The Address Sept-Oct 2013

— Château Latour
If sipping elegant wines, visiting benchmark vineyards, dining
on the most sumptuous gourmet delights in elegant restaurants
and relaxing in grand and private retreats sounds
tempting, then Bordeaux in southwest France is the place to
holiday. Enjoy one luxurious week of discovering the world’s
premiere wine region in absolute luxury with the people who
know Bordeaux best, Quintessentially Travel.
In addition to Bordeaux, France is also home to other great
wine producing regions such as Burgundy, Beaujolais, the
Rhône Valley and Champagne and visits to these destinations
can also be arranged.
MADE FOR WINES - It is hard for any wine expert to talk
about French wines without weaving ‘terroir’ into the conversation,
and like many foreign words, there is not one word
in English that sums up ‘terroir’. Without it though, French
wines (or any others, for that matter) would not be what
they are. Wines are like many other products, in that they
are made in a variety of ways and in many parts of the world.
Like a chemical formula, if one of the ingredients is altered,
the finished product changes. So terroir is the sum total of all
the natural ingredients that contribute to coming together, to
produce what is presented as wine in the bottle – the climate,
the aspect, the slope, the soil, the geology and the grape varieties
used are all vital ingredients.
No two wine producing areas are the same, so Merlot
grapes grown in Bordeaux produce a slightly different wine
to those harvested in say, Margaret River, Western Australia.
Of course, this is the great appeal of appreciating wines, in
that every bottle of wine opened is different to every other
bottle. It is possible to admire the same varieties grown in different
parts of the world and also appreciate the influence the
winemaker has in producing different wines from the same
varieties. Most Bordeaux winemakers would argue that they
are merely ‘custodians’ of the terroir, and that nature makes
the greatest contribution to the finished product.
Terroir is such an essential ingredient in premium French
wines that wine labels make reference to location, more so
than grape variety. While this frustrates most New World
wine connoisseurs, the French happily enjoy their wines
based on knowing the location as well as the grape variety.
The finest wines are generally labelled according to the specific
vineyard, and understanding French wines can be as
much a lesson in geography as oenology. ➢
SEPT/OCT 2013 | TA 65