Wine festivals are a great way to taste a lot of wine in one place, but if you want to see the terroir, you need to travel, writes Sue Bryant. And that usually means someone has to drive — unless, of course, you take to the water and let the captain do the driving.
I’m on a week-long cruise on Uniworld’s 130-passenger River Royale, one of a flotilla of ships that has begun to cruise from Bordeaux via the Garonne and the Gironde into the Dordogne. It’s an opulent ship, all rich reds and cornflower blues, with expensive-feeling fabrics and marble bathrooms.
Although there’s plenty to do and see, this week is about total immersion in wine. Take the tasting lunch at Château d’Arche, a rambling 17th-century manor in the heart of Aquitaine, where they’re challenging our palates by serving salty, rich wild mushrooms with a Château de Myrat 2002: liquid gold, sweet and dense, the flavour of sticky toffee.
We’ve already put away smoked salmon with horseradish, paired with a syrupy Barsac, and there’s still pudding to come, with a honey-sweet Clos du Roy from Graves. Then, because yet more wine seems to make sense on this week of indulgence, a tasting at nearby Château Guiraud, the only organic producer among the Premier Grand Crus Classés of Sauternes.
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It continues on board, where wines are paired with dinner every night — all from Bordeaux, all of exceptional quality and all included in the price.
Daily wine-tasting with local fromages and saucissons is offered in the ship’s pretty Claret Room by Sébastien, Uniworld’s first actual sommelier. While all the company’s ships have experienced wine waiters, the new Bordeaux route needed a serious expert on board.
It’s a different kind of river cruising from classics such as the Rhine and the Danube. Distances are small, so little time is actually spent sailing. Nor is there much dramatic scenery: just salt marshes, fishing huts on spindly stilts and wooded banks punctuated by the occasional hamlet. The waterways are broad, with the scent of the ocean on the breeze as the two rivers merge in the vast Gironde estuary to meet the Atlantic.
Ashore, it’s a different story. Every day brings excursions to magnificent châteaux and wine-producing towns: Saint-Emilion, Château de Monbazillac, Château Lafite Rothschild (where a case can go for £10,000) and Château Mouton Rothschild.
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There are distractions between the vineyards. We wander round medieval Bergerac, home of Cyrano, and moor for two nights at Libourne, where our schedule is thrillingly disrupted by the mascaret — the tidal bore that rushes in from the Atlantic in late summer, luring surfers away from the coast.
We spend three of our seven nights in Bordeaux, getting to know this elegant city and its busy waterfront lined with grand 18th-century buildings. Despite all the rich food we’ve put away on board, my eyes are popping at the food market on the quayside: stall after stall of crusty bread, oysters from Arcachon, figs stuffed with foie gras and pastries oozing crème pâtissière. It’s addictive, this joyful indulgence in fine food and wine, and it feels good.
River rivals
The Garonne and the Dordogne have long been ignored by the big river cruise lines, but they are finally catching on to the area’s intoxicating appeal. While the ships offer much the same itinerary, they differ in style, in price and in the choice of excursions.
Sue Bryant was a guest of Titan Travel, which has the seven-night Bordeaux Vineyards and Châteaux cruise on UNIWORLD’s River Royale from £1,399pp, all-inclusive, departing on March 15. The price includes flights to Bordeaux, tours, tips, wi-fi, all drinks, apart from premium wines, and even a chauffeur from your house to the airport (0800 988 5823, titantravel.co.uk).
A week on the Viking Forseti, a 190-passenger ship with modern Scandinavian interiors, starts at £2,445pp, including wine with dinner, five tours and flights. Optional excursions include a day blending your own cognac and an oyster tasting in Arcachon. Book by the end of September to save up to £750pp (0800 319 6660, vikingcruises.co.uk).
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With Scenic Tours, which starts Bordeaux cruises next year on Scenic Diamond, you’ll get butler service, a choice of restaurants and pretty well everything included, down to the contents of the minibar. The 10-night itinerary includes excursions such as a canoe trip from Cadillac, a foie-gras tasting in Bergerac and oysters in Arcachon. Book by October 15 and prices start at £2,495pp, including flights, departing on November 4, 2015 (0808 102 0105, scenictours.co.uk).
At the opposite end of the price scale, CroisiEurope has a five-day Gironde Estuary & Garonne River cruise from Bordeaux on the Cyrano de Bergerac. Prices start at £484pp, departing on March 31 and including drinks, but not excursions (020 8328 1281, croisieurope.co.uk). Fly to Bordeaux with BA.