Sampling wines in Saint Emilion
Summary
The Bordeaux region is arguably the most famous and respected wine region in the world. Whilst staying in Bordeaux the city is indeed nice with its UNESCO World Heritage listed old town and wide variety of wineries and restaurants (see experience entry Wandering Bordeaux for more tips), it misses out on that wonderful feeling of staying in the wine region itself. St Emilion and its surround wineries give you that feeling, and should be prioritised far ahead of Bordeaux the town. The medieval village itself is gorgeous, sitting just above the vineyards for views all across the valleys (also UNESCO World Heritage listed), and its surrounding vineyards give that feeling of being in the premier spot for wine in the world . . . summer early evenings when the temperature is dropping, any remnants of the day tourists have left and you are there to enjoy world-class meal in a small part of paradise . . . the French, I must say, do this all very well
Tips:
- St Emilion itself – it can get busy in the day, so considering trying to spend time there in the early evening to avoid the crowds. It’s worth also seeing if you can get to the balcony of the Hotel de Pavie – other than one of the church towers, it has the best views of the village and largely overlooked by fellow tourists who head down to the main square
- Wineries – the highlight of the trip is finding a spot to have a meal in the vineyards, and potentially a wine tour / tasting. We went to Chateau Petit Faurie de Soutard (Le Jardin), L’Atelier de Candale and Restaurant du Grand Barrail and would very much recommend all. I’d also recommend Chateau Soutard for the wine tour
- Where to stay – St Emilion is either daft expensive or very basic, so aim to stay out. We stayed in a vineyard , Chateau Soutard Cadet, within walking distance of St Emilion and it was magical (but pricey). Have a shop around for places further away that will be far cheaper and likely just as pretty, but be aware that public transport is basically zero so will need your own car
highlights
#1 Booking a lunch or dinner in one of the vineyards and working your way through the menu and, in order not to be rude, the wines
#2 Having drinks overlooking the town from the balcony of the Hotel de Pavie
#3 Exploring the village itself - a surprising number of spots to explore
#4 Checking out some of the churches within Saint Emilion itself, and seeing some of the stained glass windows with superbly bright colours
#5 Heading out into the surrounding UNESCO World Heritage listed vineyards to learning to sample . . . a lot . . . of wine
#6 Being fortunate enough to stay in one of the chateaus within walking distance of the town
#7 Exploring the cellars - wandering through the hundreds (thousands?) of wines waiting to mature
Experiences nearby
The below map shows experiences nearby with a colour that reflect the Overall Score of those experiences
Wine and other tasting experiences around the World
Score Detail
Background - how many times have you asked someone what a travel experience was like and the response was "amazing" or "awesome"? That response is nice to know, but it makes it hard to differentiate that experience compared to others. That is exactly what these scores are trying to do - differentiate the experience by giving a score out of 10 based on 6 categories and then giving an overall experience score
This overall experience score is calculated by: take the highest of the "Culture" or "Nature" score (1-10) + "Fun factor" (1-10) + "Avoiding the crowds" (1-10) + highest of the "Unique" or "World Famous score" (1-10). Then convert into a score out of 100
Extra detail - the logic being that I find all of the 6 individual scores important, but I don't want to mark an experience down just because it doesn't cover both "Culture" and "Nature", or because it isn't both "World Famous" and "Unique". Take the examples of Safari in The Serengeti and walking through Rome - they both appeal at opposite ends of the nature / culture spectrum, and you can have a fantastic time without needing to appeal to both sides. So, their overall scores aren't penalized for their lack of one or the other, and I've done the same for "World Famous" vs "Unique". But . . . I do think that the "Fun factor" of an experience is important, irrelevant of other factors, and so is "Avoiding the Crowds" (or where there are crowds that add to the experience). So, both of these scores are standalone