France Trip Day 6: Double Wine-Tasting

Tuesday, June 13: Morning Sail, Château Fombrauge, Saint-Emilion

The boat didn't depart from Blaye until after breakfast, so I had the opportunity for an early morning stroll into the quiet town along with roof deck yoga as part of my workout.

We spent another relaxing morning of sailing and hanging out in the lounge before lunch and the 2pm departure for our excursion to the Saint-Emilion region. Our first stop was a tour and tasting at Château Fombrauge, a winery with a history dating back to the end of the 16h century, where we purchased two bottles of wine.

The next part of the excursion was a walking tour of Saint-Emilion. Mr. E and I had done something similar during our previous trip to Bordeaux and weren't really interested in repeating the experience, especially given the warm and sunny weather. So the three of us opted for the alternative, which was a train ride that took us around and through the surrounding vineyards. 

We decided to pay for the optional stop at Château Rochebelle for another tour and tasting since we had nearly two hours to spend during this visit. Brilliant idea! There were only two other people for the tour, so we got an up close and personal look at this historic property that is still family owned and operated. The ground in this region allows for underground caves, and the winery stores 20+ years of its vintages in the natural formations, only labeling enough bottles for retail sales on site or when they receive an order.

As we were looking at the wines in the shop, I noticed that they had two 10-year verticals for sale, both encased in beautiful wooden boxes, including this amazing coffre for the 1995-2004 selection.

We decided to indulge and purchase this vertical, despite learning that the box would not be included because of prohibitive shipping and packing arrangements. The international shipping flat rate was almost half of the cost of the wine itself (not surprising), especially once the 20% discount was factored into the price of the wine thanks to our not needing to pay the customary taxes. We'll have to wait until the end of September for our new wine to arrive to make sure weather and transport conditions are suitable, but I'm sure it will be worth the wait for such a special collection!

Mr. E and I had about 30 minutes left to wander into the cobbled streets of Saint-Emilion once our train tour brought us back to the starting point, and we found some great placemats as souvenirs at a shop that only sells items made in France.

Back to the boat with time to refresh and start to pack a bit before the "Gala dinner" to mark the end of the voyage. The weather was a mix of sun and rain showers, giving us a beautiful full rainbow in celebration of the wonderful trip!

(and no, as we learned very early in the journey, the water is not dirty or polluted -- it just has a lot of silt that gets stirred up from the high and active tidal activity due to its proximity to the Atlantic Ocean)

The boat sailed to Bourg during the evening entertainment, which Mr. E and his mom enjoyed for a bit. Only one more day on the river!