Les Perrières
It was late afternoon, and atop the slopes and plateau of Fronsac, looking out over the Dordogne, the weather was warm but breezy.
Baptiste Guinaudeau deftly piloted the gunmetal grey Range Rover along the strip of tarmac which ran along the edge of the plateau, while I kicked back in the passenger seat. As I watched the vines whip by I came to the conclusion that I could get used to be chauffeured around Bordeaux by Baptiste, instead of doing all the driving myself. It was a shame I had his services for only one afternoon.
We had set out from Château Lafleur in Pomerol, one of the most renowned of all the properties in that appellation, and the jewel in the Guinaudeau crown, and we were en route for Château Grand Village, the family’s homestead in Mouillac. As we swept through a landscape blanketed with green, the vines sporting their new and verdant foliage with pride, Baptiste broke the silence.
“I’m going to pull over in a bit, I want to show you something funny.”
True to his word, less than a minute had passed before he brought our chariot to a halt. Hopping out, we were soon marching through the vines, before Baptiste stopped some way along the row, his feet on the edge of a ventilation shaft for a subterranean quarry. Centuries ago the limestone in this region was extensively quarried, the stone used in the construction of the grandest buildings of St Emilion and Bordeaux.
