Bordeaux.
Hello everyone and welcome again.
The journey to Bordeaux. It all started at 2.15 outside our main office in the Gloucester Business Park. Hot, sunny and dry – great summer weather. The taxi turned up bang on the dot and asked for me, which was cool. We went straight to Gloucester station where I waited for a while. I listened to Clair de lune by Debussey and watched my fellow travellers rushing to and from the carriages. I wondered how many of them were going somewhere for the fun of it. Kids getting the train to Bristol to do some shopping, or just to run around Cabot Circus because they could; businessmen on their way home after knocking off early; lots of people with luggage ready to go on holiday. It was nice to see these people journeying across the country using our nations fine rail network. Just quickly on this point, I know how we all complain when the railway is slow and delayed and generally rubbish, we never stop to say well done and thanks to National Rail – most of the time they get it right, and we never say thank you. So here’s to you National Rail, thanks for the great service you provide 90% of the time.
When we went on our way to Reading I was joined on my journey by Judith at Stonehouse; Judith is one of my fellow wine people at our unnamed wine company. There was supposed to be a third person coming with us, but unfortunately he misplaced his passport and was unable to join us, which was disappointing. Onwards and upwards.
When we got to Reading we went out of the station and the nearest car to the door had our company name written on a piece of paper in the window, which was helpful. The pleasant – if a little quiet – taxi driver provided me with a form to put our taxi trip on the company account while we travelled to our hotel.
We stayed at the Calcot Hotel, which I saw from the main entrance that it had the same number of AA stars as the Gatwick White House hotel I stayed in before I left for Sarajevo, and my heart sank. This was premature; the hotel was lovely, the staff friendly and polite and the decor very pleasant. The room included a nice comfortable double bed, two chairs, a dressing table and a decent sized bathroom including an actual bath. Delightful. There was also a comical TV. I say comical, because no matter which button I pressed on the remote, the tv would hop to a random channel – sometimes this had an actual channel on, sometimes this was just static. If I tried to press channel up, the tv switched off. I managed to cycle through the channel using the teletext button, and found something generic to watch while we waited for our dinner. We booked a table in the hotels restaurant for 7.30 only a couple of hours away. I went for a walk down the road, to the local garage and shop, bought some Irn-Bru and sauntered back to the hotel.
At 7.30 on the dot, I met Judith for our hotel supper. Kindly, our company had provided us with an allowance to spend on food and drink during our stay. I had the sausages and stilton mash – the sausages were delightful, very much enjoyable, and the mash was yummy. Yes, yummy. I’d quite like some more, if I’m ever in the area again I’ll definitely stop back for more sausages! For dessert I had the white ice cream. It sounded really plain and boring but when it turned up it was lovely! White ice cream with white chocolate chips, white chocolate swirls and wafers. It was so deliciously sweet 
We got a few hours kip at the hotel, and were ip at 4 in order to get in the taxi to get to the airport. It was the earliest I’d gotten up in a very long time. On the way we saw low-lying mist around the fields and trees which line the motorway to Gatwick – it was very picturesque. Next time I will have my camera at the ready.
We flew from Gatwick on the 7.45 to Bordeaux, albeit with a 30 minute delay due to the weather, or something. It striked me how terribly british British Airways is. Whether “would you like some tea chap?” is what their customers have come to expect, or the Lara Croft faux English accent is the norm in the rest of Britain, Im not too sure. Either way, we landed in Bordeaux and were meeting Frazer, the head honcho for our trip out here in just a couple hours time. He was carrying a baguette, one of the quintessential French accessories. The others being stripy shirts, berets and garlic hung about the neck.
We made a brief pitstop at Frazers house and then continued on our journey to our home for the fortnight, our French country house. My word, it is lovely. Redstone walls, low ceilings, exposed woodwork, a beautiful living room and kitchen, and a decent sized patio which showed off the garden. The garden has some apple trees, blackberries, a ramp down to a set of caves and backs on to a vineyard which could be classed as Cotes de Castillon, Castillon-villages, Saint Emilion or something else. There’s a lot to learn about the classification of wine regions. It’s fascinating stuff, really.
After a brief nap I went out of my room to meet everyone downstairs for a barbecue. The two guys who were staying an extra night were from our office in Theale. They were proper wine people, who really knew their stuff. Knowledgable, approachable and polite young men. It definitely opened my eyes as to how our sales people are and work and how much different we really are as a company when we make outbound sales calls. I didn’t get to talk that much to them, but it was great to hear about them and what they do. Peter is one of the most prolific of our salesy people, and he’s a great guy to get on with – I can see why our customers like him. Dan, also very very knowledgable was also a friendly character and we talked about football, Swindon and wine over a beer or two. Meeting those two makes me feel so much better about our sales people. They really were awesome people to talk to, I’d love to receive calls from them asking if I’d like some wine!
Other people at the barbecue included Frazer, the aforementioned chief of the operation, Brigette, the chief of looking after the property and estates, Denis (pron Dunny) who is the chief of our cellars, looking after the barrels and equipment in the cellar, Patrick who is the chief of production at our cellar ensuring everyone is empowered to do their job, and a chap called James. James Hunter is the nephew of critically acclaimed Jane Hunter, founder of the Hunter’s wine brand. They really make some exquisite wines – namely the Hunter’s Sauvignon Blanc, the epitome of New Zealand Sauvignon. James is very polite and it’s great to meet someone who is very much up and coming in the industry. I’ve a feeling his wine is going to be very very good. Keep an eye out! After various quantities of wine, we said our au revoirs and bid our departures. It was a good night.
The next morning (this morning) we were up bright and early to ensure we got to the cellar on time. It’s a really impressive building on the banks of the Dordogne in Castillon in the Bordeaux region. The office we are working in is on the top floor, with wonderful views over the river and into the countryside, which nearby consists mainly of vineyards. The vast majority of the grapes grown around here is Merlot. The other side of the river is a greater producer of Cabernet Sauvignon. There is a visitor book in the little shop we have in the cellars, and customers from all over the world have come to visit us in the spiritual home of our company and written some wonderful messages in the book for us. It’s great to see people from the UK enthusiastic about the wine and us, and happy to visit us all this way from their home.
The creative team – read marketing – arrived this morning not too long after us, and are currently doing the photoshoot for the Christmas brochure, so they’re very much in and around us with Christmassy goodies – tinsel, presents, and a tree, among others. It’s all very interesting to see what goes on behind the scenes at our company – especially so now that we are in the west of France among the best land in the world for growing grapes and ultimately making wine.
We went for our lunch, Dom (another chap from our office in Gloucester and also a nice young man), Judith and I to a place called Pizza Donna, where we got a Panini and a drink for €5-ish. I had curried chicken, it was lecker, as a German would say. Nom nom nommmmz.
This evening after work we decided to go in to Saint Emilion, quite possibly one of the most famous wine regions, and just a 15 minute drive by car from our work and home. The wine was lovely, we had a nice Sauvignon Blanc 2009 Bordeaux AOC. I didn’t get the name of the producer, but it was about €25. It went very well with the fish I had for the main course. Delightful. We also had as a starter beef which was very thinly sliced and cooked rare as you like, I can’t remember the name but it was something similar to cariban. It was very very good – perhaps a little oilier than I would have liked. We were eating in one of the outdoor cafes, very typical in this area and Europe on the whole. The dessert was exquisite – chocolate mousse with a caramel sauce. Absolutely splendid. Overall, it was a really enjoyable meal. Also, the waitress was quite stunning.
Anyways, we made it home after the meal and taking a few photos, and we drank a bottle of one of the wines we produce at our company’s cellars, and it was most pleasant. Dom and Judith are non-red wine drinkers but they found this particular one rather pleasant, and we talked about life, the universe and everything.
One thing I’ve picked up out here, it was a phrase Denis said to us a the barbecue, “good wines, good times” and it’s true. A good wine, paired with good company makes for good times. I can really see why wine is such an important part of life around here, it’s the cornerstone of culture. People drink when they socialise and its amazing when you’re drinking wine with new people and you make good friends. Good wine, good times.
And that’s it for today. I’m going to get started on today’s work – hopefully the IT guys have fixed the problem I had yesterday. Who knows. As ever, have a lovely day
Graham xo
