We drove from Paris to St. Emilion and stayed at the Grand Barrail, which is about 20 mins outside of St. Emilion as I recall. We drove into St. Emilion for lunch several times and spent the rest of the time just wondering among the various vineyards in the area. We spent 5 days in all and enjoyed the time.

https://grand-barrail.com/

Shows how opinions differ.

i wouldn’t spend 10 seconds in Sarlat again.

In summer, it is mobbed by families pouring out of the camp sites of the Dordogne. They are serviced by shops, in which I struggled to spend a single euro. Sorry, we did buy ice creams. The cafes and restaurants all seemed to have pictures of food outside which is always a bad sign for our family.

Saint Emilion is an immaculate but equally mobbed small town. There’s enough to keep anyone interested for half a day even without venturing into the vineyards. There’s a large number of wine shops, many are very helpful and the one I visited after a 15 minutes chat just cracked open a bottle of Troplong Mondot which was really good of them.

If you want to be a film star on the cheap, the Michelin 2 star Hostellerie de Plaisance is legendary and has been about for years. Chateau Pavie bought it recently but it still offers a 7 course tasting menu for lunch which is e65. In view of the preparation processes going into the food, it is the bargain of a lifetime and simply the best food I have ever tasted. The views from their terrace are stunning.

For a middle range lunch, Le Terrace Rouge is the restaurant of one of my favourite wine, La Dominique. It’s in the middle of the vineyards and has a raised restaurants which floats above the vines. The foods OK, the wine is good, the views are stunning.

If if you are in the area, Castillon just to the East is the new in left bank wine. The merlot is grown on the same ridge as Chateau Pavie and Ausone, the latter will set you back e1000 a bottle. The terroir is similar, the aspect the same, although not as hilly, SOME of the e10 bottles are not far short in qualityof the stratospherically priced Saint Emilion premier Grand Cru Bs.

If if you want to see the idiosyncratic nature of wine growing and the supposed difference in terroir, go to Pomerol over the hill from Sant Emilion. A vineyard knocks out wine for e10 a bottle, it’s good.
Next door (100m away) are the fields of Petrus which lays claim to the only blue clay in the area and sells for e2000 a bottle.

Is there substance behind the prices or just myth ?

Who knows?

I’ve never drunk Petrus!

“I wouldn’’t spend 10 seconds in Sarlat again.”

I was was so excited to see Sarlat but was disappointed. Not what I was expecting.

We were in Bordeaux for two days just two months ago. We found it impossible to make reservations to visit the great wineries on our own, either by pre-booking on our own or through the tourist office when we arrived. Since we plan to go back again soon, can you tell me how you were able to do it? Thanks for your help.

Not sure what you mean about how it was impossible to "prebook" which I guess means to make an appointment. DO you mean you called and couldn't get an appt? Did they say why, was it just too late or the wrong day or did you not call until you got to Bordeaux instead of doing so in advance? Chateau Margaux, gives you a number and tells you to call to make an appt, for example. Lafite R also gives specific instructions
Château Lafite Rothschild | Domaines Barons de Rothschild (Lafite)

CHÂTEAU MARGAUX | Contact

Booking chateau; it depends, and Christina gives a good example of one. I must go to Bordeaux every 3 years or so. Certain wineries are open to book, but you need to do it well in advance and prefereably backed by an email from your wine merchant or your nation's importer (pretty easy to get, but it shows you have a real interest), alternativly you can ask Tourist Info for the AoC to organise it, perhaps for a small "pourboire" and this should be done with a fair bit of notice, then you can go to some wineries via a paid for tour (let us say, on the day) but normally with a bit of booking and of course you can ask your hotel/chateau to book something for you. I guess it is obvious that for some chateau the earning potential of their staff (for the chateau) makes touring tourists little interest, but of course some 4th or 5th Growths have installed shops and do the whole wine-gate thing.

It all sounds a bit snob and can be, certainly I enjoy visiting French vinyards and find the Bordeaux crowd a bit... focused on making money (and they do it very well) rather than making wine, though they do that as well :-)

So it takes time and patience to do what you plan, but the effort can be worth it. I'd focus at those that want you to visit and 4th and 5th growths. I'd also look further afield like Bergerac, Monbaziallac, Bourg, Blaye, Cadillac etc (forgive the spelling, life is too short and it is after 6pm)

Burta

Why a great vine yard?

You will be visiting a corporate marketing machine which, as Bilbo points out, has a sole aim of producing wine which is clearly better than others you can buy for say e10 but in absolutely no way justifies the ludicrous price they are demanding. As part of the branding process you will probably encounter a young (ish) public relations officer who may as well be a computer generation.

For a real and fun view of the wine growing process why not just do some research, Tripadvisor is a good resource. Find a small independent wine grower with at the right time of year. They are probably bored senseless waiting for somebody to entertain. Look for someone with a background in academic Viticulture and Oenology. They give you a far more in-depth view of the whole process and they probably offer you more passion for their product than the recognisable corporate enterprises, you will learn far more.

I for one loved Sarlat and yes came in from a nearby camping - it was about ten years ago and maybe more mobbed than now but mobbed even then I personally like to have a lot of folks out strolling at night - lots of outdoor restaurants from which to watch the maddening crowds pass by but I am probably the exception in that I rather like tourist mob scenes - people watching at its best and a multi-national flood - give me that over a quiet city or town where streets are deserted at night anytime. Folks who don't like tourist mobs should avoid the Dordogne and southern France all together in summer.

One interesting thing while were just roaming around was a guy on a big, tall tractor that straddled the vines . . I stopped the car and watched him for a bit and to my surprise, he stopped the tractor and dismounted it. Walked over and asked if I had any questions.

My French is pretty ragged, but he took me to the tractor and explained how it beat the hell out of the vines and then vacuumed up what fell out, straining out the stems and leaves and moving the (mostly) grapes to a vat that would later be emptied into a cart to be taken to the winery.

He then invited me to ride with him to see how it works . . the engineer in me could not pass on that chance so I got on and we did a few rows. It just made my day!

Sarlat is not "mobbed" except in July and August. And there is much more to it than the medieval center and La Traverse, which is all the average visitor takes in.

As for vineyards, there are loads and loads of them outside the hoity-toity circle of big-name Bordeaux chateaux that are far more interesting to visit, and far easier to make an appointment with. Go to any regional market and talk to the wine merchants there, or visit one of the special marchés des vins and do the same: Chateau de la Lambertie, Chateau de la Jaubertie, Chateau de Tiregand, Chateau de la Dame Blanche, Chateau de Mazivert..............there are literally dozens and dozens of such chateaux that will welcome you to their vineyards (except during the peak of the vendange, I imagine) and give you a tour. But you DO need to call or talk to the proprietors in advance.

Sorry about misspelling Sarlat; must have been thinking about The Lot Valley. Will probably split time between Sarlat area and St Circ. Can anyone recommend a nice place to stay in the area? Also, how difficult of a drive would it be from there to the Tarn Gorge?

Yes, that is exactly what I mean. We were on a cruise, and even for a tour price of $400 there were only 11 spots for a shipful of people, so months ahead of time we attempted to make reservations on our own. On the website for Chateau Margaux that is listed, a note says that tasting is offered only to "professionals". For Chateau Lafite Rothchild, appointments were simply not available. So I wondered how Alice made these arrangements so that we could try again. Have you actually been successful making such arrangements yourself?

Yes, that is exactly what I mean. We were on a cruise, and even for a tour price of $400 there were only 11 spots for a shipful of people, so months ahead of time we attempted to make reservations on our own. On the website for Chateau Margaux that is listed, a note says that tasting is offered only to "professionals". For Chateau Lafite Rothchild, appointments were simply not available. So I wondered how Alice made these arrangements so that we could try again. Have you actually been successful making such arrangements yourself?

We have been to France many times, and have stayed in this region before. We are not wine snobs--just love wine. In addition to the many wineries we have been to, my husband simply wanted to visit some famous wineries. We attempted to book months in advance without success, then made a final attempt to do so again when we arrived. I was hoping that someone who had actually been successful making such arrangements might be able to give me some insight. My husband does speak French, so it as not a language problem when he called personally.

<<Will probably split time between Sarlat area and St Circ>>

Are you referring to St-Cirq-Lapopie?

IMO, the Sarlat area merits a lot more time than the area around St-Cirq-Lapopie. A full day is really all you need to visit the town and the nearby Pech-Merle cave.
From Sarlat I would head down through Gourdon (nice town) and Labastide-Murat to Cahors (not a whole lot going on there, but do see the famous "devil's bridge" and eat at La Balandre). Then a short hop east to Cabrerets and St-Cirq-Lapopie. Nearby Figeac (La Dinée du Viguier is a justifiably famous restaurant) and Villefranche-de-Rouergue are worth visiting. A little farther afield are St-Antonin-Noble-Val, Cordes-sur-Ciel, and Castelnaud de Montmiral. But really, all this can (probably should) be saved for a separate trip. There is more than enough to keep you well occupied for a full two weeks in the Périgord, and while Pech-Merle is an outstanding cave, St-Cirq-Lapopie is really just another hill town (if you see Domme, you don't need to go all that way to see it again).

If you do head to St-Cirq-Lapopie, though, I would stay at the Auberge de la Sagne, a couple of kms away.

burta, if you aren't wine snobs you'd probably enjoy the places bilbo and I have mentioned a lot more than a stuffy tour of the Big Name Bordeaux wineries, and maybe learn more, too. And your wallet will breathe a sigh of relief when it comes time for the obligatory end-of-tour purchase.

If you don't succeed in getting an appointment at one of the big chateaux, you might enjoy this: Le Bar à Vin - Bordeaux

Some years ago while traveling with good friends who had spent over 40 years in France and were much more connoisseurs of wine than we were, we stopped at one of the so-called caves and the wine maker brought all of us into his barn where he passed around several bottles for tasting. Certainly not the best of wine but very drinkable. I loved the casual atmosphere and felt it was a much better experience certainly more fun than touring the usual popular wineries.