A Séjour at Château Siran, 2011
It is inevitable that in any new situation, or new environment, it takes a while to ‘find your feet’. You move house, for instance, and all the streets signs seem unfamiliar. You explore (if you have time!) and perhaps you get lost. But eventually, after a few months or more likely a few years, you realise that you have created, probably without really trying, some sort of mental map. You get a ‘feel’ for where you are, and can generally find your way around without recourse to your A-to-Z street guide.
I only travel to Bordeaux two or three times per year, and it has taken a long time to build up a mental map of this expansive region. But I’m getting there. And last October afforded me one of those confident moments when, turning the wheel of my hire car to the right while my brain remained largely in neutral, I realised I had just such a map – a partially formed map, admittedly – in my head. Alright, so I had my trusty sat-nav keeping me informed all the while, but nevertheless I ‘knew’ that a right-turn here was the correct manoeuvre. The road I turned onto runs between Macau and Labarde, and on this road, to the south of Cantenac, sit two châteaux, Siran and Dauzac. The former was my destination, and two minutes after turning off the D2, the famous route des châteaux, onto the road in question, I arrived at Château Siran.
The Gardens & Statues
I met up with technical director Benjamin Sala, who was here in charge of the château and vineyards in the absence of owner Edouard Miailhe. Like other Miailhes before him Edouard lives and conducts much of his business in Manila, in the Philippines, and he had just left France to rejoin his family there the day before. Happily Benjamin was more than equipped (with a bunch of keys, as well as plenty of knowledge) to show me around. I must admit I prefer spending time with the technical director. I think you get a better grip of the wine, what makes the estate tick, without so much of the spin. And Benjamin comes with an impressive curriculum vitae, having trained under Denis Dubourdieu, proprietor of Doisy-Daëne but also a well know oenologist and consultant.
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