Women in Wine by Catherine Cooper

I joined a “Women in Wine” course – for women and about women wine-makers throughout the Bordeaux region. Our group of twelve was varied – ranging in age from late 20s to mid 60s and including a doctor, banker, stay-at-home mum and marketer, but most of us had in common was that we liked wine, but didn’t know too much about it.

So why Women in Wine? L’Ecole de Vin’s Wendy Narby, who cheerfully led our group and very patiently fielded our questions (“How many appellations?” ”What’s a Grand Cru again?”) all weekend says: “Wine-making is traditionally male-dominated and we wanted to show that women are now doing some amazing things in the trade. As for just women on the course – women generally just want to learn a little and drink some nice wines - men are sometimes more interested in showing off their knowledge. 70% of wine in the UK is bought by women – they want to know what they are buying.”

Following a lunchtime flight from to Bordeaux, we were driven to Chateau du Seuil, a smallish but perfectly formed 18th Century property owned by Welsh-born Nikki Allison, an ex-GP and her family. There we were met by Ecole du Vin’s Wendy, a very glam English woman who has lived in France with her wine-making husband for many years and really seemed to know everything there is to know about Bordeaux wine (and believe me, there is a lot.)

Wendy gave us a short introductory presentation about the various areas of Bordeaux and about how the soil and conditions (“terroir”) affect which sort of wine comes from which area. We learnt about the very complicated appellation system used to classify the different wines and its history.

We learnt that almost all Bordeaux wines are blends of different types of grapes and 89% of wine grown in Bordeaux is red. While we listened, we drank some very lovely rosé wine made at the chateau (and also learned how rosé wine is made.) Nikki then showed us her vats and barrels and we tasted wine at the various stages of its production, before having a fantastic dinner and tasting the wines made at chateau.

Next morning we left the hotel at 8 a.m. to head further south to an open air market at Bazas where we met chef Annick who would be cooking us lunch later that day. Annick took us around the various stalls piled with beautiful-looking vegetables, fresh meat and fish, cheese and huge bags of fresh herbs to show us where she bought the ingredients we would be helping her to cook with later.

After a quick look round we left for the Sauternes region where we met Laure de Lambert des Granges-Compeyrot at Chateau Sigelas Rabaud where she was growing grapes to make the sweet wine typical of the region. Grapes destined for this type of wine don’t look like the grapes you’d see in a supermarket advert – to make Sauterne grapes have to be afflicted with “noble rot” – which makes them look more like raisins but gives them an incredible sweetness. Laure talked us through the making of Sauterne which is more labour-intensive than traditional wine - because the grapes have to be picked at exactly the right stage of noble-rottenness, they have to be picked by hand and cannot all be harvested at the same time. Some years they may have to harvest up to seven times.

After a quick tasting it was on to the nearby Prairies Estate where we all donned white aprons and helped Annick with chopping and stirring to create a cep omelette to eat alongside homemade soup, salad, a tart and some more fantastic wines.

Next we were off to the mediaeval town St Emilion with vertiginous cobbled streets and an underground church carved out of limestone rock. There was time for a bit of shopping before heading to Chateau Franc Mayne, a “St Emilion Grand Cru” chateau owned and run by Griet Laviale who also employs a young, female chief wine-maker, Laurence Ters.

Chateau Franc Hayne has been lovingly renovated by Madame Laviale and her family since they bought the property in 2003 and now has nine guest bedrooms, a self-cleaning natural swimming pool complete with jacuzzis in the rocks and a glitzy boutique hotel-feel to it. Wine-making is state-of-the-art here with machines which pre-sort the grapes by measuring their sugar content before they go to be hand-sorted and temperature in all the vats controlled by a central computer. Once the wine is in the barrels, however, they are stored in an amazing underground quarry along which, in days of yore, you could have walked for 150km underground. I only managed about 20 metres before feeling claustrophobic and having to come up for air.

After another fantastic dinner in incredible surroundings – made all the more festive by France winning their rugby match and even more champagne being cracked open – it was back to the hotel for an all-too-short sleep before we were up again and off to the Médoc in the north of the region. The Médoc is the powerhouse of Bordeaux and 60 of the 61 classified properties (ie the top dogs) come from this region. On the drive up we passed fairytale chateau after fairytale chateau including the big guns such as Chateau Margaux until we arrived at Chateau Pontet-Canet in Pauillac.

At the huge and beautiful Pontet-Canet we were met by very exuberant 29-year-old ex-Londoner Mélanie Tesseron. She came out to help run the family chateau two years ago after falling in love. Love didn’t last but Mélanie, who claims to have known nothing about wine when she arrived, studied and now helps to run the chateau with her uncle.

The Sunday we arrived the pickers (some locals, some brought over from the village in Portugal where the chateau’s butler comes from) were in the vineyards picking by hand the grapes being just right. The grapes were taken into the vinery where we watched them being sorted by hand before they were crushed and tipped into the huge vats. In the barrel room all the barrels are painted with red wine and at the end there is a huge cage where one of each vintage is kept. Mélanie admitted it had taken her a while to get used to being in Bordeaux after her life as a graphic designer in London but, clearly and justifiably proud of her family home, added: “We’ve got something special here, we have to keep it special.”

After an increadible lunch in the chateau with we criminally had to almost gulp down our Chateau d’Yquem 1997 before hurrying back to the airport to catch our flight.

It was a packed weekend, certainly, but we enjoyed some great food and wine in great company and it didn’t feel rushed. And did I learn anything about wine? Yes. But apparently, if I went to a different region, the whole thing would be very different. So I guess I still have a lot to learn…..