It was a rough morning the day we were scheduled to do a wine tasting at Château de Pressac near Saint-Émilion. The night before was Fête de la Musique and we were running on minimal sleep thanks to the 12 hour block (after block after block) party that ensued (more on that in another article). As you can imagine, scrambling to get dressed that morning and meet our guide on time felt more like a stressful dream than the panicked reality it was.

Saint-Émilion is about a 45-minute drive from the city of Bordeaux and Château de Pressac actually sits beside the town on a limestone plateau surrounded by steep terraced hillsides. Everything looked quite different as we made our way through — the vineyards weren’t sprawling like those embedded in the rustic hilly landscape of Tuscany and the châteaus had a different aesthetic vibe than the Modernista-influenced buildings in Catalonia. No- in Bordeaux, the vineyards were every bit as classic and regal as one could imagine. White limestone walls lined rows upon rows of wild vines that have been tamed strategically by century-old methods. Elaborate yet minimal courtyards framed the epitome of grandiose châteaus.

We recovered quite nicely as we toured the grounds of Château de Pressac walking in and out of the vibrant red doors and learning loads about its history and processes. The château was recently promoted to Grand Cru Classé, which is a major milestone for wines en primeur — it’s like their version of winning the World Cup or getting an Oscar. While I am quite far from being a vino expert, it is pretty difficult to act like you’re not one in a setting like that. But I probably could have tried harder.