Oh lala, Bordeaux Wine

Last month I was invited to fly to Bordeaux for a weekend to eat delicious food and drink all those amazing wines from the Bordeaux region. The dream trip. I love food and wine... and escaping to a warm place was just the best thing to do in September. 

It all started with a group of influencers, a VW vintage Bully and a super cute small villa in Arcachon.  I was the designated driver, and my passengers were @Frances, @oh_wunderbar, @marrykotter, and my bestie: @travelettes's Katja. We used the hashtag #ohlalabordeaux during the trip, so our Instagram followers would see everything we were doing. 

We arrived at the house and were greeted with Château Favory bubbles and finger food that we enjoyed on the porch talking about our itinerary. The first stop was the famous restaurant La Co(o)rniche that stands high up a mountain and lets you see the beautiful sunset while dining on their terrace.

We talked a lot about wines and women in the wine world. While I was enjoying the marvelous tuna tataki, I got to learn so many things about Bordeaux Wines.  They help and support vineyards owned by women as they bring some new things to the table. This made me extremely happy as  Calon Segur makes one of my favorite wines. Calon Segur is from Bordeaux and owned by a woman. We were sipping Le G from Château Guiraud. when my big mouth-watering Entrêcote came to the table.

Tuna Tataki

Le G

Entrëcote... Give me that Beef!

A beautiful evening in a wonderful location, enjoying delicious food and wine. We went back home and slept some, as the next day was going to be packed, starting with a trip to the Atlantic Ocean.

This wooden beauty was waiting for us in Cap Ferret. The boat came with a skipper, So I could enjoy all the wine ;) I needed some wine as I had huge parking problem as I didn't notice the Bully was over 2 meters. Thank god for all the "patient" Frenchmen that allowed me to drive backwards from a garage house on a one-way street... eiiiither waaay, back to the trip!

We did a tour, starting with some food at Le Monte à Bord where we had fresh and awesome seafood with pate and bread. Yes! is the only things they served. We washed it down with some cold and refreshing Bordeaux White Wines. This charming restaurant is directly on the beach and owned by 2 generations of super handsome men. Did I  mention the Oysters??? I think I almost ate them all! (Sorry Girls)

After food and drinks, we jumped back to our little boat and headed to see the Europes biggest dune: Dune du Pilat. And we did some sunbathing and had some nice rosé wines while the girls had some Canelés.. sadly still no Gluten Free version of those.

After all that fun, and some shopping in Arcachon, we went home got a shower an drove to our next dinner. It was again on the beach, Pereire. But actually, we were going to dine with our feet on the sand! We arrived just on time to see the sunset while having some delicious white and rosés at Club Plage Pereire.

With Frances...She poses better than I will ever do :)

Dining with our toes in the sand.

It got pretty fast very dark, So excuse me for not making any more pictures... And after all, enjoying the breeze while having wine and steak tartare and talking with the girls was a bit funnier than trying to get a picture of the plates.

Dark but delicious dinner

My favorite white of the evening.

After the dinner and spending all day on the sea, we drove straight back home and couldn't wait until next day... something about a tree, picnic, and wine...

We arrived at Château de Cerons after a very "curvy" way... French people like those roundabouts... but when you are driving a vintage car, it's workout.

What a beautiful place! Château de Cérons is a magnificent 17th-century manor house surrounded by vines, as well as the old barrel cellar and new winemaking facility. During the tour, I learned that they are testing on something I saw in a visit to Bornholm. As Bornholms-ismejeri is using algae to substitute egg, Château de Cerons is trying to replace eggs for algae during the clarification process and removing tannins. Isn't that incredible?

When the sun cleared out, we had a small "picnic" on their gardens. We ate foie gras, duck pâté, black olive “tapenade” and cheese (loads of amazing cheese) and of course got to taste 3 of their best wines as well.

​Funny fact, the owners of the vineyard, were friend of my neighbors in Oslo... it seem all those Pascal I met in Oslo knew this great hosts!

But even good things have to come to an end, we jumped on the Bully (called Jean Pierre) and drove to the next exciting experience: Wine tasting on a tree!

In Château Rayne Vigneau, a first-class vineyard in Sauternes, you can taste wine in an unexpected and at the same time adventurous way in a 200 years old and 4 floors high cedar tree. But do not worry, you do not have to single-handedly climb the trunk. At least that is what we heard... But our image of being lifted up to a tree to taste some wine was sooooo far away from reality. 

You actually have to climb all the way up.  Sadly we were not really dressed for the occasion: sandals and dresses instead of sneakers and jeans. We all tried. We lost 4 women on our journey and I was the only one that actually made it to the top.

​For sure, it is a little workout for the limbs, but the slight tremor in the legs is blown away, with the first sip of wine. Once I got to the treetop, a fine Sauternes, the famous sweet wine from Bordeaux, was waiting for me. Sorry, I lost the girls, but hey! I got to enjoy a private testing with Vincent while looking at the Château and the unique view of the surrounding vineyards.  I was the 301st person to Climb Arséne, the tree.

We went for a shower and I needed some band aids for all the climbing blisters. We jumped back in Jean Pierre and drove all the way to Château Bessan where you can find La Cabane dans les Vignes. A beautiful location for our last night. It is a small wooden cottage in the middle of the vineyard.

We arrived just in time to see our third and last sunset in Bordeaux. We enjoyed the sun while drinking diverse wines and bubbles. We had some finger food until it was dark. 

They prepared a candlelight dinner for us and we ended up talking for hours about wine and Bordeaux. Did I mention they showed us the coolest video ever??? Mathieu actually took his friends and they all got to surf the river while drinking their new wine called Mascaret (The Wave) Watch the video here.

Thanks, Bordeaux Weine for such an incredible weekend, full of new experiences. Made some new friends, drunk a lot of delicious wine, got to eat a lot of amazing food, drove a vintage VW Bully... climbed a tree, made an awesome "flying" picture... What a great experience! Thanks again!

If you missed the stories I made during the trip, just go to my instagram (follow me if you don't) and check on my saved stories under the name #ohlalabordeaux.