St Julien - Listrac Medoc

Thursday 29th October.
St Julian to Listrac-Medoc.
We scrubbed up a bit this morning as we wanted to drop in to Chateau Leoville-Barton and thought our biking clothes were one step too far. Lucky we did, as Anthony Barton was there so had a quick chat. Another step down memory lane as we stayed there years ago and I wanted to see if I remembered it correctly. Sadly he couldn’t show us around as he was busy decanting wine for a lunch party and it was nearly midday and we all know that Medoc must be decanted one hour before drinking! Better get on with ordering some of this year’s vintage as he said it is going to be exceptional. We had decided to be organized and book before leaving - that was when Vivi thought she’d left her mobile in the pub last night which left us with only about 10 miles to go, so had a relaxing time in the blazing sunshine, weaving through vineyards. The autumn colours are beautiful and there are lots of butterflies about still. There is much activity amongst the rows as they are madly pruning. We asked 2 vine workers on the edge of the road why this and what’s that and like all horticultural workers they were more than happy to down tools and chat. Escaping from them we cycled west out of wine country and into the forest at Benon where we found a church completely hidden in the trees which had been there for 900 years. Apart from a man with a chainsaw it was a most tranquil place to have a picnic – almost too hot in fact and out of the wind. We then found Chateau Maucaillou who offered tours so joined in on one and had a bit of a tasting – 2004 not a great year I’d say! Interesting tour but all in rather speedy French so missed quite a lot. They presented us with rather nice glasses at the end but sadly we had to give them to the others on the tour as they wouldn’t last five minutes in a pannier. Very sad - they’d definitely be one up on our plastic tumblers.