Ruth Paget: Visiting Sauternes, the Bordeaux (France) village of honey-like wine with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Visiting Sauternes, the Bordeaux Region (France) village of honey-like wine with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

The petite village of Sauternes belies the legendary acclaim of its dessert wine.

This white wine made from semillon, sauvignon, and muscadelle grapes is harvested late, allowing a beneficent mold to grow on the grapes and concentrate the sugars. When aged, Sauternes becomes amber colored and pours viscously from the bottle. It tastes of honey and gives a French meal a grand finale, letting the wines that preceded it build up to it.

The French consider Sauternes to be the best wine produced in the Bordeaux region. Château d’Yquem is the most renowned producer, but d’Yquem receives much competition for the market from Château Rieussec and Château Guiraud among others. In the village on the day we visited, the Maison de Sauternes was closed. This meant no tasting, purchasing, or receiving the crucial map of the châteaux.

We struck out on our own on the châteaux route and were struck by the differences between Sauternes and the Médoc regions of Bordeaux. Towns abound in the Médoc with many outlets for purchasing wine. The châteaux road in the Médoc sports gussied-up architectural gems with room for parking and taking photos. In Sauternes, the châteaux road features walled in vineyards in places and châteaux hidden by forests.

I thought the people making this honey-like wine resembled honeybees themselves. They hid in their secluded châteaux and cellars and made wine just like bees hide their hives and make honey. The châteaux that were visible reminded me of well-tended manor houses that would surround a castle like the one portrayed in the book Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry (circa 1412 – 1416).

This book illustrates the life of everyone for its era from peasant to prince and how nature and its rhythms regulated life. On a sultry day like the day we visited, everyone was absent from the vineyards. They were no doubt checking the advance of an impending hail storm.

My husband asked me if I would like a photo a château as a souvenir. (There was no place to buy postcards in the village.) I smiled and asked for photos of the well-manicured vineyards. The leaves covered the grapes in the canopy and appeared to obtain the greatest surface area for photosynthesis. The heightened level of photosynthesis allows sugar to develop in the grape, making it a prime target for late harvest, noble rot.

We did not buy any Sauternes wine, because no place to do so was open. This just drove home the fact for me that Sauternes is a wine for holidays and special events; an item to be savored and cherished.

By Ruth Paget - Author of Marrying France and Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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