Author: lgsjr

Welcome to Power Tasting

November-December 2017 Edition – The Good Stuff

This issue concerns some of the better aspects of wine tasting: top wines, good deeds and good times.  There’s a little in France, a little in New York and more than a little in California.  As we keep saying, Wine Country is a big place.  So come with us to:

  • Rochioli Vineyards and Winery – a winery in Sonoma County whose wines have been served many times at the White House
  • Lucky Find – the wine experience that grew from finding a wallet in a cab
  • The Funk Zone – partying while you taste on a visit to Santa Barbara
  • Tasting the Greats – tips on getting the most out of a visit to the very best wineries

Articles from the October issue are also still available:

About Power Tasting

Power Tasting is a monthly e-magazine about the wine tasting experience, not about wine itself.  We offer suggestions to the traveler who wishes to visit wineries and taste good wine. We are writing to the vacationer, not the connoisseur. We want to empower the visitor to get the maximum advantage out of each visit, not to be intimidated by wine snobs on either side of the bar and to be able to taste – not drink – as much as possible within the boundaries of safety and sanity.

Each issue has four sections:

  • Wine Tasting Tips – There is advice to those new to wine tasting and to seasoned tasters alike.  This section aims to give visitors to Wine Country, wherever in the world that may be, useful techniques to get the most out of their visits.
  • Wineries – Each issue has a review of the experience of visiting a particular winery.  Some may be in the wine making areas that wine lover most frequently travel to, like Napa Valley or Bordeaux.  And other issues feature wineries as far off the beaten track as we can go.
  • Experiences – In our travels, as with other wine tasting enthusiasts, we have had many experiences, some humorous, some inspiring and some best shared so that others might avoid them.  This section relates them to Power Tasting’s readers.
  • Places to Visit – Wine Country is a fabulous place.  It has vineyards and wineries, restaurants and galleries and it is in the country and in cities.  It is anywhere that wine is available for tasting.  Each month Power Tasting takes you to interesting places other than wineries,  offering suggestions for what else to do on a wine tasting trip.

Who We Are

A few years ago, Lucie Gauthier and Steve Ross (a married couple living in Manhattan) set out to write a book about wine tasting. We are avid lovers of wine from all over the world and have travelled widely to wine growing regions on four continents. However, we don’t feel qualified to offer advice or even public opinions about wine.

[Well, that’s not exactly true. Steve offers two rules: 1. Know what you like. 2. Remember what it’s called.]

As mentioned, comments about wine will be incidental. We’re focusing on the overall experience, including the service, knowledge of the personnel, crowd management, artwork, architecture and the overall ambience of the wineries we visit. We may even mention where to have a picnic or take a walk in the garden. And we may write about some restaurants, shops and other things to do while on a wine tasting trip.

We are pleased to share our enthusiasm for wine tasting and invite our readers to share theirs with us.

Visiting Solvang

If you’re driving north from Los Angeles to go wine tasting in the Central Coast, you will probably pass through or near to the town of Solvang.  If you’d like to do something different and just a little strange, get off the freeway and visit.  In the early part of the 20th century, a group of Danish families emigrated to Santa Barbara County’s Santa Ynez Valley and set up farms.  The Danes set up a town called Solvang that reminded them of Denmark, with architecture, churches and food stores evoking their homeland.

Of course, when you have a place that is a bit exotic and quite scenic, tourists will follow.  So while the farming tradition of the area around Solvang is very much alive, the center of town is an attraction, one verging on cutesy.   The buildings are half-timbered and the windmills actually turn.  There’s a replica of Copenhagen’s famous Little Mermaid, and a bust of Hans Christian Andersen and restaurants where you can get smørrebrød, the famous open-faced sandwiches that are a staple of Danish fare.

Photo courtesy of Solvangusa.

We have recently been in Denmark and can assure you that Solvang has no more to do with that country than Las Vegas does with France.  Still, this doesn’t take away the pleasure of pretending you’re in Denmark.  Solvang really is pretty and it really does have its roots in Danish-American history.

Solvang may be an out of the way little town for many California visitors, but not for those who are there for wine tasting.  It is located at the doorstep of the Santa Rita Hills, which is the source for some very fine Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.  Many of the best wineries in the Santa Rita Hills have tasting rooms in the city of Santa Barbara, enough so that travelling to the vineyards for tasting purposes is unnecessary.  But if you like looking at rows of vines while you taste, Solvang can be a good place from which to travel into the Santa Rita Hills.  Moreover, it’s a short drive to Los Olivos and you’re already in the Santa Ynez Valley, so you’re right in the middle of Wine Country when you’re in Solvang.

Photo courtesy of Hendrik Breuer.

You don’t even have to leave Solvang to go wine tasting if you don’t want to.  There are at least a dozen tasting rooms in the town, of varying quality.  (Au Bon Climat used to have a tasting room there but has since moved into Santa Barbara.) We would advise that the reason to taste wine in Solvang is more about the atmosphere than the wine itself.

Wine Country is about wine, to be sure, but there are usually other things of interest, worth a visit.  You wouldn’t go wine tasting in Champagne without going to  Paris or in Tuscany without seeing Florence or Siena.  So it’s pleasant to take some time to visit a town like Solvang if you’re wine-tasting in the southern end of California’s Central Coast.  Okay, it’s not Paris or Florence, but Solvang and the Santa Ynez Valley can offer a pleasant way to spend a day of vacation or a weekend besides wine tasting.

Traveling Around California

Here’s a really bad idea: drive all over California visiting one wine tasting region after the other.   It could be tiring and after a while, you can’t remember what you tasted and where.  We did it and the reason we did it wasn’t wine tasting; Steve had a client that wanted him to visit all of its offices around the state and we just took advantage of being there to taste each region’s wines.  We’re not going to present a travelogue here, but we will offer tips on how to take the most advantage of your travels in California if this ever happens to you.

  • Plan your route before you go.  California is famous for its road system, so take advantage of it.  Figure out how you want to go, with help from tools like Google Maps.  (What did we do before we had it, anyway?)  But beware of Google Maps navigation when you’re driving.  California is also famous for its traffic jams, so it may take you longer than you thought (always add an hour, says Lucie) and you may be taken on an obscure route just to avoid a five-minute tie-up.  You will probably be on some unfamiliar highways to begin with; taking a detour into the back roads of farming regions is a great way to get really, really lost.
  • Find out about the wineries in the areas you’ll be going to.  There are world famous wine growing regions in California.  And then there are some that aren’t that good and may not have the terroir to achieve much in the future, either.  On the other hand, there may be some little gems hidden away in wine growing regions you’ve never heard of.  But how to find them?  Just looking up the region on the Web will usually get you a list of wineries that are members of the local vinicultural association, but that will tell you that they’re all wonderful, even if they aren’t.  Look up reviews; the San Jose Mercury, the Los Angeles Times and the San Francisco Chronicle usually offer pretty good guidance.  The reviews on www.wine-searcher.com are also good sources of information, although you do need to go through wineries one at a time.

Lake County in springtime.  Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.

  • Keep your expectations in check.  Overall, most of the wineries in most of the unknown regions you might find along your way might not make very good wine.  Of course, tastes vary, and you could well find something that appeals to you at an obscure winery.  Just “appeals to you” and not “bowls you over” may be the best you’re going to get, so don’t be disappointed.  Let’s face it, Santa Clara and Temecula aren’t Napa and Sonoma.  It might be more of a downer if a certain wine growing region were a destination, but if they’re something to do because you’re in the area, enjoy what you can and chalk the rest up to experience. It always feel good anyway to be in a Wine Country.
  • Find out where to eat.  A general rule is that where you can taste wine, you can find great restaurants.  But general rules, like all others, are made to be broken. Do not expect to see restaurants amongst the wineries; there are usually none at all.   There are some regions where it’s tough to find a restaurant or a deli to get a decent sandwich, much less a fine meal.  So when you get off the freeway, either use the app “PCS Places” and search for restaurants around, or ask at the first gas station or drug store you see where you can get something to eat, something you must do if you’re going to take on a bit of alcohol.  (While you’re there, buy a bag of pretzels or chips, it might be a life saver!) You’ll be glad you asked and saved yourself miles of driving. Here’s a tip: there are a lot of people of Mexican descent in California and a lot of Mexican restaurants all over the state.  Even in the middle of nowhere, you often can find some good Mexican food, like we did in Central Valley.  We bought lunch from a Mexican food truck and it was delicious.

Tablas Creek Vineyard

Tablas Creek Vineyard is unabashedly a corner of southern France plunked down in the middle of California, in Paso Robles to be exact.  It is owned by the Perrin family of the southern Rhône valley (along with American wine importer Robert Haas).  The Perrins are particularly known for one of the most renowned Châteauneuf du Pape wines, Château de Beaucastel.  This history is important because of the vines that the family brought to the Central Coast from France.  Going back to 1985, Haas and members of the Perrin family sought vineyard land and imported root stock.  While the vines went through quarantine, the winemakers determined that the western fringe of Paso Robles was very similar in climate and soil – the terroir – to that of Châteauneuf.

Today, California’s Central Coast is revered for its Rhône-style wines but it was not always so.  In fact, it was the vision and generosity of the Tablas Creek owners that established these wines in that region.  Paso Robles has long been known for Zinfandel, and still is.  The Tablas Creek people realized that one good Rhône winery would be an outlier; if the region did well with Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre and the other Rhône grapes, everyone would prosper.  Thus they sold their vines to other wineries in Paso Robles.  If this seems reminiscent of Robert Mondavi and Napa, so be it.

Visiting Tablas Creek has its challenges as well as its rewards.  Paso Robles is pretty far from major airports (three hours south of San Francisco’s) and Tablas Creek is a fairly long drive from downtown Paso.  Driving there along the Adelaida Road (Tablas Creek is in the Adelaida AVA) is very beautiful and there are quite a few excellent wineries along the way, so does it make sense if you only have a little time to visit to go all the way out to Tablas Creek?  In a word, yes.

You never forget while you’re at Tablas Creek that you’re in California, but there is a great deal to remind you of France, beginning with a signpost at the entrance that tells you that the tasting room is nine yards away and that Domaine de Beaucastel is 9009 kilometers.  There are posters and other souvenirs for sale, heralding Perrin’s French labels like La Vieille Ferme, their basic Rhône wines.  That French identity carries over into the Tablas Creek wines, which come close to tasting like actual Rhône wines (as opposed to California Rhône Rangers that taste like California wines made from Rhône grapes).

Photo courtesy of Particularly Nice

The tasting room is Mediterranean-style building and is expansive, while the wooden interior still somehow makes it feel warm and inviting.  They also have a terrace with umbrellaed tables where picnicking is welcome.

If you are not familiar with Rhône-style wines, a visit to Tablas Creek is an education.  Tablas Creek’s wines are perhaps a little more Mourvèdre heavy than in southern France, but the character certainly evokes Châteauneuf de Pape.  That is especially so, in our opinion, for the Esprit de Tablas, which until a few years ago was called Esprit de Beaucastel.  The Panoplie is their highest priced wine, and to us tastes richer and bolder than we have tasted in wines from the Rhône valley; it is more California than France.

Even more evocative of California wine sensibilities are the single grape varietal wines.  If the bottles are open, you can taste grapes you know, like Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir, and many that may be unfamiliar to you, like Counoise, Grenache Blanc, Picardan and Tannat.

Photo courtesy of Tablas Creek Vineyard.

There are stunning views to be had at Tablas Creek, nestled in the foothills of the Santa Lucia mountains.  That, taken together with the French atmosphere and the unique wines, make the long hike to Tablas Creek worthwhile.

Dealing with “Sideways”

If you love going wine tasting, as we quite obviously do, and if you enjoy telling friends about it, you will inevitably be asked whether you have seen the movie Sideways.  Well, yes we have and we liked it quite a bit.  But since the movie may be all your friends know about a wine tasting trip, you owe it to them to point out what is and is not realistic about it.

First, the film gives you the idea that people who visit Wine Country for tasting are jerks and geeks.  (We deny being either.)  In our experience, the jerks are most often people who want to drink rather than taste and have often been previously overserved.  Most wineries are pretty good at dealing with this sort, for their own protection and to preserve the positive experience of other visitors.  As for geeks, these are often normal people who are enthusiastic about one topic – wine tasting, in this instance – and are eager to share it.  As long as they aren’t intimidating wine snobs, they are usually nice to deal with.

Often, people will tell you that they really liked what they saw of Napa Valley in the movie.  However, the wineries and other locations shown in Sideways are from the Central Coast, in and around the town of Los Olivos.  This is a wonderful sector of Wine Country, with Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grown to the west and Syrah to the east.  There are some excellent wineries in the movie such as Fess Parker, Foxen and Firestone, well worth visiting.  But they are hardly representative of California wine tasting as a whole.  In particular, the town of Los Olivos is unique.  It’s a quiet little California village that just happens to have an exceptionally high concentration of tasting rooms along its Grand Avenue.  This is an opportunity for some interesting wine tasting, but this kind of atmosphere usually is found in urban settings, not a small town like Los Olivos.

What we find most evocative in the movie is the passion for wine experienced by its protagonists (well, some of them).  The scene in which Paul Giamatti and Virginia Madsen explain what wine means to them is eloquent and affecting.  Of course, you would be eloquent and affecting too if you had script writers.  All the same, there is a spirit of seeing beautiful scenery, trying fine and not so fine wines and eating Wine Country meals that comes through in Sideways.  That spirit is instantly recognizable to those of us who go wine tasting often.

There is much in the movie that evokes the real experience of wine tasting, despite the characters’ love lives and other shenanigans.  Probably the worst thing in the movie is what it did to Merlot production in California.  The fellow who keeps crying “No more Merlot” is a Pinot Noir lover, fair enough, but he doesn’t really know what merlot tastes like, as shown by the St. Emilion he drinks at McDonalds.  That’s right, it’s made primarily from Merlot grapes.

So when Sideways comes up in conversation – and even thirteen years on from its debut, it will – tell your friends that it’s a fun movie and that some of it actually reflects your own experiences in Wine Country.  Then suggest that they take a wine tasting trip and experience the real thing for themselves.

Cheers !

Editorial: Why Power Tasting Has No Bad Reviews

Each issue of Power Tasting contains a review of the tasting experience at a winery, often in California’s Wine Country but also of wineries we have visited elsewhere around the world.  The review never says, “We had a terrible time.  Don’t go there.”  That’s not because we have never visited a subpar winery.  Rather, it’s our view of service to our readers.  We enjoy suggesting places you might like to visit and take no pleasure in telling you what to avoid.

There are many so-called “magazines” available in Wine Country, that find everything to be wonderful.  Their articles are mostly written by vineyard public relations people and the magazines, if not on the take, are recompensed by advertising dollars.  This is absolutely not the case with Power Tasting.  We take no money or advice from anyone in our appraisals for the tasting experience.  In fact we pay to be members of the wine clubs at several of our favorite wineries.

If you read some of our commentary closely, you’ll see that there are some where the overall experience is commendable but we’re not crazy about the wine.  You may also see that we prefer simple wineries to elaborate Napa Palaces.  But we also recognize that tastes differ and that it would be better to let you discover the occasional winery you’re less than satisfied with, than try to keep you away from having your own wine tasting discoveries.

We always focus on the tasting experience you can have when you visit the wineries we write about, not the wines themselves. But sometimes when we make a wonderful discovery, it’s difficult not to write a little about it.

Going Back, Again

We have in the past offered tips on tasting wines you may never have heard of.  But what about wines, and wineries for that matter, that you know very well?  If there are particular sectors of Wine Country that you visit repeatedly, how do you get the most from revisiting a winery that you have been so many times before?  In fact, why go back at all?

The best answer to these questions is that although you may know a wine well, each year renders a new variation on an old theme.  Even if you are familiar with a producer’s wines, you don’t know these wines.  So just updating your understanding of a favorite winery is reason enough.

But unless there has been a major renovation or a radical departure in winemaking philosophy, the experience at any given winery is and should be the same, time after time.  Have you ever seen a movie more than once?  Re-read a book?  Ordered the same meal at a restaurant?  It isn’t that one time was better than another but each experience was different.  The same applies to wine tasting.

We recently took this concept a bit far.  We had some non-wine related reasons to be in Napa Valley and didn’t have time for serious tasting.  In fact, we barely had time for tasting at all.  But the road home took us past a favorite winery, Etude, so we decided just to stop for a quick visit before going along our way.  We were there for several weekends in a row.  Aside from a slight “you again?” look from the staff, we were warmly welcomed each time.  In fact, we feel as though the welcome was even warmer as the weeks passed.  We were showing them that we really love their wines.

Etude Winery’s tasting room

So if you are going back to a favorite winery, here are a few ideas to make the experience even more worthwhile.

  • Get to know the servers.  If you are going to see Susan or Jeannie or Angel over and over, it’s only polite to learn their names and greet them as people, not just a means to getting wine in your glass.  Any good wine tasting experience should include a sense that your patronage is appreciated; that works both ways.  And there might just be a little something unusual that was left, say, from a trade tasting that you might be invited to try.
  • Don’t bother tasting everything.  It is quite likely that there are one or two wines in particular that bring you back over and over.  Focus on those.  If possible, ask if they have older vintages available so that you can accurately compare the wine you remember with the one that they are now releasing.  In our repeated visits to Etude, Lucie went right for the Heirloom Pinot Noir (their top end) and Steve only sampled the Cabernet Sauvignons.
  • Try something different.  Despite what we just said, it’s worthwhile sipping something you didn’t care that much on previous visits.  Maybe it was just a bad harvest.  It happens.  Or maybe it was what you had for lunch the last time that ruined your palate for a specific wine.  That happens, too.  If you still don’t like it, then your taste buds are confirmed and little is lost.  But if you do enjoy it this time, you’ve expanded your appreciation of this winery’s production.
  • Revisit the wineries where you are a member of their wine club.  In this way, there is no charge for a tasting and they will probably give you refills of your favorite wine (within reason and safety limitations).  You’re not a member?  Then join right on the spot.  If this winery makes wines that bring you back time after time, you will probably enjoy having their wines shipped to your home.  It’s not a lifetime commitment, and you can quit after a few deliveries.  (It’s poor form to quit immediately.)  But we have found that cutting the cord with true favorites is hard to do, and so we remain members.

Revisiting a well-liked winery is sort of like having a favorite pub.  “Welcome back, pal.  What’ll ya have?”

 

 

Visiting Napa/Noma in October

We are returning to the topic of the best time to travel to Napa Valley and Sonoma County, which we consider to be essentially one place called Napa/Noma.  All times of the year are good times, but each month presents its own enticements and occasional challenges.  Previously we have discussed January and April.

As East Coasters and Québécois, we see one of the advantages of autumn to be the extraordinary coloration of the foliage that we are treated to each October.  Until we first visited California Wine Country, it had never occurred to us that the vineyards come alive with color each year as well.  I guess we never took the Turning Leaf brand from Gallo all that seriously.

This photo was taken on St. Helena’s Pritchard Hill, looking towards Lake Hennessy

If you go in the first part of the month, especially the first week, you’ll have the chance to see the last days of the harvest.  As global climate change takes hold, the beginning of the crush is coming earlier and earlier.  It used to start in mid-August but now July harvests of some white grapes is not unheard of.  In October, most of the grapes are in the process of becoming wine, so you’ll have less chance to see them hanging on the vines.  What will be there will be red grapes in the higher elevations and those that are destined to be late harvest dessert wines.  October is, after all, late for a harvest.

All of this is made up by the glorious display of colors in the vineyards.  We’d like to say that the red leaves are Cabernet Sauvignon leaves and the yellow ones are Chardonnay, but that just isn’t so.  As with oak trees and maples, different leaves have their own pigmentation that is overwhelmed by chlorophyll during the spring and summer.  As the chlorophyll fades in fall, these colors come out.  The predominant hues are a golden yellow and orange.  In time, as they dry they become a light brown.  There always seem to be some green leaves that hang on, so it’s quite a palette.

The red leaves you see in the photos accompanying this article are a special case.  As tourists, we love to see them.  Vineyard managers and wine makers aren’t very happy though.  Red leaves are a sign of leaf roll, a virus carried by bugs that live in vineyard soil.  It seems to be an increasing problem, according to some industry publications.  So temper your pleasure at seeing fields of blazing red, as it’s an indication that there may be problems down the road for some of your favorite wines.

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

When you visit wineries in October, and taste at their bars, the staff you encounter would have a right to be a little tetchy.  Harvest season is full of stress in the wine business.  We’re glad to report that we have never encountered anything like that, but we also haven’t seen too many wine makers at that time, either.  One time, however, a wine maker handed us a stick and asked us break the cap on a vat of bubbling grapes, so be prepared!

Since autumn is the harvest season for fruits and vegetables other than grapes, you’ll have the chance for something special in the Napa/Noma restaurants that feature local produce.  Mustards  in Yountville and Dry Creek Kitchen in Healdsburg fall into this category of restaurant, and there are many others.

Days are still warm, although you may want a sweater in the morning and in the evening.  You won’t usually encounter the blazing heat of Napa/Noma’s summers but again with climate change, you can never tell for sure.

Santa Clara Valley

At the southern end of San Francisco Bay there is the town of Santa Clara, which lends its name to the valley that runs south of it to Gilroy (called the “Garlic Capital of the World”), as well as to the AVA for the wines made there.  There are, according to the local wine trade association (http://www.santaclarawines.com/santa-clara-valley.html) twenty-five wineries in the valley, although that’s just the association’s membership, since we know a few that aren’t listed.

The northern end of Santa Clara Valley is better known by another name: Silicon Valley.  The town of Santa Clara abuts San Jose and other famous software producers, like Los Gatos and Sunnyvale.  These places are possible reasons you might be in the area, beyond wine tasting.  It was the case for us; we tacked on some tasting to a business trip.  Silicon Valley, of course, has long shed its agricultural roots but there are a few wineries that could be interesting to visit.  J. Lohr Vineyards (https://www.jlohr.com/) is on a typical urban street in San Jose and has little or no wine country ambiance, but it does have some creditable wines that are often found in wine stores and on restaurant lists.  We have previously written about Testarossa Winery (http://www.testarossa.com/) in Los Gatos, which offers a superb tasting experience and some top-notch Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays as well.  Maybe you can cut your last meeting short and visit these two, although they are quite far apart.

As is the case in much of California’s Wine Country, Route 101 is the main stem through the more southerly and more rural section of Santa Clara Valley.  A half-hour out of San Jose you’ll find a number of wineries to visit.  This is the Morgan Hill district and is the area in Santa Clara Valley with the densest population of wineries.  We’d like to report on some great discoveries, but for the most part we weren’t as impressed with the wineries here as we were with those in the urban areas.  There was at least one that was a gift shop that made wine rather than vice versa, so beware where you go.

Sycamore Creek Vineyards (http://www.sycamorecreekvineyards.com/) offers a very modernistic picnic area, with high metal stools clustered around stone planters with what appear to be olive trees rather than sycamores in the middle.  The winery is a massive industrial building with the barrel room and a metal bar to one side.

Sycamore Creek’s picnic area.  Photo courtesy of Léal Vineyards, Inc.

Kirgin Cellars (http://www.kirigincellars.com/) is California Wine Country the way it used to be…a long, long time ago. They have been making wine since 1916, and it shows.  Their original tasting room is still there and it gives the impression that hobbits must live there.  They also have another, larger tasting room that is actually modern but designed to look as ancient as the original one.  With a wood-burning stove in the middle, it truly reminds you of wine making and tasting in another era.

Kirgin Cellars “new” tasting room

The town of Morgan Hill is where you’ll want to go for lunch.  We learned after we visited that Morgan Hill is heavily populated by Silicon Valley zillionaires and it seems to follow as day follows night that people with money like to dine out.  Monterey Road, not far from Route 101 is chock-a-block full of restaurants, some upscale, some not.  You’ll have quite a few to choose from.

Santa Clara Valley is scenic in much the same way that California Vineyard areas are all scenic.  The hills roll, the roads twist and the vines grow in serried rows up to the horizon.  We wouldn’t call it a destination locale in Wine Country, but if you happen to be in the area, overall it makes for a pleasant tasting experience.

Château Léoville Barton

There’s a lot to be said, both positive and negative, about wine tasting in Bordeaux.  In fact we’ve already said some about the subject.  What makes the snobbishness, the appointments and the limited variety of wines worth putting up with is, well, the wine.  We are not the first to note that Bordeaux produces some of the world’s greatest wines.  If you’re going to make the trip you really ought to taste the best of the best, and Château Léoville Barton (https://www.leoville-barton.com/) certainly falls into that category.

As with everything in Bordeaux, and especially the section north of the city called the Médoc, there’s a lot of history.  Let’s start with the name, Château Léoville Barton.  While there is a beautiful château to see when you visit, it is not properly speaking a château in winemaking terms.  The grapes are actually pressed in the adjoining estate of Langoa Barton.  However, they are blended and aged on the château property.

Photo courtesy of Château Léoville Barton.

You may recognize “Léoville” with names other than Barton after it.  That’s because it was once a huge estate – the largest in Bordeaux, in fact – but was split up.  That’s why you can find Léoville Las Cases and Léoville Poyferré as well.  (An interesting tasting might be the three side-by-side.  We’d love to do that someday.)  The three are in the heart of St. Julien, an appellation known for sunny, approachable but profound wines.  All were named as second growths, or deuxieme crus, in the 1855 ranking.  That doesn’t always mean much today, but it certainly holds up for the Léovilles.

Finally, the name Barton comes from an 18th century Irishman named Thomas Barton who established himself in southern France and bought up some vineyards.  (You may have heard of Barton & Guestier.  Same Barton.)  Power Tasting is all about the wine tasting experience, and when you are in a great Bordeaux château, the history is a part of the experience.

Your tour must be booked in advance and you had better arrive promptly.  You will be met, escorted and explained to by your designated guide.  Ours spoke English, but since Lucie was raised in French and Steve can get along, much of the tour was conducted in a mix of the two languages.  If you have even a little French, you may get better explanations if you use that language.

Much of the tour is of the château itself, which is lovely in the same way that Downton Abbey is lovely.  It is still the Barton family home.  At one point, we were in a corridor with windows facing the gardens.  We saw a man in running clothes jogging by with some hounds.  Our guide exclaimed, “Oh, there goes the count!”

As on most winery tours, you get to see the blending and barrel rooms.  The huge wooden tanks (not stainless steel as in the United States and even much of France) are quite impressive.  Our guide told us that Léoville Barton still holds with tradition.  We think that all that really matters is in the glass, so let both tradition and modernity reign.  Of course, the rows of barrels full of future great wine does raise a thirst.

The tasting itself consists of two wines: Langoa Barton first and then Léoville Barton.  (There is also a Léoville Barton second label, but we don’t remember it being offered.)  Langoa Barton is itself a third growth, so it’s not shabby.  Having the second growth Léoville Barton alongside – both made by the same people from grapes on adjoining ground –  really brings out what makes one wine better, or at least different, from the other.

As we have said before, wine tasting in Bordeaux is snobbish like nowhere else in Wine Country, but it is worth going at least once.  Let’s not forget, they have real châteaux there and they’ve been making great wine a long time before the New World did. You can taste their experience in the glass.  Santé !