September | 2019 | Georgia Rambler

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# Monthly Archives: September 2019

Castle de Cazeneuve, La Tour Blanche Wine School, Sauternes Wines

# A King’s castle and a wine school near Bordeaux

September 16, 2019 1954 Leave a comment

After a relaxing Sunday, the activity level on Monday increased mightily. The senior Rambler remained on board, because he thought, rightly, that almost all today’s touring would be wine related. I however, joined up with our South African friends for what would turn out to be a very interesting day. We boarded our busses at 9 AM and were not scheduled to return until 3 PM. Meanwhile the River Royale was docked in the small town of Cadillac for those who didn’t want to join the day’s excursion. Oddly enough, although every cruise line which has a Bordeaux itinerary(and most do) touts it as being a wine cruise, many on board didn’t seem to enjoy wine. I guess they just wanted to tour this part of France from the river. I noticed that many either didn’t take a glass, poured out their sample or left it mostly untouched, after a sip. Perhaps this was a good thing,

Our first tasting at La Tour Blanche, our group wasn’t too sure what to make of the sweet , golden Sauternes. I think they were expecting a red Bordeaux.

While discussing our experiences in Bordeaux with our travel agent, Michelle, she told me of a Bordeaux cruise she had taken with a different company in her capacity as a travel agent. On this cruise, a number of senior citizen passengers who were part of a tasting group really took advantage of free pours. At one stop, they kept asking for more, and the sommelier continued to pour until several got very drunk and started to argue with each other. She and the other travel agents managed to pry the combatants away from the winery and hustle them back on the bus. How embarrassing it must have been the others. Fortunately, no one in our group ever asked for more, and all behaved in a civilized manner. Obviously you don’t have control over the assortment of people on your cruise, but most times they are a civilized group.

Everywhere you travel through the countryside, you will see rows and rows of grapevines, often with a large chateau in the background.

Today, we would not travel a great distance from Cadillac by bus. Most of our journey was on narrow country roads that wound through small villages and the vineyards of many grand chateaus. Thus our bus did not travel very fast. Our first stop was alongside rows of grapevines with an impressive chateau in the background. There, those who wanted, could disembark and wander through the rows of vines and admire the beautiful clusters of grapes, not quite ready for the harvest. It was a beautiful morning and the dew was still on the vines so almost everyone took advantage of this opportunity.

The logo of the Chateau.

Our first official stop, however, was the Chateau La Tour Blanche, both a wine producing estate and a wine school. The Chateau of the White Tower vineyards were planted in the 18th century and were ranked Premier Cru or first growth, in the Official Classification of Bordeaux wines in 1855. When the last owner, Daniel Iffla, died without heirs in 1907, he left the Chateau to the French State with one condition, a practical, free wine school must be created on the site. By 1911, an agricultural college for the training of future vintners had been established and is still in operation today. We got to meet many of the students on our tour of the winery and learned about how the Premier Cru Sauternes was changed from grapes to a delicious wine. La Tour Blanche is more a wine school than an historic site, only the Tower (Tour) remains of the Chateau.

Then we moved to the tasting room where we got to taste the four varieties they produce, including the Premier Cru which in 2018 sold for 49 Euros a bottle at the winery. This Rambler enjoyed the Sauternes with its floral and fruity aroma and sweet but not cloying taste. I am not sure everyone else did. Obviously the tasting was not free, but all these charges were taken care of by Uniworld as part of our cruise.

Our sommelier certainly enjoyed her work, handing out tasty samples of La Tour Blanche wine, however some of our group seemed a little doubtful about the experience.

We then boarded our bus, traveling through the Gironde , justly famous for its Sauternes, back towards our ship docked on the Garonne. Our second destination was the Royal Castle of Cazeneuve which was first built in the 11th century, although there is little showing of the original structure as it was much expanded during the last 500 plus years. The castle eventually became the residence of Henri IV of France and his Queen Margot in 1572. Today it is owned by their descendants, the Ducal family of de Sabran-Ponteves who still live there.That is probably why it is open everyday only during the summer months, and closed during the winter. We were to have a guided tour of the castle first and then a “rustic lunch” in one of the castle rooms.

The approach to the castle was impressive, of course, in ancient times it would have had no trees around which would have provided cover for an advancing enemy.

These historic buildings are expensive to keep up, but the ducal family obviously has some business skills. The castle looks in good shape for a building over 500 years old. They also have a winery somewhere nearby, although Cazeneuve wines were not served at our lunch. I later learned that photos were forbidden inside the castle but no one said anything about this on the tour so the interior photos are mine. Oops! If I had known, I would only have photographed the exterior.

This Rambler is not a fan of touring castles because of her fear of falling, but Cazeneuve was a fairly easy one. Most of the rooms we toured were on one level and the stairs were do-able tho without railings. The chateau is not fully restored and on our tour we glimpsed somewhat hidden passages.

Here is the photo from the Cazeneuve website, which gives you a great view of the Chateau, and the surrounding moat. It is dry today but you still cross over it to enter the Chateau Courtyard. Here we waited for our tour and our lunch. The surrounding woods have been cultivated for centuries. It also provides portraits of Henri and Margot.

Cazeneuve was once owned by Henri IV, the King of Navarre, who was crowned King of France in 1572, when he agreed to convert to Catholicism, famously saying, “Paris is worth a Mass!” At the time, he was married to Marguerite of France, the daughter of King Henri II. Margot left her mark on the castle, as she was reported to have crept out of the castle through a secret passage to meet her admirers in a nearby woods, still known as Queen Margot’s woods. This passage has been closed off, and thus is off limits to tourists.

Although not exactly a secret passage, there are
obviously halls within the wall of the Chateau
which were off limits to tours.

The Sabran- Ponteves family were obviously savers, and each room contains furnishings from bygone periods along with many family portraits. It is an antique lover’s delight! As I am more interested in the history and the portraits I won’t include any description of the furniture. The portraits are small as the nobility carried their pictures with them when they changed residences but you can detect a family resemblance in some.

The picture on the right shows a hallway that intrigued me, our guide told us that it led to another passage between the rooms and walls. of course we visited the monarchs’ bedrooms, suitably ornate, the dining room , the armory, and the chapel. Surprisingly the Cazeneuve site doesn’t mention the chapel, as it was an important part of a castle in the 16th century, Of course they would have had a resident chaplain as well. The family may still have a chaplain though I doubt it in these secular times. It seemed to be well kept and probably is still used for baptisms and weddings.

The castle chapel was fairly large, and was probably in daily use before the French Revolution in 1789.

After our tour, we were sent out to the courtyard to wait until our lunch was ready to be served. It was a pleasantly warm afternoon, tho slightly overcast, so we wandered around until it was time for lunch. It was only the second day of our cruise so we didn’t know each other very well yet, however I enjoyed the company of the South African travel agents we had met yesterday as the Senior Rambler decided to stay on board the River Royale. He is not a huge fan of French cooking and doesn’t drink. So, you ask, why did you choose this cruise? Good question. We had never been to Bordeaux and afterwards we would travel to Budapest for a cruise through Eastern Europe which was more to his liking. This Rambler does enjoy wine and French cooking and the lunch was a treat. The table setting was beautiful, the windows open to a breeze from outside. The lack of screens and bugs in European rooms always has amazed us but no flies came to bother us. We enjoyed our three course lunch,and the three Sauternes that accompanied them. However, again we noticed that several tables refused the wine that was offered, almost a sacrilege in France. LOL

Awaiting our first course of smoked salmon and the accompanying Sauternes. I was not the only one who took pictures of the beautifully set table.

Pleasantly replete, we again boarded our Uniworld bus for a relatively short ride back to our boat. Since the Garonne is a tidal river, the River Royale had to leave promptly at 3:30 so that they could sail under the lowest bridge, impassable at high tide. On to Medoc the next day.

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