from flooding at times in the past.  Cadillac is on a river, and sometimes the river visits the town.  The last two are of the castle.