Chateau Biac

Here is the wonderful Chateau Biac, where we are staying at the moment. This is the view from halfway down the driveway. We are staying in a section of one of those buildings.

The view from one of our bedroom windows.

The view from the other.

Youmna and Tony purchased this property four years ago, and since then have been working (and investing time and money) to repair all of the buildings, replant and maintain the vineyard, and turn the property into a producer of fine Bordeaux wines.

They have, I believe she said, 8 hectares under vine (Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cab Franc, Petit Verdot and {Semillon for the sweet botrytis wine they make}).

She took us down to see the winery, and to witness what they have done there in such a short time is amazing. They had to replace the roof, chip away the cement from the original stone, install toilets, showers, kitchen and changing rooms for the workers, install air conditioning, plumbing, drainage, a water treatment facility, as well as the computerized center that controls the temperature in each of their stainless steel vats. Not to mention purchasing all of the vats, barrels and bottles!

They are hoping, when the vines mature enough and they are up and running at capacity, to produce around 40,000 bottles a year.

Stainless steel vats.

Youmna giving us a barrel tasting of 2009 Merlot.

Heat Wave

Hello from the Bordeaux region of France.

We are staying at the beautiful Chateau Biac in the small town of Langoiran, in part of an old stone cottage complete with small kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, living and dining room.

It is part of a larger complex and winery which we have not toured yet, but plan to before we leave.

I will include pictures later, but right now we are too busy melting to even go outside to take any shots. It reached 100 degrees today, and yesterday it wasn't much cooler. Of course there is no air conditioning, and we don't even have a fan, so let me tell you, it is hot in the room at night.

It's also airless because we can't keep the windows open because then the mosquitos get in, so the windows are closed all night. And, because of the heat, the bugs are coming out in droves. Last night we had a line of tiny ants going from under the front door, all the way across the living and dining room, to a hole in the stone wall.

There were multiple large beetles sashaying along the floor, too, but by far the worst moment came when I was rinsing my mouth out over the sink after brushing my teeth, leaning forward, and a millipede came out of the emergency overflow hole in the sink, almost right up into my face.

I shrieked, I really did. In nine years of being together, Steve said he'd never heard me make a sound like that before.

I'm not normally afraid of millipedes, but that sucker came dangerously close to jumping into my open mouth, and of course, when i saw those tentacles appearing, the first thing I thought was that it was a big roach.

And millipedes move fast, they move really fast, and I'm sorry but all those legs are a bit creepy. And as I sat in bed reading, I couldn't stop myself from imagining that as soon as the lights went out and I fell asleep, that millipede and maybe a few of its friends, were going to crawl into my ear and burrow into my brain.

Needless to say, I got up and watched a movie.