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Monday 03 October / Sunny! (Remember the menu to the left has albums of photos) (Remember for the panoramas at left, once they finish downloading, moving the cursor to the bottom right of the photo allows you to view it full size and scroll and explore. The detail is amazing, eg. you can actually see a stop sign...)
During breakfast we met another couple from New Hampshire staying at the same
B+B. They were
Then Willy the owner took us for a tour of his vineyard. It was
fascinating. He discussed the difference between old vines and new, and
which wines he made from grapes depending on the age of the vines. His
process was to hand pick all grapes (unlike the coops in the area that machine
pick). With his method, the grapes are hand picked, places into small
containers,
He explained how they use egg whites as a filter to filter the grape juice
Oak barrels were used in the process. A barrel cost around 500 euros and was never used more than twice - they just couldn't be cleaned well enough for a third use. So it became expensive firewood.
Willy's vineyard produced 3 wines: Fleur (from the young vines to be drunk
in 1-2 So off we drove to St. Emilion. There was much to see there that we didn't get a chance to see when we met there to start the cycling tour. The wine tasting was fun. We could tell the difference in the wines. Lisa liked the Tradition, I liked the Reserve. Willy said the Reserve was for a more refined palate, one that like a wine with more structure and body - hey, whooda thunk it.
Went to Claude Darroze for dinner, posh restaurant in Langon. Seven course
meal as expected. I had
Here is quite a funny joke (but a true story) that John told us on the drive back. There was a British company that built something that required computer chips of some kind which they ordered from a Japanese company in Japan no less. When the Japanese company bid for the project, they were informed that the quality must be 1% bad chips. On delivery of the contract, they delivered the shipment of chips and in a separate package marked "X" was another bunch of chips. What they said to the British company was, here are your good chips, and we don't know why you want them but in this other box are the bad ones you ordered.
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here
doing a self guided cycling tour.
delivered to the barn and crushed in under 20 minutes. We witnessed this.
The grapes came in in impeccable condition. Since they were in small
shallow containers, there was no damage to the grapes when they arrived.
That, compared to what we saw on one of our drives later in the day where a
truck the size of a dump truck was moving grapes from the auto picker to a
place for crushing. The grapes at the bottom of that truck had to be
crushed, damaged, and sitting there for hours.
in the
large tanks. By placing the eggs on the top as a complete layer (many many
eggs) and allowing them over time to settle (since they were heavier than the
juice), it filtered the juice on the way down. Cool. 
years),
Tradition (which improves up until it is 10 years old after which it cannot get
any better), and Reserve (which is his top wine and made from the oldest vines
and improves up until it is 14 years old). The tour ended with us agreeing
we'd meet later in the evening for a wine tasting so that we could sample the 3
wines direct from the proper bottles.
the
duck (#10), and quite frankly, that's enough duck! Gourmet Touring had
booked this, and to allow me to drink and not drive, they picked us up after
dinner and John drove us home in his car while his wife and partner Sian followed
in the Barchetta. Actually she took a few shortcuts and got to the Inn
before us.