I feel so guilty that I am abandoning my blog for my indulgence in the wine and cheese of France. Today, however, marking my return to Bordeaux, I thought I’d write a short message to all my dear readers who might wonder where I am and what I am doing. Also, I got a warning from WordPress for not having posted for over a week!

So voila! I am being very well-fed with all the cheeses and wines I’d missed. Every time I come back, there are new types to try, and even if you have done a whole round of over 300 different types, it will seem all new again to start it all over again because you would forget the taste of the previous ones you’ve tasted anyway.

What I have today is fromage de chevre, yes, goat cheese: Charolais (the barrel shape), which is so creamy and fruity that it covers the gum and teeth like the tannin in wine. It definitely needs dry, fruity white wine. Next to it is Persillé de Tignes, which was well-aged, therefore had strong earthy and musty smells and tastes, which is typical of the Rhone Alpes region – so characteristic that you can’t miss it- so it also needs fruity and oaky chardonnay.

To get to the point, which is WINE, I was offered this incredible bottle of red, Chateau Magence from Graves, which just blew me away. Having been aged for 12 years,  the tannin was so smooth and the structure was very well-balanced and elegant with the distinctive flavours of liquorice, pepper and leather. It was one of fine examples of Bordeaux style wine, and I was SO pleased and happy to taste it and tell the difference. Having this wine with magret de carnard, which I was dying for, was a double pleasure.

Every time I am in Bordeaux, it is such an experience to walk into a wine cellar installed almost every apartment buildings and houses and gawk at the collections. I hear stories that people invite people to their house to get rid of the wines from their cellar and give away the bottles. I am always curious what the Bordelaise drink and what they stock up, and it is incredible how much choice they have for wine. Over the next month, my mission is to try as many bottles as I can and find out what the local savvy buyer pick out of the vast number of labels.

I’ve been absorbing so much information about wine everyday that I don’t need to drink after all the talk of wine. Portes Ouvertes en Medoc is on this weekend and I will be tasting lots of wines. After a week of catching up with the French language, cheese and wine, I’m starting to taste systemically and I will start tomorrow with tasting wines by independent winemakers at Bordeaux Magnum. I hope it will be interesting.

I wish I had more time to sit down and organise my photos and write posts, but the reality doesn’t allow me to do so and I don’t have a smartphone or iphone to write instant posts, which many people seem to manage so well thesedays. Anyway, I hope I will have lots to say after this necessary break from my beloved blog……