Our Bordeaux Adventure – Part Quatre
Posted on March 27,2025 By John Compisi
You will recall from Parts Un, Deux and Trois, that we arrived in Bordeaux on a Sunday evening, near the end of June, from Paris. We stayed at the Hôtel Majestic, in a vibrant part of the City of Bordeaux with 18 of our fellow travelers; our winemaking hosts, Adam Lee and Morét Brealynn and our guide, Kelly McAuliffe!
In Part Trois we described our day in Saint-Laurent-des-Combes, Fronsac, St. Emilion and Saint-Étienne-de-Lisse visiting the amazing Châteaux of Château Tertre Roteboeuf, Château la Dominique (including lunch at their Terrasse Rouge), Chateau Fontenil, and Château Valandraud.
This is Part Quatre of our Bordeaux adventure.
Four amazing days and even more amazing Châteaux!
Day 4 – Pauillac and Saint-Estephè
Château Pichon Longueville Baron
An early departure from our hotel brought us to the spectacular Château Pichon Longueville Baron (CPLB) located in the world renowned Pauillac region, on the iconic Left Bank of Bordeaux.
This estate offered, perhaps the most stunning contrast of architecture from its 18th Century Castle to its 21st Century wine production facilities.
CPLB has exceptional terroir partially because of its maritime climate (its proximity to the Gironde estuary lends it an increased mildness). All the right conditions come together to make the Pauillac appellation the most prestigious for Bordeaux wines.
CPLB has and exceptional legacy! The estate comprises 75 hectares (185 acres) of high-quality gravelly soil. Low in nutrients and with little excess water, this unique soil sparingly nourishes the vines, whose average age is 35 years. The vineyards are a mix of 66% Cabernet-Sauvignon, 28% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Franc and 1% Petit Verdot, and are meticulously divided into separate plots.
We were treated with samples of four vintages: 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020!
The flagship 2020 Château Pichon-Longueville Baron is pure lusciousness, full-bodied and rich. You can enjoy today but in 10 years it will be even more complex, more delicious and well worth the wait.
Based on 87% Cabernet Sauvignon and 13% Merlot in 80% new French oak, the 2019 Château Pichon-Longueville Baron is just a beautiful, seamless Pauillac that does everything right. It will need a decade to hit maturity but it is very drinkable now.
A beautiful, majestic Pauillac, the 2018 Château Pichon-Longueville Baron is 78% Cabernet Sauvignon and 22% Merlot in 80% new French oak. It is elegant and full-bodied, with a serious depth of fruit. It will need a solid decade of cellaring to achieve its full potential.
A blend of 78% Cabernet Sauvignon and 22% Merlot aged 18 months in 80% new French oak, the 2017 Château Pichon-Longueville Baron sports a vivid purple hue. Full-bodied and concentrated, yet elegant and seamless, it has flawless tannins, beautifully integrated acidity, and a great finish. It’s going to hit the early stages of prime drinking in 7-8 years.
This uniquely charming and romantic Château, with its two emblematic turrets, has stood proudly at the vineyard’s heart for centuries.
Château Phélan Ségur
After our thoroughly enjoyable visit at CPLB, we headed to Château Phélan Ségur, perhaps our favorite of all the Chateaux we visited, for a tour, tasting and an elegant luncheon.
The Château has Irish roots when the founder, Bernard O’Phelan (1770-1841), a young wine merchant, left his native town of Tipperary at the end of the 18th century to set himself up in Bordeaux. He acquired two neighboring properties in 1805 and 1810. The combined estate is 70 hectares (173 acres) and has vines that are 58% Cabernet Sauvignon and 39% Merlot with a small complement of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot (~1.5% of each). The fabulous Medoc style Château is situated on a hilltop with the Gironde estuary visible at the bottom of a long sloping series of vineyards and fields.
After a tour of the property, the production facilities we arrived at an exquisite drawing room where we tasted three amazing vintages.
The 2015 Phelan Segur showed beautifully both. Black currants, scorched earth, espresso and hints of chocolate all emerge from this medium to full-bodied, concentrated, firm, structured wine.
The 2016 Château Phélan Ségur was equally impressive, and revealing a saturated purple color as well as pure cassis, violets, spice-driven aromas and flavors. Beautifully layered and textured.
The 2017 Château Phélan Ségur, plays beautifully on your palate. It shows earthy dark fruits, spice box, cedary herbs, and hints of chocolate. It’s medium to full-bodied, with a rounded, seamless texture, loads of sweet fruit, and a great finish.
From here we proceeded to a wonderfully appointed dining room set up just for our party. Our luncheon was replete with beautifully presented specialties of the estate chef! Each course was paired with estate wines, of course.
Carpaccio du Boeuf – the thinly sliced raw beef was served as an appetizer. Seasoned with salt and pepper, and drizzled with olive oil and lemon juice, this was, probably, the best carpaccio I’ve ever had.
Pintade Fermière Rôti, a heritage Guinea Hen, was exceptionally flavorful with excellent meat texture and roasted to perfection.
The Nougat Glacé au Miel, a soft ice cream made with a frozen mousse of meringue and whipped cream, flavored with honey was to die for. Rich and refreshing.
We are sure the reader can understand why this was our favorite Château experience.
We departed Sègur full and satisfied but we had one more stop before dinner.
Château Pontet-Canet
Château Pontet-Canet is unique due to its focus on biodynamics, horses, and other practices aligned with the cycles of the moon and soil conservation. The Pontet-Canet vineyards, are located in the commune of Pauillac, and cover 81 hectares (200 acres). That is, around a hundred plots and nearly 800,000 vines overlooking the Gironde estuary.
Our host took us on a tour of the facilities where we saw the draught horses and the rooms where they mixed the magic blend of manure and other ingredients essential to the rituals and burials needed for their biodynamic formula. Fascinating to say the least.
The horses were beautiful and well cared for. The fact that this French Château has only known three owners in over 160 years is quite mind boggling, especially in comparison to so many other Châteaux we visited.
We were fortunate to taste the 2023 Château Pontet-Canet and barrel samples of the 2024.
The 2023 Château Pontet-Canet, presented blue fruits, sappy herbs, flowers, and subtle graphite notes. It is a medium to full-bodied, concentrated Pauillac, that has plenty of flavors and layers to titillate the palate. The ripe, polished tannins, preceded the outstanding length. It’s very well-balanced, with a round, layered mouthfeel, and a brilliant sense of salinity and minerality on the finish. A gorgeous Pauillac.
The 2024 sample revealed hope for the future. It possessed hints of all the goodness of the 2023 but in a less mature form. Certainly, this will evolve into a wonderful expression of Pauillac.
The estate was meticulously manicured and fabulous in appearance.
After departing Château Pontet-Canet we returned to the hotel for a quick refresh and then walked through the charming pedestrian area of Bordeaux to make our way to Bo-Tannique.
Located in a store front in a retail shopping area of the pedestrian zone, Bo-Tannique is a high energy, creative and very unique restaurant. Opened in 2019, Bo-Tannique offers a traditional cuisine with touches from around the world, extraordinary combinations that find their source in French excellence and Polynesia, India and Asia cuisine.
We were dazzled by the dishes created by chefs Florent and Romain, who were trained and mentored by iconic French Chefs Joël Robuchon, Guy Savoy and Alain Pégouret. We were able to see their alchemy at work while watching them through the open kitchen.
Of course, Adam, Moret and Kelly offered several wines to supplement those recommended by Guillaume, the Bo-Tannique sommelier.
Bo-Tannique was a perfect finale for our Bordeaux Adventure.
We thoroughly enjoyed experiencing the 16 Châteaux that we visited over our four full days on the Left and Right Banks of Bordeaux. We can’t imagine anyone arranging a more comprehensive and varied tour then Kelly McAuliffe working on behalf of Adam and Morét, our two Sonoma County winemaker hosts. We would never try this extensive of a tour on our own. The access we had was game-changing.
Of all the Chateaux we visited and wrote about in Parts 1-4 of Our Bordeaux Adventure, these were our favorites:
Château Smith Haut Lafitte Magnificent.
Chateau Léoville Poyferré Good but a bit snobby.
Château Lynch Bages Probably our favorite large Chateaux.
Tertre Roteboeuf Smallest and great fun. Garagista?
Chateaux Fontenil A very personal tour with the owner’s winemaker wife.
Chateaux Pichon Longueville Baron Probably the most stunning property.
Château Phélan Ségur Probably our favorite overall!
Stay engaged for our next posts which we highlight our 30-day Viking Cruise to Iceland, Norway and the British Isles as well as a quick winter escape to a boutique all-inclusive resort near Puerto Vallarta, MX.