Our trip to France began in Bordeaux, the actual city and the hub of the Bordeaux wine region. We’re aboard the Viking Forseti, a river cruiser. This part of the Garonne river is not terribly wide, and the moorage is along a vibrant river walk heavily trafficked with pedestrians and bicycles. October is the shoulder season and the quay is busy; I can’t imagine what mid-summer is like here. The weather in the south of France is lovely, bordering on hot on our first day and more seasonable going forward. Their leaves are starting to turn the colors of fall, the poplars starting to yellow and the burning bush a bright red. An evening walk with a guide pointed out the limestone Government and arts buildings mostly built by Dutch wine merchants, and the interesting details of the opera house and Grand Hotel de Bordeaux.

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The Forseti set sail in the early morning for the town of Cadillac, the gateway to the Sauterne region, and the home of Eleanor of Aquitaine. If you haven’t seen The Lion in Winter with Katherine Hepburn, Peter O’Toole and a very young Anthony Hopkins and Timothy Dalton I highly recommend it. It’s the story of Eleanor and her estranged husband King Henry II in 1183. Hepburn won a much-deserved Academy Award for her role as Eleanor.

The fortified medieval town or bastide is wonderfully walkable with cafes and shops, and a chateau that was once a women’s prison and then a reform school that is now a museum.

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It was our stepping off point for a sojourn to the Chateau de Rayne Vigneau, a Sauterne winery first started by Madame de Rayne, née Catherine de Pontac in the town of Bommes in the 17thcentury. You go, girlfriend.

The hilltop winery makes both Sauterne and Sauvignon Blanc, with the grapes higher up the hillside in a mix of clay and sand providing the sweeter juice for the sauterne and the lower vines in sandier soil creating a drier juice for the sauvignon blanc.  But the confluence of two rivers of differing temperatures creates a mist that engulfs the vineyards, creating the perfect conditions for slow growth of Botrytis Cinerea fungus, also known as the Noble Rot. This is a good fungus, attacking very ripe grapes making them shrivel like raisins, making their flavors and sugars become more concentrated. So the mists followed by warm sunny afternoons create the perfect conditions for the grapes that make up these complex wines.

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I’m not a sweet wine person. Or at least I thought I wasn’t. Château de Rayne Vigneau 2009 Premier Grand Cru Classé de Sauternes changed my mind. No, it’s not something I’d drink every day, nor is it a dessert wine. It’s complexity pairs well with blue cheese, spicy food, and foie gras. Our winery guide, Sarah, made us promise two things. One is that when we toast with wine in France that we look the other person in the eye and say ‘Santé’. It means, in essence, ‘to your health’. But if you don’t look them in the eye everyone involved will have bad sex for 7 years.

The next thing she made us promise is that we’d roast a chicken for Sunday dinner and baste the skin with Château de Rayne Vigneau Sauterne. At 44 Euros (about $50) a bottle I’m thinking I won’t keep that promise, but basting a chicken with a decent sauterne for a sweet, caramelized skin sounds like a fine idea. And while it cooks I’ll DRINK the Château de Rayne Vigneau 2009 Sauterne while enjoying a little blue cheese. So who’s coming to Sunday dinner?

Santé!

Deborah