Bastille Day in Bordeaux

To bring you up to speed I have been in Bordeaux, France. I have been here for a few days and have had a hard time finding Internet access. I have been staying with a few different young families, in their late 20’s. The first is Lionel and his wife Favie; they have a little girl that is named Maelle. They are very nice and they both know English pretty well. Lionel is in charge of sales at the cooperage and is a partial owner. The next family I stayed with was Damien and his wife Sophie who live in a beautiful old house in Pomerol. It is beautiful country with lower temperatures then Napa or Sonoma, but more humid. Pomerol is located about 30 km outside of the city of Bordeaux itself, however the wine region is still known as Bordeaux. Pomerol is famous for Merlot and Cabernet – some of the best Merlots and Cabernets in the world come from this small town. The people here are all very friendly. The landscape is much flatter than Napa or Sonoma and the vines are all much older. The city of Bordeaux is beautiful and on the 14th we celebrated Bastille Day, the equivalent of our 4th of July, but just 10 days later. Much like the USA they have fireworks and everyone goes out and celebrates. The day of the 14th we went to the beach and during the evening we went to the city of Bordeaux. The day after we had a traditional lunch/brunch; we bought all the cheeses, bread, and meat at the farmers market much like one would see in the movies. From what I understood the town of Libourne has these markets every other day.

I have been to the cooperage and it is not what I expected. I thought that it would be a big factory with many machines and workers. Instead it is a few very old buildings with some equipment and the capacity to produce 20 complete wine barrels a day. They have 3 full- time coopers. It is really an art to creating a hand made wine barrel. The cooperage that I am working for is Tonnenellerie Baron and they have made many innovations in the barrel cooping industry; for example, a wine barrel that you can ferment in and a new way to stack wine barrels. Until I know more I will not go into details, but it is supposed to be easier and produce great results. Until next time,
--Drew