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You are here: Home / Photo Blogging / On The Road / On The Road – Steve from Mendocino – French Vineyards and Wineries 1 of 2

On The Road – Steve from Mendocino – French Vineyards and Wineries 1 of 2

by WaterGirl|  December 3, 20215:00 am| 14 Comments

This post is in: On The Road, Photo Blogging

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On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.

From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.

Submit Your Photos

Steve from Mendocino

My interest in good wine began in 1968, when I bought a bottle of Inglenook special reserve cabernet sauvignon to celebrate my later to be wife’s birthday. It got our attention, and I began exploring with books and tasting. In 1970 I formed a tasting group that I called “Lest Compagnons de Bordeaux.” Wine prices were moderate enough that we could taste the best wines in the world for very little. I budgeted a bottle per person and charged people my cost. Our first tasting was both a horizontal tasting of 1966 Pauillacs and a vertical tasting of Chateau Pichon Logueville Baron from 1953, 1955, 1959, 1962, 1966, and 1967. The 1966 wines were Chateau Lafite Rothschild, Chateau Latour, Chateau Pichon Longueville Comptesse de Lalande, and Château Lynch Bages. It cost each taster $12 including bread and cheese.

On The Road - Steve from Mendocino - French Vineyards and Wineries 1 of 2 7

Vineyards just outside the walls of Perouges.

On The Road - Steve from Mendocino - French Vineyards and Wineries 1 of 2 6

Chateau Pichon Lalande. The first case of French wine I ever bought was the 1966 Pichon Lalande at $36 — $2 a bottle. A comparable modern vintage of this chateau sells in the neighborhood of $150 a bottle.

On The Road - Steve from Mendocino - French Vineyards and Wineries 1 of 2 5

Château Gruaud-Larose.

On The Road - Steve from Mendocino - French Vineyards and Wineries 1 of 2 4

Chateau Latour.

On The Road - Steve from Mendocino - French Vineyards and Wineries 1 of 2 3

Chateau Lafite Rothschild.

On The Road - Steve from Mendocino - French Vineyards and Wineries 1 of 2 2

Chateau Beychevelle is an illustration of how out of whack wine classifications have become. In 1855, Bordeaux wines were classified based on the prices they got at market. Over the years, the relative qualities of these wines has changed substantially. Beychevelle is classified as a fourth growth, but today it produces really excellent wines more in line with second growths. The French have reclassified the area’s vineyards several times, but those classifications were each discarded as being too corrupted by relationships within the rating organizations, and the 1855 classification stands as the most reliable.

On The Road - Steve from Mendocino - French Vineyards and Wineries 1 of 2 1

Chateau Palmer is another of those wines that today would be classified very differently. It was a third growth but today might be considered a first.

On The Road - Steve from Mendocino - French Vineyards and Wineries 1 of 2

Chateau Cos d’Estournel.

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Reader Interactions

14Comments

  1. 1.

    raven

    December 3, 2021 at 6:06 am

    Great pics. In 1968 I was drinking Red Mountain Vin Rose,  $1.49 a gallon!

  2. 2.

    YY_Sima Qian

    December 3, 2021 at 6:10 am

    1st & 2nd growth Bordeaux for $12!!!!

    In China, French reds are even more expensive than the US! At least 50% more, due to import & luxury taxes. Plus the Chinese nouveau riche bid up the price of 1st growth Bordeaux to stratospheric levels.

  3. 3.

    debbie

    December 3, 2021 at 7:00 am

    Wine hates me, so I’ll stick to loving those chateaus!

  4. 4.

    Betty

    December 3, 2021 at 7:01 am

    Looks lime you had a delightful tour of the region.

  5. 5.

    Dan B

    December 3, 2021 at 7:32 am

    Citroen at Latour!

    I just missed the cheap Bordeaux but did snag some very early Super Tuscans and some early Walla Walla reds when they were fetching $10.  Now these same wineries fetch $100.  Sigh.

  6. 6.

    JMG

    December 3, 2021 at 7:51 am

    The chateaux are beautiful aren’t they? For contrast, I wish you had had a picture of some of the famous towns, like Saint-Julien, of the Bordeaux region, which are like farm towns everywhere, with rusted out tractors and cars on blocks in more than one front yard of the people who actually work the vineyards.

  7. 7.

    stinger

    December 3, 2021 at 8:42 am

    Love the chateaux and the views and angles you found. And managed to get shots with no tourists in them!

    That first shot, fading to blue in the distance — mwah! And more next week — yay!

  8. 8.

    Paul in St. Augustine

    December 3, 2021 at 9:52 am

    My interest began 10 years after yours, when I spent a day on my honeymoon in Napa Valley. Five years later, I turned that interest into a 33 year career. Amongst other travel highlights, I did spend a week in Bordeaux. Great pictures, thanks for the memories. Imagine duplicating your tasting at today’s prices!

  9. 9.

    opiejeanne

    December 3, 2021 at 12:57 pm

    In the late 1980s I bought a bottle of Chateau Margaux 1985 from a little shop in Riverside, CA called Purple Toes, for an anniversary present for my husband. I spent $67.

    When we finally got around to drinking it, it was still delightful despite not having been stored correctly for several years because we no longer had a cellar while we lived in Castro Valley. Under the stairs on the garage level was the coolest/most stable temperature on that property. We drank it in 2001, in celebration when we closed escrow to sell that house, to move back to SoCal. I looked it up to see if it was at or nearing its peak, and it was worth about $150.

  10. 10.

    J R in WV

    December 3, 2021 at 1:32 pm

    Horizontal tasting?

    Vertical tasting?

    Is the Horizontal tasting what you do after completing the vertical tasting and so must lie down?

    My first wine was Italian Swiss Colony white, a gallon jar was at a price we could buy the day before payday with coinage scraped out of the barracks lockers. 4 of us got drunk down by Lake Michigan, picked up by the OOD patrolling, the area was off limits after dark. So we spent an hour or two at the shore patrol office from like 11-1 or 2 am, when the OOD had gone to bed they let us go. Was in ET school.

    Now we do some Italian red wines, $15-20 bottle, always satisfactory, mostly though sparkling white wines, some Grand Cru, which I take to mean all the grapes are from the same vineyard, others from Napa Valley.

    Champaign goes with everything…

    Just put nose drops into Spike’s nostrils, only two tiny wounds, only one bled some. She seems to be doing better… doesn’t fight as much, maybe feeling better while getting dosed is connecting in her tiny brain? Hope so.

  11. 11.

    Steve from Mendocino

    December 3, 2021 at 1:54 pm

    @opiejeanne: 1985 was an excellent year.  I was priced out of the 1st growths at that point but I picked up half cases of futures of four 2nd growth and equivalent.  They’re still drinking well.  The wine making had changed by then and they taste a bit different but excellent.  I envy you your experience with the Margaux.

  12. 12.

    Steve from Mendocino

    December 3, 2021 at 1:55 pm

    @J R in WV: My first introduction was Tavel sparkling rose.  It was junk but I liked it.  Then I tasted a really good wine.

  13. 13.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    December 3, 2021 at 2:01 pm

    @J R in WV: Do you know of the cat dosing technique of wrapping a cat up in a towel like a burrito so only the head is sticking out?  Takes a little practice but is helpful with uncooperative cats.  Have rarely had to use it since most of my dosing has been with cooperative cats …

  14. 14.

    Steve from Mendocino

    December 3, 2021 at 2:14 pm

    @A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan): I’ve used that technique on cats and a similar technique with a parrot when clipping his claws.

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