Yoga at 8 with the girls. (Am resolved to get back to regular practice). Take Dick (Boy Racer) to see Le Chai. He is, after all an architect; was in charge of turning that power station into 'Tate Modern'.
I want to show off. Le Chai is lovely in the morning light off the silver river. The Chai is also humming. Wine is being made and first guys doing a stint here are on the phones to customers; "I'm calling from the Chai!" That seems to impress!
But Dick and I must be off to Pessac; suburb of Bordeaux where Haut Brion and the oldest wine estate in Bordeaux; Pape Clement, still sit amazingly among all the bungalows.
Owner Bernard Magrez himself is there to greet us and 30 of our lot just off the plane from Gatwick for an intensive 48hr tour.
Self-made Bernard started out in the wine a little before I did and now owns not only Pape Clement but 30 or so other fine estates around Bordeaux, France and the World.
He gave up being a wine trader to just make wine in his vineyards. He does it very very well. Tanned, fit, immaculately turned out and bursting with new ideas. Gives you hope! But makes you feel a bit scruffy.
Bought a mixed dozen at his lovely shop. Home.
Dinner with the troops in a St Emilion cavern with Jean-Francois Galhaud who has supplied us 20 years or more. His caverns make a nice changed from the overpriced, over-fancy wine-trap shops of St Emilion. He tells me that the town is now down to less than 150 inhabitants!
It’s a gorgeous place. But it isn't a real town anymore.
Visit laithwaites.co.uk
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