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A First Timer's Take on Les Primeurs de 2013

Tuesday, April 01, 2014

The Union des grands Crus de Bordeaux, basically the big leagues of wine held its first day of Les Primeurs de 2013. In normal people words it is an event debuting the new bottles of Bordeaux wine from 2013. Mathieu and his dad, Jean-Claude (super French right?), work for themselves as Vins Fins Rudelle. I came as their own personal press ;)

Bordeaux, France
I'm not going to talk about the wines themselves, because I mostly just know how to drink them; however if you really want a knowledgable review of the wines this week visit Mathieu's wine blog. I'll be covering the event in itself.
Bordeaux, France
Today we went to the appellations of St. Emilion and Pomerol. The two areas are gorgeous, I mean 100% worth seeing in the summer when the vineyards are in bloom and you have a convertible to cruise around in. The châteaux are gorgeous and the wine is even better, but it will definitely cost you.
Château La Dominique was the first stop. It was PACKED with people from all over the world. The 2013 vintage is too young, so you aren't exactly coming to this event to taste unbelievable wines. This is an invite-only event for business men and women to seek out the vintages they'll sell in the future. They won't even receive it for 2 years after purchase.
Château La Dominique
Château La Dominique
The beautiful château was well set-up inside and the event was extremely organized. They even chose an entire staff of tall, beautiful women and a red carpet to go with it. Ah, gotta love business.
The process works like this: you stop at a table, they pour you a glass, you sniff, you taste, you SPIT, you take notes. Voilà. You most likely won't love it, so you are essentially noting if you hate it. Of course several other factors like smell, taste, tannin, etc. go into it. 
French desserts
My passion is not wine, but eating? This is what I looked forward to. More than anything I looked forward to cheese and dessert. You have to know that at château wine tastings the food is undoubtably going to be good..and it was. The buffet consisted of just about everything I ever wanted.
We ate on a grande terrace and it was a million dollar view (ha! try 20 million). The weather was gorgeous today too so not to brag or anything but it was pretty much awesome. Thank you Union des Grands Crus for the invite.
Château Gazin
Château Gazin
Our second stop was Château Gazin in Pomerol. It was a cute château to visit, and their wine is great, but the very few châteaux offered here were pretty bad. I'm not even a merchant and I was disappointed just about as much as Mat and Jean-Claude. So that's basically all I have to say about that hour of my life.
Château Angelus
Château Angelus
Château Angelus was not even on our list, and we weren't on their's either. Jean-Claude, however, is like the president and just manages to get us in everywhere. So here we were back in St. Emilion tasting 20 more wines. This time, however, they were MUCH better.
Chäteau Angelus
The place itself reminded me of Cos d'Estournel in which I wasn't too much a fan of the exterior as I was of the interior. Both are very beautiful, classy, and extremely modern. For example, to this very second none of us have a clue what the heck this room is..but it's pretty?
I'm sure none of you would have a problem living here either. The family seems pretty nice as well; Mathieu and Jean-Claude talked to the youngest sons/future owners for a while. I'm sure several of my girlfriends what have liked to talk with them as well. We need more girls in the wine world anyway!
Rudelle Vins Fins
Day 1 of the event was overall very nice and I'm lucky to have experienced it. It lasts an entire week, so I highly suggest these people really brush their teeth. After red wine for 5 hours everyone looks a little ridiculous. 



I'm an American girl living in Florida, so why do I write about the South of France? I have my husband, Mathieu to thank for that! (From the name you can assume he is indeed a Frenchman). We've lived in Bordeaux and have also traveled the country together. Our relationship has resulted in more adventures and cultural experiences than I had ever dreamed of. Thus my inspiration for showing others what France and its surrounding countries have to offer.

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5 comments

  1. miss bWednesday, April 02, 2014

    Firstly, thank you for your lovely comment and now I have found your lovely blog! (I'm subscribing by email!) I've been reading your earlier posts and many of the places you mention are so familiar as I lived just north of Bordeaux in Saintes for a year, many years ago and I have since returned a number of times. St Emilion and the surrounding area is a favourite of mine. I enjoyed your tour and those desserts loook delicious.

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    1. UnknownThursday, April 03, 2014

      You're welcome :) Great to hear you're subscribing! I'm glad I can bring back some memories for you with familiar places. I've never been to Saintes before, but I agree St. Emilion is just flat out awesome. It's so quaint and photogenic in the little village as well. I look forward to reading more of your blogs I'm glad to have discovered it! P.S. your scarves are great

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  2. Den nationThursday, April 03, 2014

    This post reminds me that I bought some wine en primeur a few years ago that I forgot all about. I better go and pick up my wine!

    Just wondering, did you try the carbonara dish with parmesan cheese yet?

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    1. UnknownThursday, April 03, 2014

      Haha! Yea you might want to get on that asap!! That's something I would never want to miss out on. And yes I did try it actually. Thanks for the tip it was super yummy. It's more along the lines of the carbonara I had in Italy.

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    2. Den nationFriday, April 04, 2014

      Yes! I'm glad you liked it. I find that with parmesan cheese you don't need to add salt at all as it's a salty cheese and has so much more flavour than emmental, which I also used to use as a topping on my pasta.

      I'm so jealous that you went to Château Angélus!

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