Wine-tasting at Chateau La Clotte

The fun really started when Niko arrived. Pierre's tall, striking, and absolutely awesome friend from University in Pau happens to work with a woman who owns Chateau La Clotte. The vineyard is located on un terroir grand in the absolute center of Saint-Emilion, a family-owned joint now run by three female cousins who strive to create the same delicious wines that their grandfather did when he started tending grapes in 1912.


How would we have found this place without Niko, whose family lives just over the hill in a tiny, neighboring hamlet? (And the boy brought me a beautiful, glossy magazine about Aquitaine because he knows I write about travel; what's not to love?!)





After meeting Niko at the Maison du Vin, we strolled (or: limped) along those cobble-stones until the town gave way to vineyards enclosed by ancient, crumbling walls. Just ahead, a stone house framed by purple blossoms. And beyond that, in a hill-side of rock that used to serve as a quarry, the enormous cave for wine storage. How genius. Cart out the rock and store the wine in a natural sort of cave.


The tour was amusing. Especially when the guide started comparing wine-tasting to the seduction of a woman. How French. I was also amused by the photographer from the local newspaper who pursued us with a huge zoom lens and made us feel like paparazzi-hunted celebs as he clicked away. Nice shots I'm sure-- with our noses deep in the wine glasses, nostrils flared.