Day 2
After spending a cosy night in a road side motel sharing a room with Nuno and JP, we settled for heavy breakfast – according to French standards. The girls were late as always. But form Bergerac to Bordeaux was only a short trip of about an hour or so. We had to drop Clara at the Gare because she was rushing back to Spain for a few days before she would be joining us again in Tours (Val de Loire). Finding the Auberge in the crazy French city lay-out was a treat as always and after passing about a hundred rond-point we found it. A comfortable sleep that would house this vino-group for the rest of our stay in Bordeaux.
We set out to explore the city of Bordeaux. It being a Sunday, we did not expect to find too many open wine shops or similar establishments. We got the tram and walk down the side of the river all the way to the old part of the city. The Gironde slips as it reaches Bordeaux and then becomes the Dordogne to the east and Garonne to the south – the one that flows through the city in the end. It was a beautiful sunny winter’s day yet again and the whole town was out to enjoy it. People everywhere to enjoying the sunshine; rollerblading, running or cycling down the promenade that stretches all along the side of the river bank. The Sunday market was in full flow and while we snooped around to find a bite to eat, people were in high spirits with music and a warm atmosphere fighting the cool air. We got our different munchies and of course a bottle of wine – drunk from plastic cups I have to add. After soaking up as much of the jovial atmosphere as possible, we walked back in the direction of the old city to search some wine bars to enjoy the local nectar (which apparently is suppose to be well-known?).
We struck gold at the Place de Parlement. At an incredibly small but sociable shop on the corner we stumble in and was greeted by Greg – a Yank that got lost somewhere between his surfing habits at Malibu beach and the luscious wines of Bordeaux. Can you blame him? After all the some of the best surf in Europe is a stones through away. While peeping through the window we saw some tasting going on and that obviously lured us into the web of Cousins & Compagnie. He introduced us to their weekly wine competition of Sundays – “le Defi de Dimanche”. The object was to identify three wines from there stock of over 250 international wines. Each week had a theme and this week it was – “wines illustrating the balance between sugar and acid”. You got given a short brief explaining the rules (all very serious). And then the three wines were poured. You had to identify seven different categories (and this is where I loose half of you reading this). 1 – Country. 2 – Region. 3 – Appellation. 4 – Cultivars. 5 – Vintage. 6 – Price. 7 – Producer. We spent more than two hours hunting and running through the store in search of the wines. Stopping every now and then just to sniff and spit again so that we don’t forget what we were searching for. It felt like an impossible task. We realised that combining knowledge was the only way we were taking home the prize. So team-INTERNATIONAL pooled all resources to see if one of the four individuals can bag the prize – a bottle of wine and a branded cork screw! Score were calculated and the results were read. CHEF (with the help of JP, Nuno and Manu) takes the crown! I received my prize with cheers and jubilation from my team of experts (only because that meant they had wine to go with the pizza). And do not forget my branded cork screw….
But the best of all is the knowledge that my name will be posted in the window of a Bordeaux wine shop for a whole week, plus my hometown and home country. According to Greg it is a very prestigious honour and everybody stops during the week to see who the week’s winner is. So tonight I will go to bed with sound contentment that I am indeed a bit of a wine geek.
After spending a cosy night in a road side motel sharing a room with Nuno and JP, we settled for heavy breakfast – according to French standards. The girls were late as always. But form Bergerac to Bordeaux was only a short trip of about an hour or so. We had to drop Clara at the Gare because she was rushing back to Spain for a few days before she would be joining us again in Tours (Val de Loire). Finding the Auberge in the crazy French city lay-out was a treat as always and after passing about a hundred rond-point we found it. A comfortable sleep that would house this vino-group for the rest of our stay in Bordeaux.
We set out to explore the city of Bordeaux. It being a Sunday, we did not expect to find too many open wine shops or similar establishments. We got the tram and walk down the side of the river all the way to the old part of the city. The Gironde slips as it reaches Bordeaux and then becomes the Dordogne to the east and Garonne to the south – the one that flows through the city in the end. It was a beautiful sunny winter’s day yet again and the whole town was out to enjoy it. People everywhere to enjoying the sunshine; rollerblading, running or cycling down the promenade that stretches all along the side of the river bank. The Sunday market was in full flow and while we snooped around to find a bite to eat, people were in high spirits with music and a warm atmosphere fighting the cool air. We got our different munchies and of course a bottle of wine – drunk from plastic cups I have to add. After soaking up as much of the jovial atmosphere as possible, we walked back in the direction of the old city to search some wine bars to enjoy the local nectar (which apparently is suppose to be well-known?).
We struck gold at the Place de Parlement. At an incredibly small but sociable shop on the corner we stumble in and was greeted by Greg – a Yank that got lost somewhere between his surfing habits at Malibu beach and the luscious wines of Bordeaux. Can you blame him? After all the some of the best surf in Europe is a stones through away. While peeping through the window we saw some tasting going on and that obviously lured us into the web of Cousins & Compagnie. He introduced us to their weekly wine competition of Sundays – “le Defi de Dimanche”. The object was to identify three wines from there stock of over 250 international wines. Each week had a theme and this week it was – “wines illustrating the balance between sugar and acid”. You got given a short brief explaining the rules (all very serious). And then the three wines were poured. You had to identify seven different categories (and this is where I loose half of you reading this). 1 – Country. 2 – Region. 3 – Appellation. 4 – Cultivars. 5 – Vintage. 6 – Price. 7 – Producer. We spent more than two hours hunting and running through the store in search of the wines. Stopping every now and then just to sniff and spit again so that we don’t forget what we were searching for. It felt like an impossible task. We realised that combining knowledge was the only way we were taking home the prize. So team-INTERNATIONAL pooled all resources to see if one of the four individuals can bag the prize – a bottle of wine and a branded cork screw! Score were calculated and the results were read. CHEF (with the help of JP, Nuno and Manu) takes the crown! I received my prize with cheers and jubilation from my team of experts (only because that meant they had wine to go with the pizza). And do not forget my branded cork screw….
But the best of all is the knowledge that my name will be posted in the window of a Bordeaux wine shop for a whole week, plus my hometown and home country. According to Greg it is a very prestigious honour and everybody stops during the week to see who the week’s winner is. So tonight I will go to bed with sound contentment that I am indeed a bit of a wine geek.
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