Bordeaux - Monday AM Tasting Chateau Carbinoux

Peter & Patricia in the courtyard at Chateau Carbinoux

8:45 AM and the bus picks us up for the tasting. We are traveling with a group from the San Francisco chapter of the Commanderie de Bordeaux, who have organized the trip.  What a fabulous job by Kent and Chuck.  This is a very old Chateau, in fact, one that Thomas Jefferson visited on the 25th of May in 1787.  That Chateau is in an old Benedictine Abbey built in the 13th Century...800 years ago. Owned by the Perrin family, the Chateau makes both a red and a white wine.  But it also has an interesting, if small car collection. The vineyard is in the Pessac-Leognan appellation. I think their white wine is better than the red.  White wine is 64% Sauvignon Blanc and 35% Semillon. Red wine is 60% Cabernet Sauvignon and 40% Merlot.  The vines are planted 7200 plants per hectare which equals 2914 plants per acre. Our most dense planting in Napa is about only 1210 plants per acre. A very big difference that causes a very different type of machinery to work the vineyards. Our tasting consisted of a 2009 White Wine and their 2008 red.  The white was very nice the red, undistinguished.

A small collection of old French automobiles

 The group with whom we are traveling

The Chai and Chateau Carbinoux

The Start of the Bordeaux Research Trip

Sunday Morning - Amsterdam
Sitting in Schipol Airport in Amsterdam. Schipol seems huge, but it is only Europe's 5th largest and the world's 20th largest airport, measured by passenger traffic. Its airport tower was the highest in the world (391ft) when constructed in 1991.  However, its most interesting fact is that it is all below sea level. While the average level of the runways is a bit less than 10 feet below, the lowest point on the runways is more than 11 feet below sea level. The airport is loaded with shopping, has a casino and a modern art gallery. It even has its own mortuary and in 2010 became the first major airport in the world to have its own permanent library.

So,  here we are for 3 hours waiting for our flight to Bordeaux.

But this Blog is supposed to be about food and wine.

When is Delta Airlines ever going to figure it out. They offered 4 wines on the flight over, picked by their "Sommelier." Take the person's license or certificate away.  The Pouille Fussee Chardonay was too old although a 2009.  It was golden color probably because of poor storage and all ready starting to maderize. The alternative white was  "an Argentinian White" which tasted like a mixture of a poor Chenin Blanc and cat pee. A total put-off.
Ok so maybe the reds would have some redeeming value.  Take your choice of a 2009 Argentinian Malbec that was so purple it looked like it was bottled yesterday or a Pinot. The Malbec never saw a hint of oak and would not have stood a chance in a blind tasting against "two buck chuck."  OK, so there is one wine on the list that has to be respectable.  A Robert Mondavi, Carneros, Pinot Noir. While I hate to start on a negative note, it was also a grand disappointment, but what do you expect. Thin, watery and character less.  No nose and no finish. But... This is an airline and notwithstanding a business class ticket costing thousands of dollars why should I expect a decent wine. I guess that is what monopolies(or at least oligopolies) get you.

Speaking of monopolies and airlines.  Has it occurred to you lately how little progress we have made in commercial flying in the last 50 years?  My first commercial flight, just after I got out of college in 1963 was aboard an Eastern Airlines Boeing 727, from Minneapolis to Chicago. The food was better, the seats were bigger, the flights were seldom jammed to the rafters, the service extraordinarily better,  and it went just as fast, that's right, just as fast, as the best planes of today. .8 Mach.   I keep waiting for Sir Richard Branson and Steve Jobs to form a partnership to figure out how to improve travel. Maybe we also need the Tesla guys in the mix. It is a cinch that the CEOS of Delta, United and American will never get there.  We need visionaries, not accountants running our airlines if they are ever likely to improve at all.

On to Bordeaux where we will find centuries of tradition, explore the new techniques and sample some of the best wine and food in the world. Join Us. And feel free to leave a comment.

The Shopping Arcade awaits.
Cheers
Peter Kitchak