During our trip to France a couple of weeks ago with Christopher's parents, we stayed a few days in Bordeaux and visited something like ten wineries (although who really knows? I lost count after the third tasting…) While the wine was delicious, my favorite part about each visit was learning more about it.
So, I thought I'd share some of my favorite takeaways (I wrote them down during the tours so I wouldn't forget because, you know… wine.)
1. The barrels are everything.
All of the barrels we saw in Bordeaux were made from French oak that comes directly from a nearby forest. The average age of each tree used is 200 years old. One barrel costs around $600 to make--they're the biggest expense for the chateau each year. They only use them for two to three years, and then sell them at a super-reduced rate to other companies like whiskey producers. Makes you appreciate that "oaky" taste even more, huh?
2. Winemakers are messy… but creative.
Many of the barrels we saw were red in the middle, and it turns out it's because they paint them with wine to mask the spills they make when topping up (the process of adding more wine to the barrel to prevent oxidation). Eighty-nine percent of Bordeaux wine is red, and with 300 bottles in each barrel, there are bound to be some colorful spills.
3. The winemakers are at the mercy of the weather.
2013 was a bad, bad year for Bordeaux wines due to constant rain and hail storms--the worst conditions in over two decades, apparently. The winemakers in Bordeaux want to produce only the highest quality wine, even if that means they have to throw out 60 percent of their harvest. Unfortunately that means that some of them went out of business in 2013 because of Mother Nature.
