Bordeaux 2022 Primeurs: Margaux
I was feeling really quite smug as I swung the wheel around, and piloted Twingo into the rather poorly signposted parking at Château Palmer, one of my first visits during my tour around the top addresses in Margaux.
You see, I was here as recently as December last year, when I was revisiting the 2020 vintage after it had been bottled. There was building work ongoing then, just as there was now, and the parking had been moved to a temporary facility across the road. So there was no need for me to dilly-dally around finding my way. I pointed the nose of Twingo at the last remaining space and parked up, alongside a couple of Toyota Hilux pick-ups.
“Unusual transport for the primeurs,” I thought out load, before concluding that the team from Farr Vintners, Bordeaux Index or some other merchant had presumably decided to ditch the luxury coach this year, in order to “rough it” around Bordeaux. With two or three bodies in the cab, and three or four squatting out back in the cargo bed, it could work. And it would be so much more practical than those luxury, chauffeur-driven, air-conditioned coaches you see plying the narrow country lanes of Bordeaux at this time of year. For a start, there would be no need to restrict yourself to the road network – you could simply drive across the vineyards from one appointment to the next, saving a lot of valuable time.
I made a mental note to look into hiring a Twingo 4×4 next year.
I set off across the road – using the pedestrian crossing and obeying every rule the Green Cross Code Man once taught me, of course – for the tasting. Following the signs I came to the courtyard in front of the cellars.
Which was filled with cars. And one or two luxury coaches.
Scurrying back I rescued Twingo from his spot in what I now realised what a building site opposite the château, and once parked up in the proper car park I headed inside to taste. Which had been fully (not ‘poorly’) signposted of course. But you’re getting used to my ‘sign blindness’ by now, I expect.
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