I want to talk to you about wine

Today we went to two different Medoc region wineries. We started at Chateau Baudan and we finished off our day at Chateau Kirwan, which is pictured above.

It was funny to get to compare and contrast these two places in a single day. Baudan is clearly the modest upstart, bottling wine for “bargain” shoppers, I guess, while Kirwan has oodles of equipment and cash to burn, focusing on a more discriminating buyer. Average bottle price between the two places is $22 per bottle vs. $66 per bottle, both of which exceed my top threshold for what wine should cost (hint: $0). Kirwan won my vote simply because they gave out a Canele pastry with the tasting.

Below is the only picture I took at Baudan, which shows their cellar full of barrels. They buy used barrels from other wineries to age their wine. A new oak barrel easily costs about 900 dollars or more while a used one is about 50. A barrel of wine holds about 300 bottles of wine.

When we moved over to Kirwan, the difference in operating expenses was clear. Here’s the barrel room:

And since we are here during harvesting time, we got to see the employees in action, hand-sorting the grapes. The guys in the second picture have gathered up all the stems to make into mulch. Not visible in these pictures is Ron, bending down nearby to grab himself a loose grape, which has got to be a code violation of some kind.

The best thing I learned about wine is a cleaning tip, though. Many wineries use egg whites to pull debris out of their wine. I have been informed about this on numerous occasions so far and you can rest assured I will be trying this when I get home. Here’s what you do: if you feel you have debris in your wine as it ages, grab 4 or 5 egg whites and drop them into the barrel. The debris is somehow attracted to the protein in the egg white. The process is called Egg White Fining and I am proud to be able to share this actual wine tour information with you.

Driving around the outskirts of Bordeaux, chateaux pop up every few minutes, and the architectural range is huge. Here’s a couple from what we saw today and then it is time to pack up! I’ll talk to you from Sarlat in a day or so.