Seeking refuge in the vineyards of Bordeaux

I was enjoying the satisfaction of a productive week in south west France, carrying out the annual health & safety audits and new villa inspections in Bordeaux and Dordogne. All was going well; the villas were passing their audits with flying colours and the new properties I’d found were right on the mark. All under the blue, sunny skies of southern France – what could be better?! However, as the week developed, so, unbeknown to me, did a growing cloud over Europe. No political metaphors about this cloud though – a great plume of volcanic ash was spreading at 20, 000 feet over European airspace, and simultaneously shutting down the airline network – stranding thousands of travellers in the process.

I arrived for my return flight from Bordeaux already aware of its cancellation, although resigned to spending a morning (which in the end became a day) making alternative arrangements to get home. Horror stories of families stranded abroad on the last day of the Easter holidays unfolded in front of me; one young family at the Europcar desk decided their only option was to take a €550 one-way rental car and drive to the ferry port at Calais (a 10 hour drive in itself) – only to discover that the ferries were already fully booked for the next five days.

Now there are places to be stranded…and places to be stranded. Sympathy from friends, family and colleagues seemed to wane when they realized that my refuge for the next week was to be one of A&K’s most luxurious private villas, Maison du Vin, located amidst world-famous vineyards alongside the Roman walls of the eponymous village of the region’s most celebrated vignoble, “St Emilion”. I had managed to book a seat on a high-speed ‘TGV’ train to Lille and from there on a Eurostar train to London… departing in six days time. There was no alternative but to bunker down, get as comfortable as possible and wait. Oh, and find a corkscrew…

Needless-to-say the villa was superb and the five-star facilities made the wait as painless as could ever be hoped for. BBC World kept me up to date with the cloud’s progress, whilst the Wi-Fi internet meant that to all intents I could be back in the office – just with a better view and a pool!

With my return day still a long way away, I decided to make the best of it, and learn as much as possible about my surroundings. With 27 wine-producing Chateaux within walking distance of the house, this was always going to be a tough assignment. A&K runs a four-night Gourmet Food break in the area, based on staying at the Maison du Vin, which includes a day at the Ecole du Vin wine-tasting school in St Emilion. So I headed into the village one afternoon to see it for myself, and was given a warm welcome from Patrick, a very knowledgeable and passionate host who gave up a very promising career as a Chef after a trip to Bordeaux vineyards when, he says, he discovered his true passion and vocation in life. With one class in French and one in English per day, the school provides a superbly informative and relaxed approach to education in Bordeaux wine with a two-hour session, teaching students all aspects of wine production, from the regions, to grape varieties, wine ‘structures’…culminating in the all-important dégustation or ‘tasting’!

After the wine-school we took our newly acquired expertise to a local vineyard, the Chateaux Laude. Marcel, the gregarious proprietor – a St Emilion legend and producer of a small quantity of arguably the best organic wine in the region – took us on a tour of his vines and processing plant and regaled us with anecdotes and history of the region. The tour culminated in a dégustation of his latest offerings, tasted amongst 60-year old oak barrels. Suitably rose-tinted from our tour and encouraged with several glasses of Grand Cru, we leave laden with cases and a sense that all is well with the world. For the record, he does ship.

The days pass and finally, almost a whole week after I had originally been due to head home, departure day arrives and I set the alarm for an early drive into Bordeaux to catch my TGV train. As one would expect from the world’s finest trains, the TGV departs punctually and comfortably and we are soon racing at 180mph through open French countryside, through Angouleme and the Pays de la Loire. What a week. What a long trip. Travelling is great of course - it’s why we love this business – but being forced to be away from home, unplanned, can be hard. For now I’m just glad to be finally heading home.

Somewhere after the pretty town of Tours my phone rings. It’s Henrietta, one of our A&K Hosts in the Dordogne. “I tried to call you last week” she says, “but couldn’t get through”. Such can be the joy of disconnection from the modern world when in rural France. “Shame, as my friend flew back to the UK in his private jet on Saturday” she says. “He’d wanted to know if you needed a ride.”

I almost choked on my baguette..