Back from Bordeaux

Today Im back to work after my trip to Bordeaux. Ive had the most fabulous three days of food, wines and spectacular weather. Our generous hosts, Anne, Damien and Maria of Chateau Lamothe de Haux really looked after us and made us feel very welcome. I must have put on about a stone over the last three days, but it was truly fabulous.

We arrived at Bordeaux airport on monday afternoon at about 4ish local time. The sun was shining as we headed off to Lamothe. A beautiful 19th century chateau with foundations dating back to the 16th century.

After being shown to our rooms, we convened on the terrace for a glass of the white wine. Crisp and fresh it was the perfect start to a wonderful couple of days in Bordeaux. Damien then took us on a guided tour of the facilities, starting in the cuverie. We were lucky enough to be treated to a tasting the 2005 vintage which they have just finished assembling. There is a huge amount of hype about the 2005's, hardly surprising as that will be the next vintage on the market, but there is a lot of gold in them there hills. The wine was fantastic, and this is Premiere Cotes we are talking about, not the premium wines of the Medoc.

Damien took us down to the cellars of the Chateau, showing us the cave symbols that indicate that the caves may well have been home to people, much older than the date of the foundations. They even have some rare fossils of sea urchins in the limestone layers that the caves are dug out of.

That night we had a fabulous dinner, and drunk many wonderful wines of Lamothe, before calling a night at the terribly late hour of half past midnight. (Nige and Paul kept poor Damien up until the very early hours of the morning talking shite about the Spanish Civil war, Welsh mercenaries and "Marsh Rabbits"!!!) We had a busy day the next day and a terribly early start.