La vie française: Vinorama!!!

Bordeaux is kind of boring. But, then again, so am I, so I mean that in the nicest way possible. I'm sure that there are cool, hip, nightlife-y things that go on here - there are 4 university campuses (Bordeaux I-IV), and I see a fair amount of French hipsters in the street. But, as far as where any of the happenin' spots are, I don't really know. That's OK, though, because one doesn't come to Bordeaux for nightlife anyway. You come here for the vin...and gosh darn if there isn't a whole heckuvalot of it.

In the nearly 3 weeks that I've been in Bordeaux, I've learned a freakish amount about wine - from the grapes to the table. It truly cannot be avoided. The whole city is really all about vin, vin, VIN! So much so that it prompted one of my classmates to write, in an assignment for practicing le conditionnel, "Si j'étais le maire de Bordeaux, je remplacerais les robinets de l'eau avec les robinets du vin" ("If I were the mayor of Bordeaux, I would replace the water faucets with wine faucets").

During my first week, the school offered a short course on wine tasting, so now I can swirl a wine glass and pretend to sniff a glass of wine with the best of them. Well, more accurately, I can better appreciate why we swirl wine glasses and sniff. One needs a bit more practice (er, years?) to actually do it accurately. Then, there's all the general stuff...like the differences between vins des cépages (wines made with only one type of grape, like a Cabernet Sauvignon or a Merlot) and vins d'assemblage (a mix of different grapes, like the Bordeaux)...then the different types of wine glasses and bottles...and the parts of the glass, etc.

Another fun part of my stay has been my visits to the vignobles (vineyards) that basically surround the whole city and are found throughout the region. Even though the harvests are actually finished now and the vines are bare (they are pruned during the winter months), the vineyards are still an impressive and beautiful site. Not only are there just acres upon acres of vines, but it's also seriously like:

Villager with a little cottage in the country: "Hey! We got some good land along the gardenwalk...let's plant some vines!"

Priest at the little village church: "Hey! There's some space between the church and the cemetery...let's plant some vines!"

Homeless guy in the village: "Hey! I sleep on a little patch of land...let's plant some vines!"

A picture is really necessary to hit this point home, but I think you got the idea.

Not to bore you with the details or anything, but I need to fill you in on some basic wine country facts before I continue! First, you should know that all wines that contain grapes grown in Bordeaux are known as "Bordeaux" wines. However, the Bordeaux wine region is also divided into 57 appellations of wines (e.g. St. Emilion, Médoc, Margaux, etc.) that are subject to even stricter controls and may be of a higher quality as a result. Soooo...long story short, a wine that doesn't meet the strict controls set by the appellation association has to be classified as just a lowly "Bordeaux". This doesn't mean that it's bad or anything...it's just not special enough to have a special name. Also, you may have heard of "wine château". Originally, the châteaux part was exactly that -- the castle/mansion where the vineyard owner lived. Now, the château refers generally to the property that grows the grapes and makes/ages/bottles the wine. Of course, many of them still have the actual château on premises. And, in each appellation area, there is always one big ass commercial winery that collects grapes from anyone who grows grapes (i.e. this is probably where the villager, priest, and homeless dude go to sell their grapes, since they probably don't make their own wine).

Oooookkkkkk....so I've visited two wine appellation areas and 3 châteaux. The first area was St. Emilion, which is actually the name of a village. I visited a DOPE château where the cellars and fermention rooms are actually dug into limestone cliffs. Really neat! The village (a UNESCO World Heritage Site...if that means anything to you) is cool, too...there is an old church/monastery which is also dug into the side of a limestone cliff. The monks did this ages ago to protect themselves from all the wars, invasions, and - eventually - the crazy-ass, church-hatin' villagers during the French Revolution. Very cool.

In the Médoc region, there is something known as the "Road of Châteaux," which is, well, exactly that: a whole heckuvalot of very beautiful châteaux and vineyards spread over a huge region. I kind of fell asleep on the tourbus because there were so many châteaux (plus, the tourguide had a really soporific voice). The two châteaux that I visited here were "airight"...kind of commercial and huge, though. They lacked the charm of a tiny village of St. Emilion. Still, the châteaux had been around for ages, so they were worth visiting.

At the end of each château visit, there was, of course, a dégustation du vin (wine tasting). A fun way to practice my newly-learned wine-appreciatin' skillz! I bought a nice bottle of St. Emilion wine at the St. Emilion château, but it won't be ready to drink until 2016. Ooookkkk...I'll wait for a special occasion, then!

In any case, I've also learned that there is a museum in Bordeaux called (no joke) "Vinorama"! No doubt, it is a reference to the dioramas which make up the museum, but whoever named it may never know how appropriate it really is. Apparently, there are 75 full-size wax figures that help tell the history of WINE! For those who know my fondness for dioramas, this is like a dream. SWEET. I can't wait to go...hopefully this Friday...

J'adore le vin!