Tonnellerie Millet is an artisan family run barrel maker not far from Saint Emilion that supplies many of the top wine properties in Bordeaux and further afield as far as California and Spain to name a few.

The owner Dominique is kind enough to open this doors to visitors to explain the passion that goes into producing barrels in close collaboration with wine makers giving the aromatic complexity they are looking for from their use of oak.

One address I did not spot in his warehouse of barrels awaiting shipment Mauritius. So imagine my surprise when, on a tour of the Chamarel Rhumerie high on the hills in the South West of Mauritius over looking the Indian Ocean, I found rum aging in Millet barrels.


Millet barrels in the Chamarel cellars

Opened in 2008 the eco friendly Chamarel Rhumerie (French Spelling) uses Millet barrels for aging it’s ‘Coeur de Chauffe’ Rum Agricole for 18months and for 3 years giving it’s ‘Gold Rum’. The first production of the 3 year old barrel aged Gold Rum will be released onto the market at the end of this month.

Similarly to wine barrel aging of rum adds vanilla and spicy flavours and the slow oxygenation and exchange of tannins adds body, the golden colour also comes from the barrel as opposed to some rums where the colour comes from the addition of caramel.


The beautiful Chamarel Valley

Bordeaux is a pretty romantic place, see Get Wed with Wine , and Saint Valentine’s day would be the perfect time to find out. There are no end of wonderful restaurants and romantic hotels to choose from in the region, however you could celebrate with your loved one in the romantic setting of a Bordeaux Chateau. Two properties from opposite banks are opening their doors for an intimate evening on the 14th of February.

Jérôme Cadillat, the chef at Château Troplong Mondot, classified growth of Saint Emilion is offering a fireside dinner menu accompanied by champagne and amour de Mondot - a special bottling of the second wine of the property for the occasion. You can prolong the romantic atmosphere by staying over in one of their lovely guest rooms or cottage in the vines.


The Cottage in the vines of Chateau Troplong Mondot

On the left bank Chateau Haut Bailly, whose wonderful dining room is usually only available for private groups is opening up with tables of 2 dotted through the beautiful salons of the Chateau. Their innovative Chef, Tanguy Laviale, has created a 5 course menu accompanied by champagne and 3 different wines from this Classified growth of Pessac-Leognan.


The beautiful Chateau Haut Bailly

If you cannot make it over here, you could always order a bottle of the most romantic Bordeaux wine : Chateau Calon Segur. This 3rd growth of Saint Estephe will probably be flying of the shelves in the run up to the big night. The heart on the label makes it easily recognisable, created by the property’s owner the Marquis de Segur, who, despite owing Chateau Latour and Chateau Lafite at the time always said his heart lay with Calon Segur and drew a heart around the name just to prove it.

The average size of a wine property in Bordeaux is 14ha, this is a dramatic and realtively recent evolution. In the 60’s the average size was only 3ha and there were over 45 000 producers compared to ‘only’ 8 700 today. On the right bank however the properties have remained smaller, around 6ha in Saint Emilion and Pomerol on average. There are some notable exceptions to this rule, not least amongst the top properties. First classified growths such as Chateau Canon with 22ha, Chateau Troplong-Mondot at 33 ha, Chateau Cheval Blanc at 37 ha and the largest Chateau Figeac with 40ha under vines and a further generous 14ha in parkland, buck this trend. Classififed growth Chateau Soutard is amongst this group with 22ha under vines unchanged around the 18th century chateau for the last 100 years. The monumental Chateau is one of the largest buildings at the heart of a Saint Emilion property with 30 000 sq ft of roofing.



Under ownership of the de Ligneris family since the early since 1900’s the property was sold to La Mondiale insurance company in 2006. La Mondiale already knows a thing or two about St Emilion owning the neighbouring classified growth Château Larmande for the last 20 years, Grand Cru Château Grand Faurie La Rose and, the most recent addition to the team, Château Cadet-Piola. In total, the company owns almost 55 hectares of vines in the classic terroir of the limestone and clay plateau and extending throughout the clay, limestone and sandy slopes at the very heart of Saint-Émilion.
Claire Thomas-Chenard manages all four properties, assisited by cellar master Véronique Corporandy, and she has overseen the two year renovation of Chateau Soutard. The 2011 harvest was the second crop to enter the new cellars and they are spectacular - showing that some things are just worth waiting for. An elegant marriage of steel and oak in both the decor and the fermentation vats (50/50 stainless and oak small vats) the classic varietal blend of 70% Merlot and 30% Cabernet Franc enter into the cold storage rooms before being transferred to the vats, allowing not just temperature control of the must but an even flow management of the process. Even the remontage of the cellars is automatied allowing Claire to keep a close on all four cellars simultaneously during the busy harvest period.




It is not just in wine making where they are reaping the rewards of their investment. Chateau Soutard won the 2012 Best of Wine Tourism award for parks and gardens offering a unique way of discovering the property. As well as visiting the cellars and tasting the wine the gardens and vineyards allow visitors, map in hand to discover the different themes, from the natural approach to cultivation of the vines, to a childrens tour or a romantic moonlit visit. The boutique is open to the public, not just to sell wines, there is a large range of books and momentos including a children's corner. If you would like to taste, pull up a chair on the terrace to taste their wines with some local cured ham or buy and bottle and borrow a picnic hamper to go and picnic in the grounds.
If you fancy more formal dining book ahead for a private lunch, dinner or cooking class and then cycle off lunch by pedalling through the four propeties and you can even stay the night at one of the guests rooms at Château Grand Faurie la Rose to sleep it all off.

Fine food and wine is a great way for cultures to come together, even better if it’s in a good cause.

www.sources-caudalie.com new=true]Les Sources de Caudalie[/url] will host a 4 star dinner on 11th December, that is four one star chefs sharing their talents, to raise money for Japan. Bordeaux has it's fair share of Michelin stars now, one of whom, Nicolas Masse, of la Grand Vigne at Les Sources de Caudalie, will welcome Keisuke Matsushima the inspiration behind this event, who holds a Michelin star for his restaurants in both Tokyo and Nice, and his neighbours Pascal Nibaudeau from Le Pressoir d’Argent in Bordeaux and Christophe Giradot from La Table de Montesquieu in the neighbouring village of La Brede. Together on the 11th December they will offer a food and wine dinner where the proceeds will benefit the victims of the Japanese tsunami.

Each chef will produce a course combining the best of France and Japan accompanied by wines from Chateau Smith Haut Lafitte, of course, but also Laurent Perrier and Château Gazin. Book now to avoid disapointment.


La Grande Vigne Restaurant

Although Bordeaux sales in Holland have been decreasing over the last decade it remains the 9th biggest export market for Bordeaux wines in volume.
Traditionally a major market for Bordeaux wines, the links date back to the 17th century. The Dutch being an important seafaring nation (think Dutch East India Company) their ships would often call into the Port of Bordeaux, France's largest port at the time, delivering goods from their colonies but also picking up the lighter more acidic red wines for the sailors as, at that time, it was safer to drink a lightly alcoholic wine on a long sea trip than water which would soon become unsafe to drink.
They also bought up white wine, not for drinking but for distillation, to make their famous spirits, and they were a major influence on the growth of white wine production in the Bordeaux region.
We can thanks the Dutch for introducing the use of sulphur dioxide to Bordeaux, transforming the production from a wine whose acidity was the only way it could be preserved to the more sophisticated barrel aged 'New French Claret' pioneered by the Graves region and snapped up at a premium by the English market.

As if these links were not strong enough Dutch engineers were invited over to drain the Médoc in the 17th century also resulting in the development of the peninsula for the great wines produced there today - the Bordelais have a lot to thank the Dutch for.

But it is not really all about wine in Amsterdam. Traditional and locally produced spirits and beer dominate the market and the price point for wines is low and very competitive. Bordeaux organised an event for the restaurant trade and sommeliers to present the diversity of the ‘Everyday Bordeaux’ selection at the hip restaurant Lute on the outskirts of Amsterdam.



Even the cocktail served was from Bordeaux called ‘Passion Bordeaux’ - let’s hope we reignited their traditional passion for Bordeaux.

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