Driving west coast of France - Part 6
Saint-Emilion, Von-Figeac chateau
Next day, I went to a chateau in Saint-Emilion. Saint-Emilion is one of village where produce Bordeaux wine. There are over 80 chateaus only around Saint-Emilion.
It took 40 minutes by car from Bordeaux. As closer to the village, you can see only green vineyards. I went to one of new chateau called “Von-Figeac”.
It was 10:20 in the morning. I parked my car in empty car space of cheateu and went to reception room. A gentlemen of thirties came to see me.
He told me “There is another appointment 40 minutes later, it is ok for you by that time?”
Since I had to go back Barcelona within this day, I did not have a plan to spend here long time. So I Accepted it.
Then he started winery tour for me. This chateau was opened in 2001. Starting from 8000 bottles per year, now they produce 150,000 per year.
He is taking charge for production, sales, marketing, and administration. He had got MBA.
He asked me a question pointing out rose planting beside wine trees.
“Do you know why we plant roses beside wine trees?”
And he explained me the reason with clear English accent
“Rose is very sensitive plant against disease germ. So if you find something wrong in rose, you can check wine trees around it, so that you can make countermeasure against disease in early stage. There are much more scientific ways to find disease in the modern days, of course.”
They installed modern technology to make wine. They use stainless made mixer for wine production.
“There is a lot of conditions to determinate the quality of wine, weather of the year, clopping timing, temperature and humidity of brewing process. It is impossible to control all factors. So somehow quality of wine is unpredictable. However, we work hard to make good quality of wine as much as possible under these conditions.”
“This chateau has two vineyards. One is on this side of the river and the other is over. As characteristics of soil are different, the characteristics of grape are also different. The wine made from the grape grows on this side has mellow taste and the other one has rich taste. So we call women’s wine on this side and men’s wine to the other. We will never mix both grapes for making a wine.”
Then he took me to warehouse.
“This is aging process. We put the wine into barrels and age at least three years. So the wine made in 2005 goes to the market in 2008. As aroma is the most critical part of red wine, we apply smaller barrel for aging process. We produce small portion of white wine here, but these are not so important on aroma, we use a little bit bigger barrel which is the same size of whisky aging.”
Oh, I see, white wine should serve chilled so aroma is less important.
“The performance of barrel is getting less if you use several times. So we sell the barrels which we use twice to wine brewers in Spain or Portugal, or to whisky brewers.”
That is why Spanish wine taste hard and less aroma…
After the plant tour, I bought 5 bottles of red wine here and went back to return course.
It took 40 minutes by car from Bordeaux. As closer to the village, you can see only green vineyards. I went to one of new chateau called “Von-Figeac”.
It was 10:20 in the morning. I parked my car in empty car space of cheateu and went to reception room. A gentlemen of thirties came to see me.
He told me “There is another appointment 40 minutes later, it is ok for you by that time?”
Since I had to go back Barcelona within this day, I did not have a plan to spend here long time. So I Accepted it.
Then he started winery tour for me. This chateau was opened in 2001. Starting from 8000 bottles per year, now they produce 150,000 per year.
He is taking charge for production, sales, marketing, and administration. He had got MBA.
He asked me a question pointing out rose planting beside wine trees.
“Do you know why we plant roses beside wine trees?”
And he explained me the reason with clear English accent
“Rose is very sensitive plant against disease germ. So if you find something wrong in rose, you can check wine trees around it, so that you can make countermeasure against disease in early stage. There are much more scientific ways to find disease in the modern days, of course.”
They installed modern technology to make wine. They use stainless made mixer for wine production.
“There is a lot of conditions to determinate the quality of wine, weather of the year, clopping timing, temperature and humidity of brewing process. It is impossible to control all factors. So somehow quality of wine is unpredictable. However, we work hard to make good quality of wine as much as possible under these conditions.”
“This chateau has two vineyards. One is on this side of the river and the other is over. As characteristics of soil are different, the characteristics of grape are also different. The wine made from the grape grows on this side has mellow taste and the other one has rich taste. So we call women’s wine on this side and men’s wine to the other. We will never mix both grapes for making a wine.”
Then he took me to warehouse.
“This is aging process. We put the wine into barrels and age at least three years. So the wine made in 2005 goes to the market in 2008. As aroma is the most critical part of red wine, we apply smaller barrel for aging process. We produce small portion of white wine here, but these are not so important on aroma, we use a little bit bigger barrel which is the same size of whisky aging.”
Oh, I see, white wine should serve chilled so aroma is less important.
“The performance of barrel is getting less if you use several times. So we sell the barrels which we use twice to wine brewers in Spain or Portugal, or to whisky brewers.”
That is why Spanish wine taste hard and less aroma…
After the plant tour, I bought 5 bottles of red wine here and went back to return course.
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