Bordeaux Wine Festival
The Travel Pages visits the Bordeaux Wine Festival, with tastings, food, music, fireworks, parades and much more, spread over four days.
‘Now we can try a Graves. Why not!’ The young man pours the third glass of the morning, and it’s not just any old Graves. This is a Château Smith Haut Lafitte, one of the best in the world. It’s the first morning of the Bordeaux Wine Festival, the bi-annual feast that turns Bordeaux’s vast Esplanade des Quinconces into Bacchus’s back garden.
Bacchus himself presides over the proceedings in the form of a huge roguish statue astride a bottle of Bordeaux red that’s flowing freely.
Flowing freely is what the Fête le Vin is all about. For four days the centre of Bordeaux celebrates wine in the best way possible – by drinking it. The various wine regions set up stalls and dispense samples of their top wines, the best times to go being during the day on the first two days, Thursday and Friday, when the stalls are much quieter and the wine-makers have more time for you… and more wine to hand out!
Free Admission to the Bordeaux Wine Festival
Admission to the site and the other events is free, but if you want to do tastings you need to buy a Tasting Pass at the entrance, which includes a book of tasting vouchers for all the stalls, and a free tasting glass in a neat little carrying pouch. Not that everyone always bothers to ask for your voucher, as there’s a real air of bonhomie about the event.
The four days is about more than just about drinking Bordeaux wines. There are wine-related art exhibitions, visiting celebrities, barrel-rolling competitions, food stalls, a choice of several wine tours every day, wine workshops and the unmissable Parade of Bordeaux Commanderies and Vinous Brotherhoods. Organisations with splendid names like Les Compagnons du Loupiac Connetablie de Blaye and the Ordre des Chevaliers des Vins de Castillon all don their velvet robes and march around in a blaze of colour and flags, with the air of people who enjoy their wine.
In fact the whole four days is about enjoying wine and the company of other people, each day rounded off with a free music concert and, on the final night, over the River Garonne, one of the most spectacular fireworks displays you are ever likely to see in your life.
Further Information on the Bordeaux Wine Festival
The Bordeaux Wine Festival takes place every second year, in even-numbered years. Find out more at bordeaux-fete-le-vin.com. Admission is free but there is a charge for a Tasting Pass. This can be bought at the entrance, or in advance from the Tourist Information Office or from several other outlets around the city. See the website for details.
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