Sauternes

Apart from my classes lately, I have been getting to know a lot of my classmates lately. Most Fridays we like to take over local wine bars by going with all 50 of us. The wine bars seem to be getting used to having us around which has been a plus. In the fall/ early winter, the different wine regions all do what the French call "portes ouvertes". It's a type of open house where you don't need to reserve to come visit the chateau and taste wine, and the big bonus is that it happens on a weekend, since most chateaus only let you come and taste during the week.
For the portes ouvertes for Sauternes, a region known for its "vin doux" (sweet wine) that goes wonderfully with froie gras, I went with two girls I met from my program, one from Limoges and the other girl who is from Moldovia. We started out the day at the Maison de Sauternes, which is the center for all the chateaus, they organize a lot of the events in the area, we tasted some different styles of Sauternes, got oriented with which places to visit and started off.


Me in front of the actual Chateau on the Chateau Filhot property.

We then went to Chateau Filhot, where we impressed with the way they store their bottles of Sauternes. With age, this white wine turns more and more golden, so they like to refer to their cave as their "gold mine" which is very cute. It's quite a different process from what I have seen up until now. (Below is a photo of the "box" of their gold mine at Chateau Filhot)




Chateau Guiraud

After Chateau Filhot we stopped by Chateau Guiraud, we were impressed because their stainless steel cuves are not above ground, but set into the ground. Supposedly to make it easier to pump without using a pumping machine that introduces to much mixing of the juice as it ferments and can possibly stop the fermentation.

Our next stop was the Domaine du Rousset-Petraguey. This domaine is one that is biodynamic and organic. We were interested to see the difference as well as taste the difference! One main difference is that their wine stays in barrels for up to 5 years before being bottled and then sold. It's a very small domaine as well, they have 6 hectars where as Guiraud had 40 hectars (or more....). I thought it was the most unique of all the wines we tasted that day, very very golden, but a good acidity to balance the sugar content. Also the only place that had a 100% Semillion.


La Tour Blanche

Our last visit of the day was to Chateau La Tour Blanche. La Tour was family owned up until 100 years ago when the last family member died and she donated the Chateau and the property to the state on the condition that they make it a school for agriculture and wine. It is celebrating it's 100th year. It's a wonderful place because of this mix of trying to teach and yet produce a great product. Their vinification process is really well done and it shows by their wine (a little bit in the price as well). Though I definitely wouldn't buy their second wine even if it's more affordable.
All in all it was a great day, I learned a lot about tasting Sauternes.

London weekend

Us all together outside of the Tower of London.

Two weekends ago, Jeremie and I flew to London for the weekend to meet up with my parents and David. David is enjoying his study abroad session at University of Sussex and had the chance to welcome our parents on campus. They traveled around before meeting up with Jeremie and me for the weekend.
We got in to London late Friday night, and Saturday morning we started off with a great British Breakfast. After we made our way to the Tower of London (cant miss a chance to say hello to the royal jewels). After we took a very crowded double decker bus to the National Gallery.


The boys at lunch on the square.

We stopped for a late lunch on Trafalgar square, which was delicious. We wandered around the gallery admiring the immense collection. Jeremie particularly enjoyed seeing Seurat's Bathers at Asnieres. We all enjoyed Picasso's Sunflowers and the Vermeer of the "young girl standing at the Virginal (we thought of you Oma)
After the museum we went to Covent Garden to walk around and admire the shops. We took a break to stop at a wine bar and have a drink. We then decided to start heading back to the hotel area to look for a place to eat.


At the wine bar. "Cheers"

The next day we went to the Victoria and Albert Museum, my personal favorite in terms of museums. An ancient school of art, which is now a museum, they have replicas of many art pieces made by the students. Every which way you turn is full of interesting things to see. It doesn't hurt that there is another fairly large jewelery collection. We rushed through because we were going to have lunch with Dina and Howard. I was really glad to get to see them since they were so kind to host me in London for my first visit three years ago.

After lunch we went to visit Harrods, do some shopping, most window licking in the store though. (; A very large touristy shopping center. The photo of David and me browsing.


Window shopping with David

Jeremie decided that he wanted to go back to the V and A and look around more, he liked it so much. Afterwards we had a lovely dinner and then had to say good bye to David when he went back to school.
The following day my parents flew back to California while Jeremie and I flew back to Bordeaux.

Sorry that I haven't had much time to keep everyone updated. I am really busy with my graduate program, they keep us busy and it's far from home. Jeremie and I are looking forward to our California holiday (we arrive the 20th of December for ten days in the Cali sun). :)
Much love, Sarah

weekend in paris

After my internship was over last weekend, we went to Paris for a party themed "Chic et Hot". It was hosted by the brother of a really good friend of Jeremie's. We had a blast, there was lots of champagne, lots of laughing and we had a blast.



This week I had time to relax, sleep and take care of things that I had put off. We had over some friends for dinner this week, which was fun. Jeremie had a bad cold (he's still on antibiotics, but getting better). The weather here has been really odd, it's cold at night where we put on the heat at night, but during the day, it's up to 30 degrees Celsius, so the change in temperature hasn't been easy for Jeremie.
This week, I also had time to re-visit an apartment that Jeremie had visited for me, we are looking at buying a place. It needs work done, so we visited with an engineer, and made an offer, but we are waiting to see if they accept. If so, we will move into a place that doesn't require the rent in heating bills! Oh boy!
Next week, my actual classes start, which I am really excited about. I have class from 8:30 until noon and then 13:00 until 18:00 every day. It should be really interesting and a lot of information.
Much love, Sarah

Chateau Ferran

Since I am now enrolled in a two years masters program in vinification (process of making wine), I am required to spend three weeks observing what goes on at a Chateau. I am the new intern at Chateau Ferran, the one that is in Martillac (GRAVES region).
Today was my first day of taking grape samples, measuring the sugar content of the wine, cleaning the barrels to put the wine in, moving the barrels, stacking them, and of course tasting the wine that has just started to ferment (it's only a week into the process, so it still tastes like grape fruit juice, the really good kind tho). It's tiring work, but rewarding.
I didn't take pictures at work, seemed kind of odd to me, but I did take a lot of notes on what we did!

David left for "pays basque" today, the region that is south of Bordeaux, approaching the boarder of Spain. He will be back the 19th. Until then I am working, trying to figure out if I can give an English lesson here or there, judging from how tired I am after today, I think that I won't be doing many in the next three weeks. :)
Love, Sarah

Arcachon

This past weekend we went to visit the Dunes du Pilat (Pyla), the largest sand dune in Europe. It's quite a climb to the top!





For fun the boys decided that they had to race with the dogs all the way down! They had a blast apparently!






David experienced his first full blown strike, complete with people protesting right in front of our apartment. He had planed to go on a day trip to Toulouse, which I postponed for him to the following day on account of the french behavior.



David with his new "buddies", they follow him around. They almost understand what he tells them in French....



David driving a stick shift! (In a parking lot! nothing crazy...) He did really well.

David visits Normandie

After having traveled through Germany and Switzerland, David came back to see me and Jeremie in Bordeaux. We left for Normandie after David doing some laundry and enjoying a little bit of Bordeaux wine, of course.
The first photo is us in the train to Normandie (with our faithful companions).



On our first walk around David was shocked to see Puja almost get killed by the neighbors horse, but she did live, she was chasing a rabbit through the pasture, which scared the horse I guess.

I didn't quite realize that in September it is not as warm in Normandie, so we borrowed some warm clothing from stuff that is there. David really enjoyed meeting all of Jeremie's family, even though we had to translate everything.
Pepe or Jermeie's grandfather really liked his bottle of Angeli that my dad had sent as a gift. He opened it right away saying that at least it can't stick to his bridge piece like the sees candy that I had given him! Jeremie's aunt and uncle absolutely loved the sees that we gave them, along with Jeremie's cousin and their daughter Noah (who is 15 months old).

The photo below is of a light show held at the cathedral of Bayeux (where there are the famous tapestries). The light show was interesting because they light the inside so you can actually see from the exterior the stained glass.



We also went to visit Omaha beach, where despite the wind and freezing cold water people were actually using the old "tractor" to get their jet skies to the ocean. We thought it was interesting, so we took a photo.



David holding his new best friend, Kajol, who has decided that David is her favorite person, she follows him all around now.

A photo of me and David in front of a memorial on Omaha beach.



In other news, I was accepted this year to do a masters degree (lasts two years) in Oenologie. I am really excited, the degree is actually called the "Diplome Nationale d'Oenologie". It's a national diploma for France, and when you graduate you are considered as a really desirable employee to work making wine at a chateau. The first month I am an intern at a chateau and then I have classes that start on October 8th.
Much love, Sarah

A visit from a friend

This past week I had a friend, Jesse from UCD that was here visiting me. He actually is keeping a blog like I am about his three weeks tour in Europe. I am adding a link to his blog because it is in a way about me and Jeremie. I will post some other pictures to go along with it.

http://3countries3weeks.blogspot.com

Here is a picture of Jesse and me at Chateau Smith Haut Lafitte.



Jeremie and me at Smith HLF.



Jeremie in the cellar of SHLF.



We took Jesse out to a dinner at a favorite of any French person. It's a restaurant that is odd in the sense that they only have one option, but people line up because it is always the same, and always good. It is called L'Entrecote, named for a cut of beef that is tender, a center fillet. They have a "secret sauce" that they put on the steak that the French just adore. We ended up taking a friend of Jeremie and mine with us, she was REALLY excited about going, because there is always a line, and when I say always I mean every day, rain or shine.



This is a different chateau we visited and tasted at, it's a much smaller production as well as being lesser well known, but it is also a "grand cru" from the graves region, but they make really really good wine.




Next we have David, who will next week in Bordeaux, if he isn't having too much fun traveling around. He sent me an email today that he might extend! Which is great! Much love to all.