Chateau Lassegue is located in the village of Saint-Emilion on the right bank of the Dordogne River. This is the side where Merlot is the dominant grape for Bordeaux. The tradition of winemaking goes back to the Roman occupation in the 4th century AD. In 1999 Saint-Emilion and surrounding vineyards became a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site.
We first toured the town. Both Elvis and Tom purchased incredibly expensive Bordeaux wines. To indicate the cost would have been so gauche:
Then we headed for Chateau Lassague:
Nicola and his wife Christina run the whole thing. What a love story. Christina was on her way to earning a law degree from Yale, and was also president of the Yale Wine Club. Nicola's family was invited to give a talk, and....they eventually got married. Elvis arranged for a private tour, so both of them met with us.
Chateau Lassegue's St. Emilion Grand Cru makes many top ten world wine lists. Their vines average between 40 to 50 years old. They purposefully produce only a few grapes per hectare to maximize quality.
We had a mercifully quick tour. Here, ladybugs on their vine. We spent most of the time drinking their two current wines available on the market, 2011 and 2015 vintages. Next year, it will be 2012 and 2016:
This was our best stop on the whole trip, even better than Chateau Lafite Rothschild. But it was educational for me to learn that the Left Bank Bordeaux is dominated by Cabernet, while the Right Bank is driven by Merlot.
We were then dropped off to catch the train for Cognac. Our lunch? A Right Bank Bordeaux and Big Macs.
We made it to Cognac, and were again blindsided. Every train station has a taxi stand, right? Wrong! We asked several people, and it came down to taxi companies refusing to take us to our hotel because it was too close, so a kind lady from Hennessey Cognac called our hotel to pick us up, so their van came.
Hotel Chaise Monnet is a Leading Hotels establishment, and we were stunned with this spectacle that mystifyingly is a hotel. It only opened last year and their restaurants are now one month old. It took many a tour for a staff member to walk us to our room, for the the place is spread out and everything is impressively high tech. Remy Martin is a three-minute walk away, while Martell and Hennessey are viewable from our room. Like champagnes, you don't know how to correctly pronounce these cognacs. Trust me.
Considering our rooms of the past week, Chaise Monnet is off the chart.
Our bedroom:
Considering that in our previous hotel in Bordeaux, where the shower was next to the toilet, and the water splashed onto the the rest of the bathroom, our toilet was in a whole different room with it's own washbasin.
We had a sunset drink:
If you're wondering where is mystery lady, Elvis and Tom, she's here, but Elvis and Tom remained in Bordeaux.
Dinner was wonderful. Started with a Kir Royale, then a 100% Merlot Bordeaux. A first in my life:
I'm not even showing the pre-courses. Eventually, you pick your knife;
I had my best sweetbreads ever:
Then foie gras pate, followed by entrecôte, which was a tenderloin from near Cognac:
Met the chef, Sebastien Broda:
Tomorrow, Remy Martin, then, perhaps, Martell and Hennessey.
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